"The notice to close came abruptly, we only had a few hours to put our stock into warehouses and lock up," a trader at the Huaqiangbei tech market, who only offered his last name Chen, told AFP.
In Futian, where the city government is located, cinemas, karaoke bars and parks are closed until Friday and large public events have been cancelled.
Officials also sealed off Wanxia neighbourhood on the city's outskirts, which offers affordable housing for delivery drivers and migrant workers, although no cases were reported there.
In the northern city of Shijiazhuang, about three-and-a-half hours' drive from the capital Beijing, four big districts have ordered more than 3 million residents to work from home, excluding essential workers, until Wednesday afternoon.
China reported 1,717 domestically transmitted COVID-19 infections for Aug 29, including 349 symptomatic ones and 1,368 asymptomatic infections, official data showed on Tuesday.
Among over 20 provinces, regions and municipalities that reported cases, the region of Tibet, the province of Sichuan, of which Chengdu is the capital, and the province of Qinghai contributed the most daily cases for Monday.
Qinghai's provincial capital, Xining, with 2.5 million residents, has ordered a lockdown for its main urban areas, halting public transport and restricting movement outside residential compounds. The lockdown, which started on Monday, was scheduled to be lifted on Thursday morning.
"The notice to close came abruptly, we only had a few hours to put our stock into warehouses and lock up," a trader at the Huaqiangbei tech market, who only offered his last name Chen, told AFP.
In Futian, where the city government is located, cinemas, karaoke bars and parks are closed until Friday and large public events have been cancelled.
Officials also sealed off Wanxia neighbourhood on the city's outskirts, which offers affordable housing for delivery drivers and migrant workers, although no cases were reported there.
In the northern city of Shijiazhuang, about three-and-a-half hours' drive from the capital Beijing, four big districts have ordered more than 3 million residents to work from home, excluding essential workers, until Wednesday afternoon.
China reported 1,717 domestically transmitted COVID-19 infections for Aug 29, including 349 symptomatic ones and 1,368 asymptomatic infections, official data showed on Tuesday.
Among over 20 provinces, regions and municipalities that reported cases, the region of Tibet, the province of Sichuan, of which Chengdu is the capital, and the province of Qinghai contributed the most daily cases for Monday.
Qinghai's provincial capital, Xining, with 2.5 million residents, has ordered a lockdown for its main urban areas, halting public transport and restricting movement outside residential compounds. The lockdown, which started on Monday, was scheduled to be lifted on Thursday morning.
SHENZHEN: Authorities in China's southern city of Shenzhen shut the world's largest electronics market of Huaqiangbei and suspended service at 24 subway stations on Monday (Aug 29) in a bid to curb an outbreak of COVID-19.
Three key buildings in the sprawling area, comprised of thousands of stalls selling microchips, telephone parts, and other components to manufacturers, will stay closed until Sep 2.
Local community officials confirmed Monday's closure to Reuters, while three people working there said building managers had told them to work from home.
Subway services at 24 stations in the central districts of Futian and Luohu were also halted, according to official local media.
In Futian, the seat of the city government, officials announced that cinemas, karaoke bars and parks would be closed and large public events cancelled until Sep 2.
COVID-19-related border closures have hurt Huaqiangbei, which before the pandemic bustled with foreign entrepreneurs looking to source components in China.
On Monday, the tech hub of nearly 18 million people reported nine symptomatic and two asymptomatic cases from testing the previous day.
COVID-19 testing has become a feature of daily life in the city, with most public spaces and offices needing proof of a test within 48 hours for entry, or within 24 hours in areas deemed high risk.
While the city has avoided blanket closures since a week-long lockdown in March, residents of individual compounds have undergone week-long quarantines when positive cases have been detected.
On Monday morning, Wanxia urban village, which provides cheap accommodation to thousands of low-wage workers like delivery drivers and labourers, was sealed off as a COVID-19 prevention measure, although no positive cases were reported there.
China reported 1,696 new COVID-19 infections on Aug 28, of which 352 were symptomatic and 1,344 were asymptomatic, the National Health Commission said on Monday.
