WHEN Mr Chai Choo Sah was retrenched from his job as a yacht storekeeper a month ago, he was not surprised.

For months, business at the company he worked for had been poor, as rich overseas clients - perhaps victims of the current financial turmoil - dropped off. Some 50 colleagues had already been laid off earlier.

With help from the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC), the 57-year-old father of three children in their 20s, whose wife is a homemaker, got a job as a landscaping technician in about two weeks.

Read Mavis Toh and Shuli Sudderuddin's full story in tomorrow's edition of The Sunday Times.