Johor folk keep fingers crossed as retrenchments mount in Singapore

By Shannon Teoh, The Malaysian Insider

They are already seeing all the signs pointing towards tough economic times ahead.

But Johor folk, from businessmen and rubber smallholders to the thousands who cross the Causeway daily for rapidly disappearing jobs in Singapore, are adopting a stoic wait-and-see attitude towards the economic storm brewing around them.

For the 300,000 estimated to be employed in Singapore, retrenchment looms with up to a third of them estimated to lose their jobs.

There are signs that it may be worse than that as job losses in the republic spiked by 70 per cent to 3,178 in the third quarter and look set to get worse as job creation also dropped.

The current vacancy-to-unemployed ratio has sunk to 0.81 from 1.34 at the end of last year.

Still, many are refusing to accept their fate and take up the some 10,000 jobs that the state government says are available in Johor.

According to local politicians, many blue-collar workers are looking to shift industries in a bid to continue earning Singapore dollars.

"I have signed hundreds of letters of good conduct in the past month," state opposition leader Dr Boo Cheng Hau told The Malaysian Insider.

Johor Baru Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Datuk Soh Poh Sheng says that most Malaysians retrenched in Singapore would rather wait it out and continue to seek alternatives to return to the island-state.

In Johor itself, falling commodity prices, shrinking order books and empty nightspots suggest few are being spared.

Adopting a similar wait-and-see approach are rubber smallholders. With rubber prices falling from RM10.55 per kg to RM3.95, profit margins have been hard hit.

Many smallholders in the state have stopped production and are holding their breath until prices recover.

Palm oil plantations, however, cannot stop production, and are facing continually lower yield.

Soh says the approximate production cost per ton is RM250, but prices for fresh fruit bunches have fallen from RM820 per ton to RM300.

In Johor Baru, nightspots are also feeling the effects of locals bracing themselves for the economy to bite harder.

Already, the city's clubs, karaoke bars and pubs are seeing fewer customers even during the weekends.

The belt-tightening appears to have resulted in more people finding it a luxury to drown their sorrows.