Over 90% of polytechnic graduates seeking work got jobs within 6 months of graduating in 2021: Survey

SINGAPORE — More than nine in 10 polytechnic graduates seeking work last year found jobs within six months of graduating or after completing National Service (NS), a survey has found. This was following a decline in the employment rate in 2020.

Last year, the employment rate for polytechnic graduates was 92.2 per cent — up from 87.4 per cent in 2020 and 90.7 per cent in 2019.

The figures were from the findings of the 2021 Polytechnic Graduate Employment Survey (GES), which was released on Thursday (Jan 13).

Median gross monthly salaries also climbed last year to S$2,500 from S$2,400 in 2020, the survey found.

A total of 9,025 fresh graduates and 5,191 post-NS graduates responded to the survey, conducted by Singapore's five polytechnics.

Of the total 7,566 respondents who were employed, 58.1 per cent were in full-time permanent employment and 29.4 per cent were in part‐time or temporary employment, including 2.2 per cent on the SGUnited Traineeships Programme.

The SGUnited Traineeships Programme supports those who have recently graduated or will soon be graduating from the Institute of Technical Education, polytechnics, universities and other private educational institutions from 2019 to 2021, to take up traineeship opportunities across various sectors.

Another 2.5 per cent of respondents of the survey had either accepted a job offer or were actively starting a business venture, while 4.7 per cent were freelancing

Employment rates for both fresh polytechnic graduates and post-NS graduates went up last year:

• For fresh polytechnic graduates seeking work, 91.4 per cent were employed, up from 85.4 per cent in 2020 and 89.1 per cent in 2019
• For post-NS graduates seeking work, 94.2 per cent were employed, up from 91.9 per cent in 2020 and 94.1 per cent in 2019

In terms of salary, the combined median gross monthly salary of fresh and post-NS graduates posted an increase across the board at S$2,500, up from S$2,400 in both 2020 and 2019.

However, the median salary for post-NS grads in humanities and social sciences course fell slightly to S$2,500, down from S$2,580 in 2020 and S$2,656 in 2019.

The median gross monthly salaries of graduates in health sciences and in information and digital technologies have been moving consistently higher:

• Health sciences graduates were receiving an average of S$2,650 in 2021, up from S$2,553 in 2020 and S$2,600 in 2019
• Information and digital technologies graduates averaged S$2,600 a month in 2021, up from S$2,500 in 2020 and S$2,450 in 2019. This is consistently above the overall  median salary for all graduates

Out of 11,928 fresh graduates in 2021, 9,025 responded to the survey.

Of those, 59.8 per cent were in the labour force as of Oct 1 last year, a 3.4 per cent increase compared to 2020. Nearly one in four, or 39.6 per cent, was pursuing or preparing to begin further studies, while most of the remaining 0.6 per cent were taking a break and not seeking employment.

In all, 5,191 out of 8,875 graduates from 2018 who completed their NS between April 1, 2020 and March 31, 2021, responded to the survey.

Of those, 41.8 per cent were in the labour force, while 57.9 per cent were pursuing or preparing to begin further studies. Most of the remaining 0.3 per cent said that they were taking a break and not looking for work.