HOUSEWIVES and retirees should roll up their sleeves and prepare to rejoin the workforce to help their families cope with what may be a prolonged recession.

That stark piece of advice came from Prof Tan Khee Giap, associate professor and co-director of the Asia Research Centre at Nanyang Technological University, yesterday.

Prof Tan told a forum organised by the Nanyang Business School on the financial crisis that Singapore is likely to face a U-shaped recovery - an extended period of slow growth through next year before things pick up in 2010.

3,500 vying for positions at Marina Bay Sands

By Lim Wei Chean & Diana Othman

THE Marina Bay Sands integrated resort was swamped with about 3,500 phone calls, text messages and e-mail from job seekers yesterday as the single biggest hiring drive in Singapore history got underway.

The US$4.5 billion (S$6.6 billion) complex is looking for 10,000 workers, including housekeepers, waiters and security guards, before it opens next year.

Starting at 9am yesterday, housewives, retirees, the unemployed and others began submitting their applications in the hope of landing a job at a place that has promised to hire 'as many Singaporeans as possible'.

Unemployment rate this year will be higher

By Clarissa Oon, Senior Political Correspondent

JOB market growth could slow for the rest of the year with Singapore's economy going into a recession amid the global financial crisis, Trade and Industry Minister Lim Hng Kiang said yesterday.

The unemployment rate this year will be higher than last year's 2.1 per cent as employers 'exercise more caution in their hiring', he told Parliament. However, inflation has peaked and is expected to 'revert to the more normal 2 to 3 per cent' over the next 15 months.

The Government will also be watching the construction sector closely for the right time to resume public sector infrastructure projects that have been put on hold, and so offset a possible decline in private sector construction demand.

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