Singapore’s polytechnic graduates earned higher salaries in 2018
According to the latest survey by the Graduate Employment Survey suggested that the polytechnic graduates in 2018 held more salary in 2018 than in 2017.
It was found that graduates across the five polytechnics in Singapore who were in full-time permanent employment earned an overall median gross monthly salary of S$2,350 in 2018. A 5.15 percent increase from the S$2,235 in 2017.
The graduates from the Health Sciences courses took home the largest paycheque at S$2,523. While Engineering graduates were the second highest earners with a median gross monthly salary of S$2,400.
The survey further reported that among respondents (both fresh graduates and post-National Service graduates) who entered the labor force, the overall employment rate six months after graduation was 89.5 percent, 2.2 percentage points higher than in 2017.
At the same time, the proportion who were unemployed and still looking for a job (8.2 percent) or in involuntary part‐time/temporary employment (2.2 percent) lowered by a total of 4.4 percentage points, as compared to 9.7percent and 5.1 percent respectively in 2017.
The findings further revealed that 28 percent of the graduates were working part-time/temporary and among those only 2.5 percent were unable to find a full-time permanent job.
As of 1 October 2018, 90.5 percent of the respondents in the labor force were employed. Among those, 65.7 percent were in full‐time permanent employment, 7.3 percent were working on a freelance basis, and 17.5 percent were in part‐time/temporary employment in 2018.
Similar to the fresh graduates, the majority (15.9 percent) who were on part-time/temporary employment were doing so voluntarily, while only 1.5 percent were in it as were unable to find a full-time permanent job. The post‐NS graduates involuntary part‐time/temporary employment had similar reasons to the fresh graduates.
However, regarding salary, post-NS graduates commanded more at S$2,501 – an increase from $2,480 in 2017.