The job fair was a recruitment exercise organised by the North East Community Development Council (CDC), which promised to help retrenched Singaporeans.

It was the first in a series of six job fairs to be held this year by the CDC. Each will focus on a specific industry which is still recruiting.

Among the many who showed up was 31-year-old Azmi Mohamed Masuni, who lost his job as a sales agent almost two months ago.

He told my paper: "Recruitment drives like this are an excellent way for us to find new opportunities that we're not aware of."

He did not mind getting a new job as a security officer even though it paid less. The starting salary for a security officer is $1,200, compared to $2,200 at his last job.

However, his previous experience in the Singapore Armed Forces as an infantry officer may mean he can command a higher salary should he be successful in his job application.

He said: "I was told I am best suited to be a supervisor. Times are bad, so as long as I have a stable income, I will be happy."

The five security firms involved in yesterday's exercise, which included Certis Cisco and Premier Security Co-operative, were optimistic about filling their vacancies.

Ms K. Santhi, a human-resource executive at Premier, said: "We conduct on-job training courses for those without experience, so there's definitely potential in the industry for those here."