Singapore Press Holding Ltd. is set to cut the wages of 3,000 employees and halt hiring in an attempt to reduce costs as the recession retains its hold on the island's economy, The Associated Press reported Thursday.

Beginning April 1, the largest publisher in Singapore plans to reduce wages by between 2 percent and 10 percent, with an overall 20 percent decrease in the cost attributed to staff wages. The cuts hit high income earners the most while staff earning less than S$2,000 (US$1,300) a month will not be affected. Moreover, all hiring has stopped and bonuses have also been cut, according to Bloomberg.

"We need to bring our costs down in the face of a weaker advertising market and uncertain business environment," Chief Executive Alan Chan said in a statement. "It is imperative that we prepare for a longer than expected downturn."

The moves are a second wave of cost reductions as the company froze wages for senior management and slowed hiring last year. Final quarter profit plummeted 35 percent from the same time a year earlier to S$73 million (US$47.6 million) as the economic downturn greatly reduced advertising income, according to Bloomberg.

Nationwide, Singapore's economy decreased in size by an annualized 16.4 percent in the final quarter of last year from the preceding quarter, according to a Straits Times report cited by Bloomberg. This is the sharpest decline in at least 33 years.

The government predicts further economic decline of between 2 percent and 5 percent during 2009, according to the AP article, published by the International Herald Tribune.