Grads among worst hit as jobless rate increases
By Aaron Low
Thu, Mar 19, 2009
The Straits Times
GRADUATES are hurting the most among the growing pool of jobless Singapore residents battered by the economic crisis.
The number of out-of-work degree holders more than doubled last year to 14,800 in December, from 6,200 a year earlier.
They joined an expanding group of unemployed residents - comprising Singaporeans and permanent residents - whose numbers rose from 56,100 in September to 69,900 in December last year.
As a result, the resident unemployment rate worsened further. It rose to 3.7 per cent in December, from 3.3 per cent in September, according to the 2008 labour market report released by the Manpower Ministry yesterday.
Analysts like Nanyang Technological University (NTU) economist Choy Keen Meng blame the rapid rise of unemployed graduates mainly on the financial sector.
The sector, which employs many degree holders, has been downsizing and laying off workers since the global financial fallout erupted in September last year.
The National Trades Union Congress' assistant secretary-general Ong Ye Kung added that struggling companies were also retrenching corporate staff such as their administrative workers, who appeared to be seen as non-essential to the company's survival.
'I've noticed companies are hanging on to those who add directly to the company's bottom line, such as those on the production line or engineers,' he said.
The surge in white-collar layoffs began towards the end of last year. Half of the 7,500 workers retrenched in 2008's final quarter were professionals, managers, executives and technicians: PMETs.
This has stiffened the competition that fresh graduates face. Said DBS economist Irvin Seah: 'They are fighting for the same jobs and fresh grads are at a disadvantage compared to those with experience.'
Between May and July this year, 12,000 fresh graduates are expected to enter the job market.
The plight of the young and jobless graduates has received Government attention. The Monetary Authority of Singapore will set aside $15 million to subsidise internships and attachments of fresh graduates in the financial industry over the next two years.
But Singapore Human Resource Institute executive director David Ang believes they can do with more help.
'The mid-career professionals have conversion programmes. Maybe something of this nature can be replicated for all fresh grads,' he said.
The jobless degree holders are part of a broader group of PMETs who have been hit hard by the recession. Some 5,820 PMETs were retrenched last year, forming 41.8 per cent of the 13,920 laid off.
To ease their plight, the Government launched the Professionals Skills Programme, which aims to retrain them for jobs in new growth sectors, such as health care and digital animation.
Such bleak prospects appear even more brutal when placed against last year's robust job growth: 221,600 jobs were created, just shy of the 234,900 record achieved in 2007.
Services added the most with 136,400 new jobs, followed by construction (64,000) and manufacturing (19,500).
But the gains were made largely in the first nine months. In the final quarter, the job losses jumped to 9,410 from 3,180.
DBS's Mr Seah believes 99,000 jobs will be shed by 2010.
Graduates like Mr Edwin Lim, 27, are now lowering their expectations. Mr Lim, who has a degree in commerce and finance from Australia, has been seeking a finance-related job for two weeks since his return home.
'Now I'm open to other options like marketing, or doing an internship in the finance industry,' he said, adding: 'What I want is to get the experience for a long-term job when the economy turns around.'
- wong chee tat :)
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Unemployment rate for Q1 likely to be higher than Q4 2008
Unemployment rate for Q1 likely to be higher than Q4 2008
Channel NewsAsia
SINGAPORE: With the first three months of 2009 just over, Singapore’s Manpower Minister, Gan Kim Yong, said the unemployment rate for the first quarter of this year is likely to be higher than the last three months of 2008.
Speaking to reporters at a community event on Sunday, he said while his ministry is seeing more retrenchment notices being issued, schemes like the Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience (SPUR) is helping companies cut costs to save jobs.
Detailed statistics about the job market in the first quarter of this year will be released shortly, said the manpower minister.
But as the economy has yet to recover, the ministry’s immediate focus is the unemployment situation and it will continue pressing on with the various schemes like SPUR and Jobs Credit Scheme to tackle the downturn.
Mr Gan said: "SPUR, Jobs Credit Scheme and the Workfare Income Supplement Scheme — so many programmes have been put in place, and we will continue to work hard with the tripartite partners to help our workers cope with the downturn.
"But we cannot just focus on the downturn. We still have to focus on the longer term fundamental issues, such as re—employment, employment of older workers and women. This is because when the economy recovers, the labour market will tighten again and so we must ensure we have this source of workers to support our economic growth in future."
