According to the latest graduate employment survey released yesterday (Sep 10), graduate salaries have stagnated since 2016. Stuck at the median starting salary of S$2,560 after CPF tax, graduates from Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) are seeing less value in their tertiary education. The SIT graduates are also whacked with a high unemployment rate, with 17.1% being unable to land themselves in full-time employment in the six months after their final examinations.
More SIT graduates had to turn part-time work, with the number growing to 9.4% as compared to 11.9% in 2016. Propaganda state media Straits Times however published otherwise, featuring a headline highlighting that more graduates managed to find full-time work.
Unemployment among graduates reached an all-time high last year, with the 2017 survey reporting 21.6% of the graduates unable to find full-time employment. Although the three local universities, NUS, NTU and SMU, boast of leading standing in international universities ranking, their graduates are not seeing salaries that of graduates from lower-ranked universities in developed countries.
The Singapore workforce pays the highest taxes in the world, with 37% of their salaries going into the mandatory government fund called CPF. The CPF allegedly pay out retirement funds based on one’s contribution, but the amount is adjusted by the dictatorship government that uses the CPF funds for exorbitant overseas investments.