Couple exercising with a digital tablet in the Japanese-style room at home. (Photo: Getty)
Do you know that adults should put in at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity each week? Although 150 minutes or 2.5 hours a week seem like a lot, if you break it down, it is about 30 minutes each day for a period of five days.
Regular physical activity can help not only in weight management, but it also reduces your health risk like cardiovascular disease and diabetes. It helps to strengthen your bones and muscles, thereby improving your physical function, and may help you live longer.
According to the 2019 National Population Health Survey conducted by the Ministry of Health, 40.2 per cent of Singaporeans aged between 18 and 74 do not participate in any leisure-time physical activity. 19.9 per cent of Singaporeans have insufficient total physical activity, which includes physical activity at work, commuting and leisure-time physical activity.
To help you get started, here are three types of physical activity you can engage in. You might also want to check out Decathlon’s clearance sale for some good deals on sports apparel and equipment.
1. Lifestyle activity
Lifestyle activity, like its name suggests, encompasses activities that you can carry out in your daily life. This includes doing household chores, carrying groceries, taking the stairs, standing instead of sitting down to do work, or walking instead of taking the public transport.
The term “aerobic” is related to exercise that improves the efficiency of the body’s cardiovascular system in absorbing and transporting oxygen. Thus, aerobic activity includes brisk walking, jogging, cycling, swimming, and playing sports like squash.
Strength activity involves resistance-bearing or weight-training. This type of physical activity improves bone, joint and muscle strength, which can help build power, mass and endurance. It includes lifting weights, using the resistance band, and doing squats.
BEIJING: A power crunch driven by drought in China's southwestern province of Sichuan, the country's biggest hydropower producer, has started to ease as temperatures fall, state media reported on Sunday (Aug 28).
Power for ordinary industrial and commercial users has been restored while that for large industrial users will be gradually restored, except for highly energy-intensive industries, state media reported, citing the State Grid Corp.
A long drought across the Yangtze basin has crimped electricity supply, prompting concerns that China could suffer another devastating power shortage.
But demand is easing as the letup in temperatures, which had exceeded 40 degrees Celsius in many areas, has tempered a surge in air conditioner use, state media said.
Sichuan generates 30 per cent of China's hydroelectric power, usually delivering a massive power surplus to the rest of the country.
But it is now receiving electricity from other provinces after weeks of minimal rainfall and extreme heat.
After this weekend, Pope Francis will have chosen 83 out of the 132 cardinals currently qualified to elect a new Pope.
That is nearly two-thirds of the total and precisely the percentage needed for any proposed name to pass.
In recent months, the Pope has been forced to rely on a wheelchair due to knee pain, which he has said is inoperable.
He also suffers from sciatica, a chronic nerve condition that causes pain in his hip.
FUTURE CLUES?
The new cardinals are always scrutinised by Vatican observers for clues as to the future direction of the Church and its 1.3 billion faithful.
Experts caution, however, that cardinals named by one Pope do not necessarily choose successors in their likeness.
The Argentine pontiff has this year completed a major shake-up of the Vatican's powerful governing body, the Roman Curia, which makes winning new converts a priority.
In keeping with his focus on making the Church more inclusive, transparent and responsive to the needs of the poor and marginalised, Pope Francis has chosen two Africans and five Asians, including two cardinals who hail from India.
Vatican expert Bernard Lecomte told AFP the Pope's choices are "representative of the Church today, with a large spot for the southern hemisphere", where 80 per cent of the world's Catholics live.
Virgilio Do Carmo Da Silva, the archbishop of Dili, will on Saturday become the first cardinal of tiny East Timor, an overwhelmingly Catholic nation in Southeast Asia.
The Pope has also felt free to bypass the archbishops of major cities to choose those from less powerful seats, such as Robert McElroy, the 68-year-old bishop of San Diego, California.
McElroy has supported gay Catholics and criticised moves to deny Communion to United States politicians - like President Joe Biden - who support abortion.