Mr Gan believes SPUR has been very successful in the last four months. He said it has helped many companies reduce the number of workers who could have ended up being retrenched. With SPUR in place, some companies have decided to defer retrenchment and make a decision later.
But how quickly the Singapore economy recovers depends much on external factors like the global economy’s performance.
Mr Gan said: "We must prepare ourselves for another few quarters of downturn. What is more important now is to focus on managing the downturn and managing costs so that we can save more jobs.
"Sometimes during a downturn, restructuring is inevitable and some retrenchments are unavoidable. If employees are retrenched, we want to reach out to them to help them to upgrade themselves and increase their employability so that they can find jobs faster."
Mr Gan added that there are several sectors in Singapore which have job openings and his message to job seekers is to be flexible and consider sectors they may not have worked in before.
— CNA/yt
- wong chee tat :)
Channel NewsAsia
SINGAPORE: With the first three months of 2009 just over, Singapore’s Manpower Minister, Gan Kim Yong, said the unemployment rate for the first quarter of this year is likely to be higher than the last three months of 2008.
Speaking to reporters at a community event on Sunday, he said while his ministry is seeing more retrenchment notices being issued, schemes like the Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience (SPUR) is helping companies cut costs to save jobs.
Detailed statistics about the job market in the first quarter of this year will be released shortly, said the manpower minister.
But as the economy has yet to recover, the ministry’s immediate focus is the unemployment situation and it will continue pressing on with the various schemes like SPUR and Jobs Credit Scheme to tackle the downturn.
Mr Gan said: "SPUR, Jobs Credit Scheme and the Workfare Income Supplement Scheme — so many programmes have been put in place, and we will continue to work hard with the tripartite partners to help our workers cope with the downturn.
"But we cannot just focus on the downturn. We still have to focus on the longer term fundamental issues, such as re—employment, employment of older workers and women. This is because when the economy recovers, the labour market will tighten again and so we must ensure we have this source of workers to support our economic growth in future."
Mr Gan believes SPUR has been very successful in the last four months. He said it has helped many companies reduce the number of workers who could have ended up being retrenched. With SPUR in place, some companies have decided to defer retrenchment and make a decision later.
But how quickly the Singapore economy recovers depends much on external factors like the global economy’s performance.
Mr Gan said: "We must prepare ourselves for another few quarters of downturn. What is more important now is to focus on managing the downturn and managing costs so that we can save more jobs.
"Sometimes during a downturn, restructuring is inevitable and some retrenchments are unavoidable. If employees are retrenched, we want to reach out to them to help them to upgrade themselves and increase their employability so that they can find jobs faster."
Mr Gan added that there are several sectors in Singapore which have job openings and his message to job seekers is to be flexible and consider sectors they may not have worked in before.
— CNA/yt
- wong chee tat :)
Grads & Money
Which grads earn the most? (and here)
By LIEW HANQING
FRESH graduates from the economics degree programme of the Singapore Management University (SMU) are among the best paid in their peer group, with a median starting salary of $3,300.
Those with distinctions fare even better. The corresponding figure for them is $3,750.
SMU's economics programme is among several local undergraduate courses with a 100 per cent overall employment rate for recent graduates.
Prospective students can now have a better idea of which local degree programmes offers the best pay, thanks to data released by the Ministry of Education (MOE)for the first time this year.
Its Graduate Employment Survey is based on responses from recent graduates of the National University of Singapore (NUS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and SMU.
The survey tracks employment data of graduates six months after graduation. The survey results are available on MOE's website, www.moe.gov.sg, on the 'post-secondary education' page.
The information available includes overall employment rates as well as mean and median gross monthly salaries of graduates, organised according to the degree courses offered by each university. (See table right.)
For example, about 90 per cent of mechanical engineering graduates from NUS were employed six months after graduation, with a median gross monthly salary of $2,965.
However, the economy and employment conditions have worsened since these graduates got their jobs. A spokesman for MOE said it would publish the results of the GES annually.
'The data gives prospective students a general indication of the employment conditions of the graduates from the various degree courses offered by our local universities,' he said.
He added that MOE decided to publish the survey results to help students make informed course decisions.
The survey was conducted on graduates who completed their studies between May and June last year and entered the labour market by 1 Nov.
