Poly grads in Singapore earned a median S$2,400 monthly pay in 2020, same as 2019

Among course clusters identified, graduates from the health sciences earned the highest median salary each month last year, at S$2,553 (fresh graduates: S$2,550, post-NSS graduates: S$2,698).

Close to nine in 10 polytechnic students found employment within six months of their graduation last year, the 2020 Polytechnic Graduate Employment Survey (GES) has found. 

According to the survey, released on 12 January 2021 (Tuesday), a total of 87.4% of the 7,360 survey respondents (fresh graduates: 85.4%, post-NS graduates: 91.9%) had done so, albeit a lower percentage than the previous years (2018: 89.5%, 2019: 90.7%).

Further, an additional 2.9% of the respondents had either accepted a job offer, or were actively starting a business venture; and of thoise in the labour force, 52% were in full-time permanent employment, while 31.6% were in part‐time/temporary employment.

Consistent with previous years, about half the polytechnic graduates in part-time/temporary employment indicated that they were concurrently pursuing or preparing to begin further studies.

A breakdown of the findings can be found in Table 1 below:

Table 1: Employment Indicators from 2018 to 2020

Summary of findings for fresh graduates

Of the 8,946 fresh graduates who responded to the survey, 56.4% had entered the labour force as at 1 October 2020, about six months after their final examinations.

At the same time, slightly more than four in 10 (42.9%) were either pursuing or preparing to further their studies, thus were not looking for jobs (2019: 38.9%). A majority of the remaining 0.7% said they were taking a break and not seeking employment.

Summary of findings for post-NS graduates

Among the 5,461 people who graduated from polytechnic in 2017, and completed their NS between 1 April 2019 and 31 March 2020, more than four in 10 (42.3%) had entered the labour force.

While this was so, more than half (57.2%) were either pursuing or preparing to further their studies and hence were not looking for jobs, the same percentage as in 2019. Last, similar to the fresh graduates, most of the remaining 0.5% said that they were taking a break and not seeking employment.

Graduates who found full-time permanent jobs earned a median gross salary of S$2,400/month

Apart from the above, the survey also found that polytechnic graduates who had found full-time permanent jobs earned a median gross monthly salary of S$2,400 in 2020, the same as in 2019.

Among course clusters identified, graduates from the health sciences earned the highest median salary each month last year, at S$2,553 (fresh graduates: S$2,550, post-NSS graduates: S$2,698).

This was followed by graduates from information and digital technologies, and humanities and social sciences, which earned a median of S$2,500 each.

Table 2: Median gross monthly salary by course clusters for fresh graduates and post-NS graduates (full-time permanent employed only) from 2018 to 2020

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