10 most in-demand jobs in Singapore revealed | Singapore Business Review

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10 most in-demand jobs in Singapore revealed

Office support, supervisors topped 2013 survey.

Manpower Singapore has released the results of 8th Talent Shortage Survey, which found that as the global talent shortage continues to intensify, 47% of employers in Singapore are experiencing difficulty finding staff with the right skills.

Global results of ManpowerGroup's Talent Shortage Survey reveal 35% of employers worldwide are reporting shortages, the highest level since prior to the global economic crisis. Employers in Singapore are having the most difficulty filling jobs in Office support, Supervisors and Labourers this year in comparison to 2012's jobs in Production Operations, Accounting & Finance and Engineers.

Here are the most in demand jobs in Singapore this year:

1. Secretaries, Pas, Administrative Assistants & Office Support

2. Supervisors

3. Labourers

4. Drivers

5. Sales Representatives

6. Engineers

7. IT Staff

8. Skilled Trades

9. Accounting & Finance

10. Teachers

"Over time as the education and skill profile of the local workforce improve. HRs will need to consider a successful workforce strategy that will identify and solve current talent acquisition challenges, anticipate future challenges and put in place solutions to address them effectively," said Manpower.

"54% of Singaporean employers surveyed have indicated they will relook into their work models while 41% will increase their focus on improving their talent pipeline such as building a succession management approach," it added.

Manpower said that a closer look at the global survey results reveals the talent shortage is endemic across the world – but most acute in Japan (85 percent of employers), Brazil (68 percent) India (61 percent), Turkey (58 percent) and Hong Kong (58 percent). Employers in Ireland (three percent), Spain (three percent), South Africa (six percent), the Netherlands (nine percent) and Czech Republic (nine percent) are the least likely to face shortages.

The research shows that globally the roles most difficult to fill are Skilled Trades Workers, Engineers and Sales Representatives – unchanged from last year.

"Employers are reporting Accounting and Finance and Management/Executive positions are also increasingly hard to fill. Despite acknowledging the impact talent shortages have on their business, a staggering 22 percent of employers are not changing course to identify new ways to address these shortages." said Manpower. 

Trading method...

The Most Important Reason(s)Individual Investors Lose Money....!

WORDS OF WISDOM FOR THE DAY : 

 

If there is a single line of demarcation between consistently successful investors and everyone else, it seems to be captured by a simple idea well known on the stock market: Bad investors think of ways to make money. Good investors think of ways to not lose money.

 

Trading coaches and psychologists are particularly apt to speculate as to the major reasons traders and investors lose money. Among the usual suspects are: failure to plan trades or operate from a trading plan; loss of discipline with respect to risk management; impulsive (over)trading; and failure to trade reliable, tested ideas.

 

The main reason that most retail investors will lose money is because they make their decisions on emotion. When it comes to investing, your emotions will always tell you to do the opposite of what you should do. When stocks are down, you panic, and you sell. When stocks are high, you buy into the euphoria, and buy. The result is often losing money. Successful investors have a strategy and they stick to it.

Greed is your enemy, most people tend to buy more when they have made money but this is exactly opposite of what you should do. When a trade has moved your way there is often a higher degree of risk, using your paper profits to buy more is a prescription for disaster.

The market is not a free market - As an individual investor, you don't have the same advantages of big institution traders/funds. There is definitely some level of manipulation in the stock market and even if it's not blatant manipulation, with the majority of the daily volume being driven by super computers, it's hardly a normal market. In order to succeed as an investor, you need to understand how the market really works. Know that it doesn't work in the manner that we think or naively hope it works. Because of these manipulative or computer-driven forces on the market, the market is prone to excessive volatility.

How to Avoid Getting Apple’d

In a world obsessed with picking winners, the dirty truth is many investors under-perform because they don't know what to do with gains once they have them. The temptation to sell too fast is a problem but even worse is the tendency to stick around too long after a stock's run to the upside has ended. Bad stock pickers can muddle along for years, but the true believers get carried out in a box.

Greg Troccoli, co-founder of ChartLabPro.com has three tips for folks looking to hold on to their profits by keeping a grip on their emotions. In honor of those who have been buying the Dip on what was once the largest company by market cap in the world since it hit all time highs $250 ago, we'll call these tips "How to Avoid Getting Apple'd" (name subject to change given Apple's (AAPL) 10% run over the last three weeks).

