Brace yourself – Long winter is coming suggests Keppel Corp and CEA's latest reports

Keppel Corporation has reported that in a bid to cut costs and optimise its operations, it has let go of about 6,000 direct staff in its Singapore and overseas yards since January 2015, and that its Singapore subcontract workforce has been brought down by 24% or about 7,900 headcount over the same period.
Keppel’s CEO Loh Chin Hua presenting the report said that it is bracing itself for a possibly long winter. “We need to ensure that our overheads are well under control and that we are ready if the market conditions get tougher,” he said.
Keppel’s shrinking staff numbers only shows that the offshore and marine segment here is suffering from a severe downturn.
Meanwhile the Council for Estate Agencies (CEA) in its latest statement said that the there were 1,299 new salespersons who joined the industry in 2015 and that this is a decrease from the 3,006 new salespersons in 2014.
CEA also said that a total of 104 estate agents and 3,573 salespersons have left the industry.
Commenting on the overall decrease in the number of registered salespersons, Mr Heng Whoo Kiat, Director, Policy & Licensing, CEA, said, “this could be a reflection of the property market sentiments.”