“Will go through retrenchment, again... Be strong,” wrote journalist Zulaikha Rahim on her Facebook status recently.

Her message was short and terse but it spoke volumes of the feeling of gloom that enveloped her.

Up to June 2 this year, she considered herself as a member of the M40 (middle 40 percent income earners) group but all that changed in a wink when her company retrenched her, along with other staff, to save costs.

Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic last March, this is the...