10 SINGAPORE NEWS
Gen Y modifying job expectations
Security now takes
priority above
work-life balance
and training: survey
By LEE U-WEN
WORK-LIFE balance and
on-the-job training no long-
er top the agenda for young-
er job-seekers. Security is
now the big concern for
Generation Y workers as
they grapple with the reali-
ty of the economic down-
turn.
In its February monthly
update, Hong Kong-based
recruitment and contract-
ing group Ambition says
that younger workers in Sin-
gapore have moderated
their job expectations and
are working harder to stay
employed.
“One of the more inter-
esting socio-economic
trends affecting the work-
force is that Generation Y
candidates will have to
quickly adapt their ‘must
have now’ approach,” said
Guy Day, Ambition’s man-
aging director (Asia).
“Still evident, but sliding
down the wish list, are
work-life balance, flexibili-
ty, training and develop-
ment. It’s too early to tell if
there will be a backlash,
but for the time being the
younger generation are get-
ting their heads down and
being more productive – be-
cause they have to.”
The report echoes the
findings of a telephone sur-
vey that Ambition conduct-
ed in November and Decem-
ber last year.
Among 200 people
polled in Singapore, 53 per
cent said they did not plan
to look for a new job be-
cause the risk was too great
in uncertain market condi-
tions.
Twelve per cent said
they were seeking a fresh
start because they were
fearful for their job security
and 35 per cent said they
were still on the lookout for
good employment opportu-
nities.
Ambition’s latest report
also says chief financial of-
ficers are under “extreme
pressure” as they become
more stretched at work.
“Each aspect of their po-
sition is coming under the
spotlight – steward, strate-
gist, leader, manager of fi-
nancial information, risk
profiler and more. We may
see an increase in CFO-lev-
‘Generation Y
el recruitment as individu-
als opt out,” said Mr Day.
Once the market uncer-
candidates
tainty has eased, it is likely will have to
that companies will use the
opportunity to upgrade
their staff, he believes.
quickly adapt
“Managers will look to their “must-
replace people of average
skills and attitude that they have-now”
had to hire in the good
times when better candi- approach.’
dates were much harder to
attract,” he said. “Although – Guy Day, Ambition’s
good people are still hard to managing director (Asia)
find, there are more candi-
dates to choose from and
far less time pressure.”
SOAKING IT ALL IN
ON TWO-WHEELERS
PARTICIPANTS of Singapore’s first
mass cycling event to be held on
public roads riding past with the
skyline of the financial district in
the background.
Some 5,400 people joined the
OCBC Cycle Singapore event
yesterday.,
Minister for Community
Development, Youth and Sports
Vivian Balakrishnan rode in the
20km category, according to a
ChannelNewsAsia report.
“I wish I was fitter and did
faster, but it was a great ride,” he
said. “The highlight is to see the
city, get to go around the bay, over
Merdeka Bridge; it’s a view of
Singapore which you don’t
normally get to appreciate if you’re
in a car or bus. So, I hope more
Singaporeans will get on their
REUTERS bikes and take in the views.”
The Business Times, Monday, February 23, 2009
Temasek bows
out of bid for
AIG-owned
aircraft lessor
[NEW YORK] Singapore in-
vestment company Te-
masek Holdings is no long-
er interested in bidding for
American International
Group’s aircraft leasing
business, according to
sources.
Private equity firm Kohl-
berg Kravis Roberts (KKR)
has also pulled out from the
bid for International Lease
Finance Corp (ILFC).
The US firm, Carlyle
Group is in one of at least
two groups emerging to bid
for the insurer’s aircraft
leasing business.
Greenbriar Equity
Group LLC and Onex Corp,
both also private equity
firms, are leading a second
group to bid for the leasing
firm, people familiar with
the matter said.
Temasek and KKR fol-
low TPG Capital LP in bow-
ing out after initially ex-
pressing an interest.
Other parties remain in-
terested in the business,
one of the sources said, add-
ing that many bidders were
talking to each other about
working together to buy the
unit.
The unit, valued at up to
US$8 billion by analysts,
needs a buyer with access
to cheap capital and a large
balance sheet as it borrows
money to buy planes before
leasing them out.
Initial bidders for the
unit included sovereign
wealth funds Istithmar
World of Dubai and Kuwait
Investment Authority,
sources previously told Reu-
ters.
It was unclear if those
parties were among those
still interested in a second
round.
