Hiring crunch hits Singapore polytechnic grads in 2024: government

While some fields, like health sciences and humanities and social sciences, continued to offer strong prospects, graduates in engineering and information and digital technologies experienced higher unemployment, Education Minister Chan Chun Sing told Parliament recently, as reported by The Straits Times.

Graduands from Ngee Ann Polytechnic waiting to go up on stage to receive their Diplomas at their Graduation Ceremony, 11 May 2009. Photo by AFP

He added that the tech sector’s downturn last year might explain the decline in recruitment demand, he said in response to lawmakers who made inquiry about the hike in unemployment rates of polytechnic graduates.

Singapore’s latest graduate employment survey shows that only 54.6% of fresh polytechnic graduates secured full-time permanent jobs last year, a decrease from nearly 60% in 2023 and 59% in 2022.

The survey, which polled 7,600 graduates at five polytechnics, indicated that 50.4% were employed or seeking employment, while 48.9% were pursuing further studies.

Ultimately, 87.5% of graduates in the workforce found some form of employment (permanent, freelance, or part-time) within six months of graduation or completing national service.

The unemployment rate of fresh polytechnic graduates went up from 7.3% in 2023 to 12.5% last year.

Lawmakers have expressed concerns about the rate, which is comparable to the 12.6% recorded in 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic was hurting the global economy.