The Pope will also create the youngest cardinal in the world, 48-year-old Italian missionary Giorgio Marengo, who works in Mongolia.
The new crop of cardinals also includes Nigeria's Peter Okpaleke, the bishop of Ekwulobia, and Leonardo Ulrich Steiner, archbishop of Manaus, Brazil.
The 80-year-old bishop emeritus of Ghent, Lucas Van Looy, had been nominated but asked to be exempted following criticism of his handling of child sexual abuse by priests in Belgium.
Saturday's ceremony at the Vatican will be followed by the traditional "courtesy visit", in which the general public is invited to greet the new cardinals.
KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 25 (Reuters) - Malaysia's veteran two-time leader Mahathir Mohamad said on Thursday that disgraced former premier Najib Razak, who he helped bring down, was likely to win a royal pardon and be freed from a 12-year jail sentence for graft that he began this week.
Mahathir, whose historic election victory in 2018 triggered Najib's downfall, said delays in various trials related to the multi-billion-dollar corruption scandal at state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) would result in justice being denied.
The palace of King Al-Sultan Abdullah, which received a petition for a pardon from Najib loyalists a day earlier, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Mahathir's remark.
On Tuesday, the country's top court rejected Najib's final appeal against a 2020 conviction by a lower court, and upheld the 12-year jail sentence and a 210 million ringgit ($46.88 million) fine for illegally receiving $10 million from a unit of 1MDB. read more
"For Najib, it is highly likely that he will be pardoned after being imprisoned," the 97-year-old Mahathir said in a statement. He did not elaborate.
Najib is believed to be close to some of Malaysia's royals, and in May, Najib's social media posts showed him attending Eid celebrations with the king.
But, there has been no indication so far on how the palace would respond to any pardon application by Najib, who held power for nine years until 2018.
Nor has there been any sign yet of how Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob would regard a pardon for his old party leader, as he seeks to rehabilitate the image of the ruling United Malays National Organisation (UMNO).
Having been sent to jail on Tuesday after losing the appeal in one of the smaller cases related to the siphoning off of money from the state fund he co-founded in 2009, Najib was back in court on Thursday for a hearing in the largest case.
He was brought from the Kajang prison complex southeast of the capital to the Kuala Lumpur high court in a black police car under heavy security and was taken to the courtroom through a private entrance.
At the end of the day's hearing, Najib - in a dark suit and tie - waved to reporters from the police car on his way back to Kajang. He did not comment, but an aide to the former premier said he was "doing OK."
In a social media post, Najib's daughter Nooryana Najwa said he had been provided with basic necessities in prison, and "was getting used to his new routine."
The charges laid against Najib in this case include 21 counts of money laundering and four counts of abuse of power for allegedly receiving illegal transfers of at least 2.3 billion ringgit ($512.93 million) between 2011 and 2014.
Najib also faces three other cases, and they all carry jail terms and heavy financial penalties.
Malaysian and U.S. investigators say $4.5 billion was stolen from 1MDB, in a scandal that has implicated financial institutions and high-ranking officials worldwide. Over $1 billion was traced to Najib's bank accounts.
The former prime minister also faces bankruptcy, which cannot be pardoned and which would prevent him from running for elections.
Najib has denied any wrongdoing, and has painted himself as the victim of a political vendetta by his former mentor.
Mahathir was already Malaysia's longest serving prime minister when he first retired in 2003 after 22 years at the helm. He campaigned for Najib and UMNO during the 2013 election but turned against his protege as the scale of corruption at 1MDB began to emerge.
Leading an opposition alliance of unlikely bedfellows, the nonagenarian Mahathir defeated the UMNO-led coalition, removing it from power for the first time since the formation of Malaysia six decades earlier.
Reinstalled as prime minister, Mahathir reopened probes into 1MDB that led to Najib facing a total of 42 charges. Mahathir subsequently resigned amid political turmoil as his alliance fell apart.
($1 = 4.4800 ringgit)
Reporting by Rozanna Latiff and A. Ananthalakshmi; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore
"We are facing rising commodity prices, oil prices for export," explained Veera Naphaprukchart from Thai Preserved Food, part of popular brand Wai Wai.