Point of reference
Said the spokesman: 'We understand employment conditions may have changed since, but we hope that the data may still be useful as one point of reference for the students.'
The survey covers most available degree courses, but omits data from law, medicine, pharmacy and architecture, as graduates in these subjects must first undergo professional training.
Most students The New Paper spoke to felt the information was useful for those trying to choose a course of study.
Said Tan Ying Quan, 18, who has applied to both local and overseas universities: 'The information is useful because it allows students to gauge the viability of their studies in the current job market.'
He added that the availability of such employment data would prevent students from having unrealistic expectations of their starting salaries or the likelihood of securing employment upon graduation.
But undergraduate Yvonne Poon, 20, said the starting salary is just one factor that most prospective students look at when selecting a possible future career.
'When it comes to the crunch, surely pay doesn't matter that much - aptitude and passion is more important,' she said.
'You cannot brainwash yourself into developing a liking for, say, the highest- paying job around.'
Undergraduate Joanne Chia, 22, said she felt the information would help job hunters have a good idea of what to expect when they enter the job market.
She said: 'There are still quite a number of undergraduates who don't have an accurate idea of what entry-level pay to expect.
'This information would help moderate their expectations and hopefully help them pick their jobs wisely.'
She added that it would be useful if information such as the names of big-name employers, and the number of graduates they hire from each local university, are published as well.
'That would give us a good idea of our chances of being employed by the more sought-after companies,' she said.
What do you think of the survey?
- wong chee tat :)
By LIEW HANQING
FRESH graduates from the economics degree programme of the Singapore Management University (SMU) are among the best paid in their peer group, with a median starting salary of $3,300.
Those with distinctions fare even better. The corresponding figure for them is $3,750.
SMU's economics programme is among several local undergraduate courses with a 100 per cent overall employment rate for recent graduates.
Prospective students can now have a better idea of which local degree programmes offers the best pay, thanks to data released by the Ministry of Education (MOE)for the first time this year.
Its Graduate Employment Survey is based on responses from recent graduates of the National University of Singapore (NUS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and SMU.
The survey tracks employment data of graduates six months after graduation. The survey results are available on MOE's website, www.moe.gov.sg, on the 'post-secondary education' page.
The information available includes overall employment rates as well as mean and median gross monthly salaries of graduates, organised according to the degree courses offered by each university. (See table right.)
For example, about 90 per cent of mechanical engineering graduates from NUS were employed six months after graduation, with a median gross monthly salary of $2,965.
However, the economy and employment conditions have worsened since these graduates got their jobs. A spokesman for MOE said it would publish the results of the GES annually.
'The data gives prospective students a general indication of the employment conditions of the graduates from the various degree courses offered by our local universities,' he said.
He added that MOE decided to publish the survey results to help students make informed course decisions.
The survey was conducted on graduates who completed their studies between May and June last year and entered the labour market by 1 Nov.
Point of reference
Said the spokesman: 'We understand employment conditions may have changed since, but we hope that the data may still be useful as one point of reference for the students.'
The survey covers most available degree courses, but omits data from law, medicine, pharmacy and architecture, as graduates in these subjects must first undergo professional training.
Most students The New Paper spoke to felt the information was useful for those trying to choose a course of study.
Said Tan Ying Quan, 18, who has applied to both local and overseas universities: 'The information is useful because it allows students to gauge the viability of their studies in the current job market.'
He added that the availability of such employment data would prevent students from having unrealistic expectations of their starting salaries or the likelihood of securing employment upon graduation.
But undergraduate Yvonne Poon, 20, said the starting salary is just one factor that most prospective students look at when selecting a possible future career.
'When it comes to the crunch, surely pay doesn't matter that much - aptitude and passion is more important,' she said.
'You cannot brainwash yourself into developing a liking for, say, the highest- paying job around.'
Undergraduate Joanne Chia, 22, said she felt the information would help job hunters have a good idea of what to expect when they enter the job market.
She said: 'There are still quite a number of undergraduates who don't have an accurate idea of what entry-level pay to expect.
'This information would help moderate their expectations and hopefully help them pick their jobs wisely.'
She added that it would be useful if information such as the names of big-name employers, and the number of graduates they hire from each local university, are published as well.
'That would give us a good idea of our chances of being employed by the more sought-after companies,' she said.
What do you think of the survey?
- wong chee tat :)
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