China Investment Corp,
a US$200 billion sovereign
Good response to
Spur, Jobs Credit,
says PM Lee
By LYNETTE KHOO
PRIME Minister Lee Hsien
Loong said the government
has received positive re-
sponses from companies to
the enhanced funding sup-
port scheme for skills up-
grading, Spur, as well as to
the Jobs Credit Scheme.
Some 350 companies
have signed up and 22,000
workers will participate in
Spur, the acronym for Skills
Programme for Upgrading
and Resilience. Workers
are already benefiting from
the Jobs Credit Scheme, a
$4.5 billion programme to
be funded by past reserves.
“It’s still early days – the
Budget was barely a month
ago – but the response so
far has been good,” PM Lee
told some 550 employers,
unionists and government
representatives at the Sin-
gapore Tripartism Forum
yesterday.
Some companies are
planning to use cash grants
from the Jobs Credit
Scheme to upgrade their
workers. Others are shar-
ing it with workers by avoid-
ing wage cuts or giving a
small wage increment.
Some firms are also de-
ferring or reducing job
cuts. There are also compa-
nies that are planning to
use it to compete for more
businesses, PM Lee noted.
For instance, IT out-
sourcing firm Xcellink Pte
Ltd, which employs some
500 workers here, hopes to
save the cash grants from
the Jobs Credit in anticipa-
tion that the market will
worsen, so that when de-
mand plunges, it will not
have to resort to retrench-
ments, its general manager
Andy Sim said at the dia-
logue yesterday.
A PSA representative
said yesterday that the port
has taken measures to coun-
ter the impact of the slow-
down by reducing overtime
work and scaling up retrain-
ing and upgrading of skills
to help workers stay rele-
vant.
wealth fund, was in talks
with two Chinese banks to
jointly bid for ILFC, but had
not made a final decision
yet, sources have told Reu-
ters.
Unlike regular auctions
with hard deadlines for
bids, the sale process for IL-
FC is fluid, as potential bid-
ders face the challenge of
raising funds to buy and
run a large business amid a
lack of credit and liquidity
due to the financial crisis.
The company’s US$33
billion debt load could also
pose a formidable chal-
lenge for potential bidders.
The unit, which is run
by Steven Udvar-Hazy and
is one of the biggest custom-
ers of Boeing Co and Air-
bus, used to rely on AIG’s
blue-chip credit rating for
access to cheap capital to
buy aircraft.
Carlyle is one of the
world’s largest private equi-
ty firms, with more than
US$91.5 billion under man-
agement. Onex manages
about US$11 billion, while
Greenbriar manages about
US$1.5 billion and focuses
on investments in transpor-
tation.
AIG, Carlyle and KKR de-
clined to comment. Green-
briar, Onex and Temasek
could not be reached imme-
diately.
AIG, once the world’s
largest insurer, is selling IL-
FC as part of its efforts to
pay back the US govern-
ment after a roughly
US$150 billion rescue last
year.
It has said it plans to sell
everything except its US
property and casualty busi-
ness, foreign general insur-
ance and an ownership in-
terest in some foreign life
operations. – Reuters
According to G Rajen-
dran, president of the
Chemical Industries Em-
ployees’ Union, some 15
companies in the chemicals
industry are under the Spur
programme and two compa-
nies on Jurong Island went
full-time under the pro-
gramme.
“Half of the chemical in-
dustry strength said they
have benefited from the
Jobs Credit,” Mr Rajendran
said. ISK Singapore, a whol-
ly owned subsidiary of Ishi-
hara Sangyo Kaisha of Ja-
pan, has benefited to the
tune of about $1 million
from the Jobs Credit, he
added.
For hotel group Royal
Plaza, the Jobs Credit
Scheme will help save
$600,000 over a year,
“which will help the cash-
flow, bottom line and meet-
ing the hotel’s quarterly
budget”, said senior engi-
neering supervisor Abdul
Subhan B S Hussein, who is
also president of the Food,
Drinks and Allied Workers’
Union.
Royal Plaza on Scotts is
estimated to save some
$140,000 in absentee pay-
roll costs by sending its em-
ployees to training pro-
grammes under Spur.
Loh Oun Hean, director
of human resources at
Deloitte and Touche, also
spoke positively on the Jobs
Credit Scheme during the
dialogue session. He noted
that the scheme provides
some encouragement to the
company’s decision to em-
ploy some 150 new gradu-
ates here this year.
But for recruitment firm
JCG Search International,
the scheme has not staved
off retrenchments which
happened soon after the
Budget was announced. Its
CEO Joshua Yim told BT at
the sidelines of the dialogue
yesterday that the firm has
shaved off some 15 per cent
of its workforce as demand
for its services has fallen by
50 per cent.