The price of wheat flour rose roughly 20 per cent to 30 per cent and the price of palm oil had doubled, he said.
Veera blamed rising costs on Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which was a major supplier of wheat to the kingdom prior to the conflict.
Pipat Paniangvait, of Thai President Food, said the price of instant noodles was last increased in 2008.
Producers' issues have been compounded by the high export costs - thanks to rising oil and wheat prices - meaning selling abroad is not viable either.
"In the past, we were selling more outside Thailand to curb the situation here as we can not raise the price freely," he said.
The trade department said it would continue to monitor the cost of production and indicated it could adjust the price accordingly.
KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 23 (Reuters) - Malaysia's top court ordered former prime minister Najib Razak to begin a 12-year prison sentence on Tuesday after upholding a guilty conviction on charges related to a multi-billion dollar graft scandal at state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
The Federal Court ruling caps the stunning downfall of Najib, who until four years ago governed Malaysia with an iron grip and suppressed local investigations of the 1MDB scandal that has implicated financial institutions and high-ranking officials worldwide.
Investigators have said some $4.5 billion was stolen from 1MDB - co-founded by Najib during his first year as prime minister in 2009 - and that over $1 billion went to accounts linked to Najib.
Najib, wearing a dark suit and tie, sat in the dock as the verdict was read out. His wife, Rosmah Mansor, who is also facing corruption charges, and three children were seated behind him.
Security officials then gathered around the bespectacled former premier and he was later seen leaving court in a black car with police escort.
A court official and sources close to Najib said he was taken to Kajang Prison, about 40 km away from capital Kuala Lumpur.
"This is unprecedented. Najib will be remembered for his many firsts, the first prime minister to lose a general election, the first to be convicted," said Adib Zalkapli, Director at political risk consultancy BowerGroupAsia.
The British-educated son of Malay nobility held the premiership from 2009 to 2018, when public anger over the graft scandal brought election defeat, and dozens of corruption charges were lodged in following months.
Najib, 69, was found guilty by a lower court in July 2020 of criminal breach of trust, abuse of power and money laundering for illegally receiving about $10 million from SRC International, a former unit of 1MDB. He had been out on bail pending appeals.
The former premier, who had pleaded not guilty, was sentenced to 12 years' jail and a 210 million ringgit ($46.84 million) fine.
The wide-ranging 1MDB scandal prompted the U.S. Department of Justice to open what became its biggest kleptocracy investigation.
Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim said the verdict proved the power of the people.
"The people made the decision in 2018 to ensure an independent judiciary and that the country is clean of bribery. That decision allowed proceedings to be brought professionally," he said.
LUXURY ASSETS
Various recipients of the siphoned 1MDB funds, including a fugitive financier named Jho Low, used the money to buy luxury assets and real estate, a Picasso painting, a private jet, a superyacht, hotels, jewellery, and to finance the 2013 Hollywood film "The Wolf of Wall Street", U.S. lawsuits have said.
Knocking back Najib's final appeal, the court also denied his request for a stay of sentence.
"The defence is so inherently inconsistent and incredible that it has not raised reasonable doubt on the case... We also find that the sentence imposed is not manifestly excessive," Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat said.
The panel of judges had unanimously dismissed Najib's appeals, she said.
The court had earlier rejected a last gasp effort by Najib to forestall the final verdict by requesting the removal of the chief justice from the panel.
Addressing the court moments before the final verdict was delivered, Najib said he was the victim of injustice.
"It's the worst feeling to have to realise that the might of the judiciary is pinned against me in the most unfair manner," Najib told the court.
Najib, who faces several more trials over the allegations, has consistently denied wrongdoing.
He could apply for a review of the Federal Court decision, though such applications are rarely successful. He can also seek a pardon from the king. If successful, he could be released without serving the full 12-year term.
But the conviction means Najib will lose his parliamentary seat and cannot contest elections.
While Najib still has supporters among his base, many ordinary Malaysians welcomed the court decision.