1) Keep a trailing stop on your winners

A trailing stop is just what it sounds like: If your stock drops below a certain level you automatically sell, which is to say you "stop" owning it. If you watch your portfolio closely you don't need to enter a physical order, but keeping a firm level in mind at which you'd sell an entire position is a key discipline.

2) Take partial gains

"When I reach a certain level of above 10 or 20%, I will take 50% off the books," says Troccoli. Doing so gives him a little more patience with the balance of his position. He compares it to putting a few chips in your pocket when you get lucky in Vegas; people playing with House money are less likely to panic than those who let a profit turn into a beating.

3) Don't call tops or bottoms

"Wait until it rolls over a little bit," says Troccoli. Trading isn't a game of capturing every penny of a move. Taking profits on the way up and in stages rather than in one giant "TOP" call helps active traders capture a move without sitting on the sidelines watching a stock they once owned blast-off without them.

Ultimately it's up to each trader to understand their own emotions and protect themselves against making costly decisions. Trading is a game of grinding and building good practices, not making off the cuff decisions without discipline. Following Troccoli's strategies or, better still, developing your own can often make the difference between booking a big gain or "getting Apple'd" by staying at the table too long.

Fwd: Latest Daily Market Report - Friday 15th March 2013-[STI Now OVERSOLD By 727 Pts (+97):BUY On Weakness FarEast Orchard,STXOSV,Midas,Del Monte Pacific,Ezra Hldgs;Chart Comment On DBS,GuocoLeisure,UPP,BousteadS'pore,YHM,GenS'pore,STIndex]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Andrew Joo Boon Liang (Phillip Securities) (YI)" <ajandrew@phillip.com.sg>
Date: March 15, 2013, 10:53:18 AM GMT+08:00
Subject: Latest Daily Market Report - Friday 15th March 2013-[STI Now OVERSOLD By 727 Pts (+97):BUY On Weakness FarEast Orchard,STXOSV,Midas,Del Monte Pacific,Ezra Hldgs;Chart Comment On DBS,GuocoLeisure,UPP,BousteadS'pore,YHM,GenS'pore,STIndex]

LATEST WARNING: Marking of Short Sell Orders in POEMS For Shares Not Own In Your CDP A/C

Effective 11th March 2013, SGX will require the marking of sell orders on its securities markets to further enhance transparency of market activities. For more info on short sell, please click here. Please be informed that the marking of short sell orders is already available in POEMS internet from 5th March 2013. For more details, please refer to our FAQ.

Note: If you Short-sell the shares which you do not own in your CDP account, and fail to buy back the shares within the same market day, you will be subjected to the following:

1) If you do not have the required shares in your account on the due date (the third market day following the trade day), CDP will buy-in shares on the market to satisfy the delivery obligation. If the buying-in is completed by SGX at the end of Trade Date +3, no penalty will be imposed. However, if the buying-in by SGX is unsuccessful on Trade Date +3, SGX will continue on Trade Date +4 and Trade Date +5. A penalty, of the higher of S$1000 or 5% of the value of the failed trade not bought in will be imposed. SGX imposes a processing fee of S$75 + GST for each failed contract and charges a brokerage fee for buying-in contract at 0.75% + GST of contract value.

2) Failure to indicate "short sell" in your order submittion and failure to inform your stockbroker to amend the next trading day will result in a fine or imprisionment term or both. Section 330(1) of the Securities Financial Act (SFA) states that any person who, with intent to deceive, makes or furnishes, or knowingly and wilfully authorises or permits the making or furnishing of, any false or misleading statement or report to a securities exchange, futures exchange, designated clearing house or any officers thereof relating to dealing in securities shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $50,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years or both.

WORDS OF WISDOM FOR THE DAY : Give Your Investments Time To Mature. Be Patient For The World To Discover Your

Gems....!  

 

The unwavering courage is the hallmark of serious wealth and lack of conviction and courage is the root cause for mediocrity. If you see an opportunity, grab it today! A lot of people say: "Wow, I could have become really rich if I had loaded up on that stock 10 years ago…" And that's a big ' if ". It is important to identify the opportunity. But that's not enough. you have to be decisive. This is especially true of value investors who often get stuck in a trap where they are perpetually seeking extra information to validate their idea. The biggest challenges for value investors are hesitation, procrastination and questioning their own judgments.

