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Singapore’s fresh grads see higher salaries, full-time employment rates in 2022
FRESH graduates from Singapore’s four autonomous universities had higher full-time employment rates and salaries in 2022, compared to earlier and pre-pandemic cohorts, according to an annual survey released on Monday (Jan 20).
The median monthly gross salary for fresh graduates in full-time jobs was S$4,200, up from S$3,800 in 2021, S$3,700 in 2020, and S$3,600 in pre-pandemic 2019.
The full-time employment rate was 87.5 per cent, up from 84 per cent in 2021, 69.8 per cent in 2020, and 81.7 per cent in 2019.
The percentage of graduates in part-time employment fell significantly compared to the earlier Covid-19 years, to 4.5 per cent in 2022, down from 8.7 per cent in 2021 and 22.3 per cent in 2020. This was due to falls in both involuntary and voluntary part-time employment, to 0.8 per cent and 3.6 per cent respectively.
But the unemployment rate rose to 6.2 per cent from 5.6 per cent in 2021, though this was still slightly better than the 6.4 per cent rate in 2020.
Similar to previous years, information and digital technology graduates had the highest median salary – of S$5,625, up from S$5,000 in 2021 – and full-time employment rate, at 93.5 per cent.
The next highest median salaries were for graduates from engineering (S$4,600) and business (S$4,100) courses, who both also had full-time employment rates of over 90 per cent.
The second-highest full-time employment rate was for health sciences graduates, at 92.9 per cent, though their median salary was lower at S$3,700.
At Nanyang Technological University (NTU), graduates in computing or with a double degree in business and computer engineering earned the most, with gross monthly salaries of S$6,500.
Computer science graduates were also the top earners at the National University of Singapore (NUS), with median salaries of S$6,600. In a follow-up survey of law graduates who had completed their pupillage and started employment, NUS law graduates from 2021 had a median salary of S$6,400.
At Singapore Management University (SMU), such law graduates had the highest median salary of S$6,375, followed by fresh information systems graduates at S$5,400.
In a separate release, the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS) highlighted its high overall employment rates for graduates in supply chain management (98.4 per cent), finance (97.2 per cent) and accountancy (96.4 per cent).
The joint autonomous universities graduate employment survey covered 12,100 fresh graduates from full-time programmes at NUS, NTU, SMU and SUSS, with results collected six months after the completion of their final exams. The follow-up survey – for courses that typically require post-graduate practical training before graduates can begin practising – covered close to 800 graduates from the four universities.
Source: https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/singapore/singapores-fresh-grads-see-higher-salaries-full-time-employment-rates-2022