"He did a lot of things wrong for this country when he’s supposed to be responsible for our nation. He’s supposed to bring in money but instead he robbed money," said tennis coach Farhan Raj, adding he was "very very happy" with the judgement.
Reporting by Rozanna Latiff, Zahra Matarani, Hasnoor Hussain, Ebrahim Harris and Fadza Ishak; Writing by A. Ananthalakshmi; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore and Nick Macfie
KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 23 (Reuters) - Malaysia's top court ordered former prime minister Najib Razak to begin a 12-year prison sentence on Tuesday after upholding a guilty conviction on charges related to a multi-billion dollar graft scandal at state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
The Federal Court ruling caps the stunning downfall of Najib, who until four years ago governed Malaysia with an iron grip and suppressed local investigations of the 1MDB scandal that has implicated financial institutions and high-ranking officials worldwide.
Investigators have said some $4.5 billion was stolen from 1MDB - co-founded by Najib during his first year as prime minister in 2009 - and that over $1 billion went to accounts linked to Najib.
Najib, wearing a dark suit and tie, sat in the dock as the verdict was read out. His wife, Rosmah Mansor, who is also facing corruption charges, and three children were seated behind him.
Security officials then gathered around the bespectacled former premier and he was later seen leaving court in a black car with police escort.
A court official and sources close to Najib said he was taken to Kajang Prison, about 40 km away from capital Kuala Lumpur.
"This is unprecedented. Najib will be remembered for his many firsts, the first prime minister to lose a general election, the first to be convicted," said Adib Zalkapli, Director at political risk consultancy BowerGroupAsia.
The British-educated son of Malay nobility held the premiership from 2009 to 2018, when public anger over the graft scandal brought election defeat, and dozens of corruption charges were lodged in following months.
Najib, 69, was found guilty by a lower court in July 2020 of criminal breach of trust, abuse of power and money laundering for illegally receiving about $10 million from SRC International, a former unit of 1MDB. He had been out on bail pending appeals.
The former premier, who had pleaded not guilty, was sentenced to 12 years' jail and a 210 million ringgit ($46.84 million) fine.
The wide-ranging 1MDB scandal prompted the U.S. Department of Justice to open what became its biggest kleptocracy investigation.
Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim said the verdict proved the power of the people.
"The people made the decision in 2018 to ensure an independent judiciary and that the country is clean of bribery. That decision allowed proceedings to be brought professionally," he said.
LUXURY ASSETS
Various recipients of the siphoned 1MDB funds, including a fugitive financier named Jho Low, used the money to buy luxury assets and real estate, a Picasso painting, a private jet, a superyacht, hotels, jewellery, and to finance the 2013 Hollywood film "The Wolf of Wall Street", U.S. lawsuits have said.
Knocking back Najib's final appeal, the court also denied his request for a stay of sentence.
"The defence is so inherently inconsistent and incredible that it has not raised reasonable doubt on the case... We also find that the sentence imposed is not manifestly excessive," Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat said.
The panel of judges had unanimously dismissed Najib's appeals, she said.
The court had earlier rejected a last gasp effort by Najib to forestall the final verdict by requesting the removal of the chief justice from the panel.
Addressing the court moments before the final verdict was delivered, Najib said he was the victim of injustice.
"It's the worst feeling to have to realise that the might of the judiciary is pinned against me in the most unfair manner," Najib told the court.
Najib, who faces several more trials over the allegations, has consistently denied wrongdoing.
He could apply for a review of the Federal Court decision, though such applications are rarely successful. He can also seek a pardon from the king. If successful, he could be released without serving the full 12-year term.
But the conviction means Najib will lose his parliamentary seat and cannot contest elections.
While Najib still has supporters among his base, many ordinary Malaysians welcomed the court decision.
"He did a lot of things wrong for this country when he’s supposed to be responsible for our nation. He’s supposed to bring in money but instead he robbed money," said tennis coach Farhan Raj, adding he was "very very happy" with the judgement.