 

This is especially so during market crashes. This is because things always look bloody terrible at the bottom. People's hands usually shake uncontrollably when the prices are hit new lows every day. Value Investors say to themselves things like: "Well did I make a mistake? Should I wait a little and maybe the price will drop a little more?" If it's cheap, it's best to buy it. There is no point in passing up something cheap today in the hope that it will get cheaper tomorrow. In this matter traders find things easier than value investors .They ride the downward wave and seize the opportunity to make money.

 

Personally I see many successful investors buy shares with a great deal of conviction when the stock market are in extremely OVERSOLD period. Many of these investors have a large amount of money invested in a few companies and their portfolios shows a great deal of concentration. Patience and conviction are both important for these successful investors too. If you have both, while your patience may be tested, your conviction will be rewarded. Having done your hard work, you must wait for the market to do its work and reward you. Also a person needs to have the patience to give things a chance to work. Give your investments time to mature. Be patient for the world to discover your gems. So I see these smart investors hold on to their winner stocks for a long time while they achieve their full potential.

 

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WORDS OF WISDOM FOR THE DAY : Markets Are Like Women - Always Commanding, Mysterious, Unpredictable & Volatile...!

 

Plunge! Rebound! Crash! Rally! Plunge again! That's been the depressing story line of the stock market the past few trading days, a gut-wrenching, confidence-testing, wealth-destroying bout of volatility that has put investors on edge. To the outsider, the stock market appears random and erratic. What makes a stock go up or down? Experts can't seem to predict the market, so why should I even try? This uncertainty scares many potential investors away from the market and its high rate of returns. People are missing out on good money! This is sad, because the stock market is more predictable than it appears. While they may look similar, stocks are not gambling.

 

First, I have to concede one thing. The stock market is very unpredictable in the short-term. The market severely overreacts to news, whether it's company earnings, economic factors or something silly like which team won the quarter-final of the Champion League soccer match between Real Madrid & Manchester United. Nobody can predict all the news, which makes the stock market unpredictable in the short-term. But in the long-term (6-months to a few years or more), the stock market is very predictable. If the company makes a lot of money, the stock's price will go up. If the company doesn't make money, the stock price will go down.

 

Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful. Although sounding very elementary, I quickly realized that this statement is deeper than what many human beings can comprehend without a second or third look. In my opinion, what Mr. Buffett is saying closely correlates to a statement made by Sun Tzu in The Art of War, that states when the enemy attacks; retreat and when the enemy retreat; attack.

 

Generally when the stock market is having a great year (or week for that matter), many amateur investors become greedy and are lured by the possibilities of great gains, then of course come to the conclusion that it is now the perfect time to invest. When the rest of the world starts investing at this high point in the market, the seasoned investors generally retreat, as it can be said that the amateurs are now attacking. Although they attack with no real substance and can be defeated at any time, it is always better (easier) to destroy the enemy once they are in your territory, and thus out of their element. Whenever there is a massive sell-off in the market one will see the smart investors begin to gobble up as many of these undervalued shares as possible.  

 

Believe it or not, this happens all the time and is one of the many reasons why the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. This is one of the main reasons for the need for education in the fields of business and investing. In Proverbs 4:7, the Word of God states " Wisdom is the principle thing; Therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding". The sad part is that amateur investors often have neither and think that God is speaking for his own health; But He's not. He's speaking for ours. Stock trading has its own specialized vocabulary but once you have the basics under your belt you can understand better how the market works - more importantly you can work the market to your advantage.

 

$100,000 COEs? Car ownership scheme should be better managed

The Straits Times
http://www.straitstimes.com
Published on Mar 10, 2013 
$100,000 COEs? Car ownership scheme should be better managed
No policy should result in arbitrary price movements with no relation to economy

By Han Fook Kwang Managing Editor

When I renewed the certificate of entitlement (COE) for my nine-year-old car in 2010, I paid the prevailing premium of around $20,000.

I kicked myself for not doing so a year earlier when the amount was $5,000. But when the price rose after I made the renewal, to $60,000 a year later, I thanked my lucky stars.

A colleague whose Volvo is almost 10 years old says she will scrap it as she will not pay the $90,000 required to renew its COE now.

Her husband's experience is completely different, and he has a wide grin on his face every time he tells how he renewed the COE of his Mazda for $3,800 in 2009.

