Sign 'O' The Times

According to the Reshaping Economic Geography Report in East Asia, an East Asian and Pacific region companion volume to the World Development Report 2009, real wages (wages that have been adjusted for inflation) in Malaysia have dropped dramatically over the last 10 years since the Asian financial crisis.

Real wages growth for export-oriented industries had reduced significantly to 1.9% post-crisis from 5.6% per annum. Meanwhile, for domestic-orientated industries such as food, beverages as well as tobacco, growth in real wages had fallen to 1.4% post-crisis from 6.8% per annum.

According to report author Dr Yukon Huang, the fall in real wages was in tandem with the drop in gross domestic product (GDP) over the last 10 years.

No surprises here as we have to deal with high inflation and global credit crunch. In fact, the current buzz word is retrenchment! So better make yourselves valuable – be more productive, learn new skills, reduce surfing time!!!

However, personally I believe there are opportunities in current situation. Many will be playing safe and not take risk. If you could tolerate higher degree of risk, then the sky is the limit! The thing to fear is fear itself!