Reporting by Rozanna Latiff, Zahra Matarani, Hasnoor Hussain, Ebrahim Harris and Fadza Ishak; Writing by A. Ananthalakshmi; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore and Nick Macfie
KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 23 (Reuters) - Malaysia's Federal Court on Tuesday upheld former prime minister Najib Razak's guilty conviction and a 12-year jail sentence on corruption charges.
The top court also denied Najib's request for a stay of sentence.
Singapore office rents are set to hit pre-pandemic levels for the first time since the start of the Covid-19 crisis, as Chinese companies lead a rush to expand operations in the city-state.
The return of workers to the office this year, coupled with lockdowns in China and restrictions in Hong Kong that have forced foreign companies to consider alternative locations, pushed rents for prime office space in the city centre to S$10.74 (US$7.71) per square foot in the second quarter, according to real estate group JLL.
Rents rose 2.7 per cent compared with the previous quarter, meaning landlords in the Asian financial hub have enjoyed five consecutive quarters of growth, according to the data.
“Our forecast is that it will hit S$11 by the end of the year and rise another 25 per cent by 2026,” said Regina Lim, head of strategic advisory for JLL’s Asian capital markets business.
Rising rents have benefited Singapore’s developers and office tower owners. Shares in GuocoLand, the developer of Guoco Midtown, a new development in the city centre due to be finished this year, have risen 7 per cent year to date. Guoco Midtown has secured leases for 30 per cent of the property, agents said. The share prices of other listed real estate investment trusts with a focus on the office sector, including CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust and Suntec Reit, have risen this year off the back of higher incomes and signing rents for their Singapore offices.
The second-quarter numbers were just 0.6 per cent short of the S$10.81 per sq ft recorded at the end of 2019, with the Singapore market outperforming rival Asian financial centres including Hong Kong and Tokyo.
Chinese fast fashion group Shein signed a lease in the first quarter of this year, and the company’s founder and a number of staff moved to Singapore and took prime office space in Marina Bay Financial Centre.
Chinese internet group Alibaba bought a stake in a central office tower in 2020 to house its international headquarters. Plans to redevelop the building into what could become the city’s tallest skyscraper were approved last month.
Rival Chinese technology companies ByteDance and Tencent have also explored further expansion in Singapore, according to two people with knowledge of the companies’ plans.
Singapore has long been a desirable location for foreign companies to establish Asian headquarters because of its low tax rates, strong rule of law and geopolitical neutrality.
The city-state has become even more attractive during the pandemic, as lockdowns in mainland cities and severe restrictions in Hong Kong prompted companies to open offices, said Calvin Yeo, head of office advisory for Knight Frank Singapore.
Sanctions and geopolitical tensions between the US and China have made Singapore’s neutral position more prized.
“If it continues like this we will see even more,” Yeo added.
US technology group Amazon has expanded in the city-state this year, as have US asset manager BlackRock and a number of its European counterparts.
The interest has filtered through to real estate investments. Commercial real estate deals hit a record in the June quarter, jumping 74 per cent to $5.6bn, according to data from MSCI.
Singapore is seen as a more resilient haven compared with other gateway cities in the region, according to Benjamin Chow, who leads MSCI’s research on Asian commercial real estate.
But experts warned that the worsening global growth outlook and inflation could put a ceiling on Singapore’s rental growth. Technology companies, which have dominated leasing deals in the city-state, have suffered steep devaluations this year and announced job cuts.
“For the first half of this year there was definitely a strong sense that corporates wanted to grow here, but with the recent correction I would be a little more cautious about aggressive expansion,” Lim said.
While the death sentence, or fatwa, ordered on Rushdie by Iran was among the most high-profile threats, many authors say harassment and calls for violence have become part of the experience of being a writer.
Love Is An Ex-Country author Randa Jarrar said in an email interview this week that she had to learn how to "better aim a gun" and prepare physically in case of attack after a tweet about former first lady Barbara Bush prompted threats.
When Bush died in 2018, Jarrar described her as an "amazing racist" for a comment about the majority-Black communities displaced by Hurricane Katrina.
