General Graduate Employment Opportunities in Singapore

Essay, Pages 5 (1075 words)

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Reflective Commentary

The purpose of this assignment is to analyse possible challenges which the graduate labour market of Singapore is experiencing. This research will be based on reliable sources of statistics and academic literatures to provide an in-depth study of the employability of fresh graduates. Part one will present a current analysis of the graduate labour market in Singapore over the past few years.

In addition, part two will be a self-evaluation of myself which includes my intended career path, personality and suitability of a job which involved a psychometric test, before ending off with a conclusion.

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Introduction

Singapore’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has been rising steadily over the last decade and is one of the world’s top performing economies as shown from the chart. In 2017, Singapore’s main economic sectors were in the manufacturing (19. 2%), wholesale and retail trade (17. 6%), business services (14. 8%) and the finance and insurance (13. 3%) sectors (Share of GDP by Industry, 2018). Due to the strong economic growth, the government enjoyed a budget surplus of approximately .

6b Singapore Dollars (Toh, 2018).

Although the economic outlook seems robust, the labour market can expect increased tightening of employment opportunities as growth of the available labour force will remain stagnant over the next few years (Krishnadas & Lopez, 2017). In addition, several current trends faced in the labour market, to be elaborated, also contributes to such slow growth.

General Graduate Employment Opportunities in Singapore

An Overview

Singapore is like other economies worldwide with employment affected by the effect of globalisation and swift technological improvement (Greenan & Guellec, 2003).

On one hand, the labour market is affected by the constant changes of industry demands, causing people to switch jobs that are stable and being able to utilise their relevant skill sets well. One the other hand, the government is also emphasising on the need of lifelong learning and upgrading of one’s skills (WHAT IS SKILLSFUTURE?, 2017), in order to have an edge in the saturated labour market. Although the labour market contracts, the rate of unemployment in Singapore has been relatively low over the last decade as shown in the graph below. Albeit the low unemployment rate, it is necessary to scrutinise some of the current trends in the labour market which are affecting the employability of graduates.

Current graduate labour market trends

Increased of workforce with higher education

It shows an increase in the percentage of labour force with a degree from 23. 3% in 2007 to 35. 7% in 2017. Furthermore, with the literacy rate of the labour force continuing to rise, the percentage of the workforce without at least a tertiary education will find employment opportunities even limited due to the strong presence of fresh graduates entering the labour force year on year. This is evident from Figure 1 where the percentage of the labour force who found employment without tertiary education decreased from 60. 7% to 45. 4%. Based on the statistics portrayed, this will be a worrying trend for fresh graduates searching for employment opportunities as they will face greater competition vying for jobs if the availability of vacancies does not rise accordingly with the number of fresh graduates produced each year.

Influx of Foreign Talents

Non-resident PMETs comprise EP and S Pass holders Based on the statistics provided above, the percentage (21%) of foreign talents are employed to fill up vacancies in the PMET workforce due to the ageing population and the lack of a skilled local labour workforce. While the 43% of foreign workers are employed in the Non-PMET workforce as these are generally jobs shunned by locals. There is always a perception in the local labour force that the hiring of such skilled white-collar foreign talents is competing with the local labour force for employment prospects. To combat the slow growth in Singapore’s employment, Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat said Singapore companies have "a narrow window of opportunity" to ramp up their digital transformation efforts and raise productivity over the next few years (Chia, 2018).

As mentioned in (MTI Occasional Paper on Population and Economy, 2012), the hiring of foreign talents is determined by the different sector’s manpower needs, relevant skill sets of the local labour force, and types of foreign workers needed to complement the local labour workforce. Instead of easing the foreign manpower regulations, Manpower Minister Lim Swee Say pointed to the need of transferring the expertise of foreign talents to the local labour force (Chuang, 2018). This will reduce the population of foreign labour force in Singapore while assuring a secured amount of vacancies available for the local labour workforce to fill. Thus, this ensures local graduates to be optimistic in getting a job locally.

An Ageing Population

The prominent ageing population in Singapore has been one of the biggest issues that the government is trying to ease. However, with the constant low birth rates and increasing retirement age, the likelihood of securing a desired job in the labour market seems slim for fresh graduates. As of 2017, the retirement age is 62 years old with the option for re-employment up till the age of 67 (What’s the difference between retirement age and re-employment age?, 2017). Statistics provided by the Manpower Ministry showed that the labour force participation rate for workers aged 65 and above was 14. 3 per cent in 2006. This rose to 26. 8 per cent in 2017.

This puts Singapore as one of the world’s highest population of older workers (Singapore’s older workers are challenging the ageing stereotype, 2018). With the older workers generally continuing to work beyond the retirement age in a country with high costs of living such as Singapore (Yi & Mi, 2016), the younger generation will find it even harder to secure advancement opportunities or positions they hope to apply for. They would often view their older colleagues as bottlenecks which hinders their career advancement, as they can only move out in search of better opportunities if they can’t move up in their current company. Furthermore, the older workers are more resistant to changes in the work environment and the possibility of them making a career switch is low due to their age and the stability of their current job (Phillips & O’Loughlin, 2017). It is also common within the different industries to offer employment on contract basis as this provide costs benefits to the companies which offers such terms (Lee, 2016).

This will greatly affect the generation coined as “Generation Y”. this generation of people are highly creative and achievement oriented, and seeks stable job prospects with ample advancement opportunities (M & J, 2015). As such, the younger generation especially fresh graduates will find permanent employment hard to come by.