Confidence in Singapore’s employment market suffers a big jolt
In an ominous sign that everything is still not well with the employment market in Singapore, the JobStreet.com Employment Confidence Index (JECI) that tracks job seekers’ confidence levels sank to an all-time low at the end of Q3 2002.

Mark Chang, CEO of JobStreet.com says starkly: “Confidence in the job market is down and the next 12 months will remain difficult. Jobseekers will have to brace themselves for more uncertain times ahead.

“Since we introduced JECI, we have seen our index slid progressively from its good days in year 2000. For the first half of this year, the index was hovering between 25 and 31 points, and we had believed that the job market had bottomed out. There were encouraging signs of a turnaround and that the number of jobs may be increasing at last.

“However, our latest JECI figures showed a marked dip from 26.88 in June to 16.19 in September. Coincidentally, this drop comes in tandem with the latest economic figures released by the Singapore Government on 10 Oct 2002, which showed that gross domestic product (GDP) in the July-to-September period had fallen a steep 10.3 per cent quarter-on-quarter.

The JECI has been tracking jobseekers’ confidence levels in finding a job in the country since January 2000. The index is measured by polling jobseekers who throng JobStreet.com’s website - current page views of JobStreet.com’s website is over 30 million per month and the number of current subscribers totals two million regionally. The one question asked is “What are the chances of securing a reasonable job in the Singapore job market today?”

Chang continued: “When we started this index, jobseeker confidence was hovering around 60 points. Even at the end of Q4 2000, JECI had declined to only 48.85 as the Singapore economy was holding up well against the recession in the United States and the competition from China for foreign direct investments. But Singapore could not be insulated forever against events beyond her control and the terrorist strikes in New York last year caused the index to drop to a low of 26.79 in November 2001. There were hopes of a recovery early this year and JECI returned to a high of 31.72 in March. Since then, the economy seemed to be running out of steam and this has affected jobseeker confidence accordingly. The big drop to 16.19 in September - polled from more than 1500 respondents - was unprecedented.”

What Is the JobStreet.com Employment Confidence Index (JECI)?
The JECI is a measure of a jobseeker's confidence in finding a job. It ranges from zero (very poor) to 100 (very good). A low index shows a tough job market where many people find it difficult to get a job. A high index shows a comfortable job market where many people are able to secure a good job. The index fluctuates with time and its trend is an important indication of the production and economic development of the nation. The sampling size for each month’s index averages about 800 -1,200 respondents.

About JobStreet.com Pte Ltd
JobStreet.com is Asia’s leading online recruitment company, the trusted job search partner to more than 1.5 million young professionals across Asia. JobStreet.com offers an array of career services including career advice, job tracking, resume building and the ease of online applications to companies of jobseeker’s choice, facilitating over 5,000,000 career matches, and over 500,000 Internet job applications a month. JobStreet.com currently has 10 offices across Singapore, India, Malaysia and Philippines.

JobStreet.com is the winner of several prestigious awards re-affirming its leading position in the region. The awards won include Singapore - Top 5 in the e50 dot.com ranking (Accenture/Business Times); Malaysia - “@my Internet Company of the Year 2001” (The Star/MIMOS), “E-Commerce Site of the Year 2001” (PIKOM/Computimes), Best Software Application (Asia Pacific Multimedia Super Corridor Information Technology and Telecommunications); The Philippines - Winner of 2001 Philippines Web Awards for Service; India - “Top Job Site” (Week magazine). Please visit www.jobstreet.com for more information