The Muslim author said she feared for her life when critics posted her home address and phone number online. She and her child began receiving death threats.
Every threat she received mentioned that she is Muslim and warned her to go back to where she came from, Jarrar said. She moved, and hired a company to scrub her private data from the internet.
Queer Chicana writer Myriam Gurba faced threats after she criticised author Jeanine Cummins in 2020 of cultural appropriation in writing the novel American Dirt, which focused on a Mexican woman who escaped a drug cartel to build a new life in the United States as an undocumented immigrant.
Gurba said many people supported her, but she also received threats of violence on her phone and the internet.
"The first death threat that I received stated that the police should execute me for my stupidity,” she said.
At least one upcoming literary festival is tightening security. Organisers of September's National Book Festival, hosted by the Library of Congress in Washington, had already planned to require bag searches.
Now, the festival is working with law enforcement to add extra measures, a spokesperson said.
At the New York Public Library, some writers said they did not fear gathering in public.
"The only time I got anxious was when they told us how much security there was going to be, thinking maybe there have been some threats, but I doubt it,” author Paul Auster said.
“I just realised that startups don’t really offer a lot of family benefits that larger companies do,” said Rachel Bentley, a 31-year-old from Austin, Texas, who recently boomeranged back to Duo. (PHOTO: Shuran Huang/Bloomberg)
By Charlie Wells
(Bloomberg) —Forget return to office. In this economy, many employees are returning to previous employers, breaking taboos about workplace loyalty and bucking assumptions about the so-called Great Resignation.
Their numbers are up. In the US in the first quarter of this year, 4.2% of all new hires for companies that advertised jobs on LinkedIn were boomerangs, compared to 3.3% in 2019, the social-media firm said.
Their reasons for returning are varied. What’s more, their returns are being brandished by firms large and small, who are boasting everywhere from social media to Slack that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side.
So-called “boomerang employees” embody the economic ambiguity of the moment. Earlier this month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed the US labour market added 528,000 jobs in July, beating forecasts more than twofold. Yet just the week prior, data showed that the US economy shrank for a second straight quarter, amplifying concerns about a recession.
All the while, employees and employers are locked in a standoff over perks, pay, remote policies and the very meaning of work itself.
Return Perks
“I just realised that startups don’t really offer a lot of family benefits that larger companies do,” said Rachel Bentley, a 31-year-old from Austin, Texas, who recently boomeranged back to Duo, a two-factor authentication company owned by Cisco Systems Inc., after stints at Microsoft Corp. and a smaller startup she joined in 2021.
It was a mix of cultural comfort, pay and concern about the economy that drew Bentley back to Duo, whose employees she stayed in touch with on Slack even after she left the firm. It paid off: Bentley says by returning, she was not only able to rejoin colleagues she loves, but also double her pay.
Others are doing the same, particularly at a moment when career risks — such as joining a startup in a new industry — may begin to lose their appeal. Although the job market is still strong, firms that once seemed like surefire bets in a stay-at-home economy are laying off staff or freezing hiring.
In June, crypto firm Coinbase Global Inc. said it would lay off 18% of its workforce. Robinhood Markets Inc. said this month it would eliminate nearly a quarter of its staff. Even Apple Inc. laid off many of its contract-based recruiters, and firms from Peloton Interactive Inc. to LinkedIn Corp. have also recently shed staff.
That may partly explain the recent growth of boomerang employees.
“The hard reality is that at 30, 40, or even 50, it’s really hard to change careers and maintain the lifestyle you’re used to,” said Adam Kail, founder and chief executive officer of Harrison Gray Search and Consulting in Grand Rapids, Michigan. “I’ve seen people switch careers drastically but in a short period of time realize, ‘I’m not as happy doing something I like more, but with my pay a third of what it was before.’”
Manager Approval
In contrast to decades past, firms are now happy to take their old employees back. And they aren’t being quiet about it. LinkedIn is filled with posts from companies including Deutsche Bank AG, EY and Deloitte touting returning employees, often with elaborate blog posts, pictures and videos showing happy staff back at their companies.