Three very different experiences over the same piece of paper that confers the right to own a car in Singapore.

Should policy work like this, resulting in people paying so very different prices over so short a period?

So, how many ways are there to lower COE prices?

Answer: As many as there are to raise them.

Indeed, there are many ways because the COE is a piece of paper created by the Government which has almost absolute control of how it performs in the market.

Want to raise COE prices? Here are three effective ways.

One, reduce the supply of COEs - the fewer there are, the higher the price will rise as buyers compete more aggressively for the reduced supply.

Two, lower the other ownership taxes, such as the Additional Registration Fee (ARF).

What will happen is that car buyers will use the savings from the tax reduction to bid higher COE prices because they will assume all the other bidders will do the same.

Three, relax the lending requirements so that more people will be able to take up loans to buy cars because the monthly repayment is now within their budget.

What if you did all three? You should bet your last COE dollar that prices will hit the roof.

In fact, that's exactly what the Government has done over the last 10 years.

In 2003, it lifted car loan restrictions which had been in force from 1995.

In 2002, it reduced the ARF from 140 per cent of the open market value of a car to 130 per cent, part of a planned reduction in the tax which was brought further down to 100 per cent in 2008.

And in 2009, it sharply reduced COE numbers to slow down the growth rate of the car population from 3 per cent a year to 1.5 per cent, and to 0.5 per cent this year.

Should anyone be surprised then that COE prices exploded, hitting the $90,000 mark?

In its defence, each of these changes could be justified on its own grounds, as indeed they were. But taken together, it was a recipe to break COE price records.

It shows how important it is for policymakers to be clear about what they want to achieve and to be wary of unintended consequences.

In this case, I do not think the people who decided to relax the lending requirements in 2003 realised what a major impact it would have on COE prices by encouraging more people into the car market.

Perhaps the official attitude then was that it didn't matter how high COE prices rose. Weren't prices merely a function of supply and demand? No one was forcing anyone to bid those prices and if there were people willing to pay, who was to say they were wrong, or that the scheme wasn't working properly?

Indeed that was the reply given by officialdom whenever the issue was raised - it was market forces that determined the price.

In reality, it was bad policy.

Alarm bells should have sounded much earlier that something was seriously wrong when the price of a piece of paper conferring the right to own a car was fast approaching $100,000.

The earth should have moved at the Ministry of Transport when Category A COE prices jumped so rapidly over just two years, from an annual average of $11,600 in 2009 to $68,200 in 2011.

No policy should result in such arbitrary price movements that bear no relation to the economy. It is also terribly unfair for one person to pay more than six times what somebody else paid two years ago.

And it's no good saying it's the free market working because the COE market isn't free. It's created by government and determined completely by policy.

There's clearly a need to manage the COE scheme better to prevent prices from moving so arbitrarily.

Of the three measures I mentioned above, the one I have the greatest problem with is the sharp reduction in COE supply.

That was the killer move with the greatest impact on prices.

Reducing the car COE supply from an annual average of 105,000 from 2004 to 2008 to just over 20,000 today was much too precipitous.

In fact it should be policy not to vary the numbers by more than a certain amount - say 10 per cent at most - from year to year to allow prices to adjust gradually.

The roads may be more congested as a result of such a gradual approach, and more usage measures such as electronic road pricing and parking restrictions may be needed to relieve local bottlenecks.

But it wouldn't have shaken confidence in the COE system which I fear is the case now, because people believe it works only for top earners.

Alas, having taken the decision in 2009 to slam the brakes on COE supply, it is very difficult now for the Government to reverse its policy.

It did the next best thing, which was to reimpose the lending curbs.

Whether that will bring down COE prices remains to be seen. Over the longer term, however, and as long as the COE supply remains tight, I'm not hopeful as there's enormous spending power at the top and the rich will not give up their cars.

For those not in that class, I believe the Government made the right decision through the lending curbs to discourage young Singaporeans from committing so much of their earnings to buying a new set of wheels.

This newspaper reported last weekend that owning a car at today's prices can cost the owner $1.6 million over his or her lifetime.

That's an awful lot of money, enough to finance the children's education or provide a tidy sum for retirement.

Time to get used to taking the MRT or bus to work as so many others do in major cities around the world.

In Tokyo, London, New York and even Hong Kong, very few people drive to work unless they are CEOs with chauffeur-driven cars.

Singaporeans cannot expect to be so different