Fewer fresh poly grads land full-time jobs in 2024 but wages rise

Overall employment rate falls to 87.5%; salaries grow amid evolving job landscape

- Elisha Tushara

Fewer fresh polytechnic graduates landed full-time permanent jobs in 2024, although more of them received high salaries.

Results of the latest Graduate Employment Survey (GES) by the five polytechnics released on Jan 13 show that 54.6 per cent of them were in full-time permanent jobs in 2024, compared with almost 60 per cent in 2023 and 59 per cent in 2022.

The median gross monthly salary of graduates in full-time permanent employment grew by $100, to $2,900 in 2024 from $2,800 in 2023.

Like in previous years, graduates from health sciences, humanities and social sciences, and information and digital technologies took home higher pay than their peers from other courses.

Overall, in 2024, 87.5 per cent of polytechnic graduates in the workforce found permanent, freelance or part-time jobs within six months of graduation or after completion of full-time national service.

This is a drop from 92.7 per cent in 2023 and 91.8 per cent in 2022, when job prospects steadily improved as Singapore's economy gradually recovered from the Covid-19 pandemic.

A total of 7,614 out of 10,045 fresh polytechnic graduates responded to the latest survey in 2024. They were asked about their employment status as at Oct 1, 2024, about six months after graduation.

Of those who responded, 50.4 per cent were in the labour force, while 48.9 per cent who were not actively looking for jobs were either pursuing or preparing to begin further studies. Of the rest, most said they were not seeking employment.

Also included in the survey were 5,290 of the 8,939 graduates from 2021 who completed their full-time NS between April 1, 2023, and March 31, 2024.