“On social media, you can very easily click back in and say, ‘Hey, I’d love to talk to someone again about maybe reengaging in employment with the firm,” says Dan Black, EY’s global leader for talent attraction and acquisition.
Social-media posts from boomerangs can help with recruitment in a still-tight labour market by showing the firm is a good place to work, according to Catherine Shea, an assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business who co-authored a 2021 study on returning employees.
But Shea and her team found that boomerangs come with a cost. They analysed two groups of employees at a US professional services firm: Workers who had boomeranged and similar workers who had never left. They found that boomerangs were paid more but performed on a similar level as employees who stayed. Still, boomerangs tended to spend more time on long-term projects, which might benefit firms because it indicates they have a deeper level of commitment to the company.
Matthew Wragg, CEO of engineering and tech recruitment firm Gattaca, says he’s hired six boomerang employees in the past three months.
“You’ve got that cultural cognizance,” he says. “They know the culture. They know the operating processes.”
They also tend to change little between their first and second tours of the company, according to a study that John Arnold of the University of Missouri conducted with a team of other researchers. They examined some 30,000 boomerang and traditional employees over eight years. They found that in general, employees who performed well in their first stints also performed well in their second. Those who underperformed at first continued to underperform when they returned.
Staging a Comeback
This is why companies considering bringing back a boomerang candidate need to investigate carefully why he or she left in the first place, says Paul McDonald, a senior executive director at recruiter Robert Half. Red flags might be dissatisfaction with upward mobility, concerns about management, or poor cultural fit. Those issues are unlikely to have changed in the interim. On the other hand, salary, benefits and non-monetary perks are all issues that can be solved, within reason.
Candidates looking to boomerang should carefully consider whether going back to an old employer is the right move, says Mark Royal, a senior director at consultant Korn Ferry. Some may look to jump back too soon without giving their new jobs enough of a try.
Those who do decide to jump back should cast their time away in a positive light, he says.
“You want to be framing it in terms of what you’ve learned in the role you’re now leaving and what you can bring back to your former employer and why that will be valuable for you both,” says Royal.
TOKYO: More large Japanese companies are now raising wages to attract workers and cope with chronic staff shortages, a monthly Reuters poll showed on Thursday (Aug 18), a tentative sign Japan Inc may be slowly addressing pay that has been flat for decades.
Still, the Corporate Survey found that higher wages are not yet the go-to tactic for companies, with digitalisation seen as the most popular among the multiple measures firms say they are using to address the labour crunch.
Japanese companies have typically avoided boosting wages because decades of deflation made it difficult to pass on higher costs to consumers.
That might now be changing, as the double whammy of higher commodities prices and a weaker yen drive up living costs, and highlight the strain on workers. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has also called on companies to hike wages.
"Overall we are facing labour shortages and we are struggling to lure part-timers at stores in particular. We are responding by raising wages but there's a limit," the manager of a wholesaler wrote in the survey, on condition of anonymity.
The poll of 495 big non-financial firms, taken Aug 2 to 12, highlighted what appeared to be a growing willingness by companies to increase wages.
The hiking of wages or starting salaries was picked by 44 per cent of respondents as one of the multiple tactics they were adopting.
That compared to just 25 per cent of companies that said in a 2017 Corporate Survey that they would increase salaries.
A full 59 per cent picked going digital and other measures to save manpower as one of their tactics.
"The tide is changing as labour shortages have prompted more and more companies to raise wages albeit gradually," said Koya Miyamae, a senior economist at SMBC Nikko Securities.
"Now is just the beginning, as the population increasingly ages and dwindles, the momentum to hike wages will gather steam," he said.
A majority of companies, 54 per cent, said they faced a labour crunch with the shortage most pronounced among non-manufacturers, 59 per cent of which said they were squeezed for staffing.
"We have not been able to do anything" to secure workers, said another manager at a wholesaler.
Companies also called for a better working environment, including year-round hiring and delaying retirement to encourage the elderly to work until their later years.
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