SINGAPORE: Some outplacement firms which help companies find jobs for their retrenched workers said all signs point to even more lay-offs in the first quarter of 2009. But on the bright side, contract work opportunities look set to rise.

49-year-old receptionist Roziha now has every reason to smile.

And today, she's paying a surprise visit to a career consultant at Central Singapore CDC, who helped her find a job after she was retrenched and unemployed for 16 months.

Roziha Abdul Rahman said: "I always advise my friend who is not working, why don't you go to CDC? As long as you are willing to work, willing to study, willing to upgrade yourselves, they will do everything."

Central Singapore CDC has tied up with companies to conduct five direct job placement exercises before the end of the year. They are sending out a survival guide with money-saving and job search tips to 280,000 households in the district next month.

For the last five years, the CDC has also been running support groups to help the retrenched, and these will be expanded as demand grows.

Agnes Kwek, GM, Singapore Community Development Council, said: "Our numbers have been steadily creeping up by about 10 per cent over the year, but no sharp increase. Nevertheless we have made some contingency plans.

"I think if we do pass a certain critical number, we would look to ramp up manpower deployment at our job centres so that we can attend to more job seekers. We would look to lengthening our opening hours and maybe even opening full days on Saturdays should the situation require."

The Chinese Development and Assistance Council is also considering deploying more manpower. It has seen a 30 per cent rise in job seekers since August.

The self-help group is also tapping on the Careerlink Plus Centre to help the long-term unemployed. It is also working with the Employment and Employability Institute (E2i) to reach out to job seekers and encourage them to attend job preparation exercises.

In a sign of the times, more companies are tapping on outplacement firms which provide services - ranging from career counselling to coaching the retrenched on how to write their resumes - to help their retrenched staff find new jobs.

Business is so brisk that a career consulting firm is seeking more staff to cope with what lies ahead. Paul Heng, MD, NeXT Career Consulting Group, said: "Things will become much worse, probably after the bonus payouts in December."

In fact, recruiters are seeing proactive job search efforts even by those who still have their jobs.

International recruitment firm Robert Walters has so far seen placement rates dropping by up to 15 per cent.

But in the bigger scheme of things, some said there will not be a net loss of jobs in the new year, as more contract work opportunities arise.

Roger Olofsson, associate director, Robert Walters, said: "There would be a little bit more of retrenchments going on for a period of time and then the realisation that we are a bit too short staffed and we need people to get all these things done. We will still certainly see permanent hires as well, but we will see probably a big uptake on the contract side."

Even while recruitment experts are cautiously optimistic about the job market, some said they see international companies relocating jobs from more expensive cost centres to Singapore. They said this cuts across all sectors, but is seen especially in the financial services sector. - CNA/vm