My grasp of language must be deteriorating...what in the world does this mean?!?

It is not written as clearly as it could be. I think the meaning is that the government in Singapore needs to relax the rules an laws governing companys so that it is easer to lay off workers so that companys are not reluctant to take on workers that may only be needed for a limited amount of time.

Lay off existing ones, because they are holding higher salary. While employ new workers with lower pay because those are the ones desperate for jobs and dun mind the salary.. lol =D It kinda makes sense to me, but it's not good for a company to do that though.. haha There must be a reason for him/her to say that, even thohugh i dunno the true rational behind it. It's just my guess.. haha =D

to me, the sentence does make some sense. it must be easy for companies to lay off workers for them to be willing to hire them. it means that companies must not be worried about getting stuck with some useless workers. if i know that i can't lay off workers that decreases productivity, i'd not be willing to hire them. it's a little like getting a foreign domestic worker. if they make it so difficult to change a foreign domestic worker, i guess the number of foreign domestic worker will drop drastically. the current practice is the employer need to pay the foreign domestic worker all due wages and buy her a ticket home. or the employer can just bring her to the agency. can you imagine if the employer will have to go to court to show cause for why the foreign domestic worker should be laid off, pay the foreign domestic worker a lay off package and make sure that she can find appropriate employment??? i think there'll be no one who wants to hire a foreign domestic worker anymore... the same theory applies to the meaning of the sentence. if severance packages are so expensive, companies will think twice, if not thrice, before hiring even one single worker.

Hi Ahgong, actually the blogger means that if company finds it easier to lay off workers, then it makes sense for them to hire with less fear. I mean, if the company is in financial difficulties, and still has to justify retrenching the workers, and wait for government to approve its decision, then it may not want to hire any permanent workers when the economy picks up. Everyone knows that hiring contract workers is better. Once the contract ends, and the company does not need extra headcount, it does not have the obligation to explain the decision to the workers. It does not even need to pay retrenchment benefits. Some countries, especially the strong unions, make it so hard to lay off workers. In the end, the company just shuts down the plant, and everyone becomes jobless. The jobs go to the willing and hungry people in third world countries. Actually in Singapore case, hiring and firing is very common. Even if the workers are retrenched, they would never set fire to the company as a form of revenge.

I'm beginning to think the owners of the company are either ten year olds or the complete cast of Jersey Shore. That's a completely dumb idea to say. They could have just kept it to themselves to appear wiser to the public than declare it. Stupid.

i think that it means that maybe companies in singapore should let their employers rest a bit more so that they would work better. lay off means like resting isnt it? give a time to rest right? maybe im understanding wrong the meaning of the word. but i think this guy meant that in singapore people should rest more so can do a better work^^ and that way sure the companies will want to hire more people. if you give like 1 month vacations to an employer you will have to just find someone to substitute him for that month and that way companies can hire more people. sometimes there is one person working that is working like for two people bcs companies dont want to hire anybody else. so i guess thats what it means with this saying^^ here in my country it happens also that some people are doing the job of two bcs companies dont want to hire anybody else and sure they get very tired and frustrated.