Under-employment of Fresh Graduates from Local Tertiary Institutions

Mr Patrick Tay Teck Guan asked the Acting Minister for Manpower whether there is an under-employment of fresh graduates from our local Polytechnics, Universities and private schools/Universities and, if so, whether he will elaborate on the size of the under-employment.

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Under-employment is commonly defined in two ways. Firstly, time-related under-employment, an internationally accepted statistical concept, examines the extent to which a person is insufficiently engaged in employment based on hours of work. Specifically, it refers to persons working part-time but are willing and able to engage in additional work. Secondly, non time-related under-employment refers to employment which does not make full use of, or pay according to skills that workers could offer. This is more difficult to measure due to the subjectivity involved.

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Time-related under-employment is generally low among young graduates from Polytechnics and Universities. Excluding students in employment13 and full-time National Servicemen, 1.5% of residents aged 20-29 from Polytechnics and Universities experienced time-related under-employment in 2011 (table below). This was lower than the time-related under-employment rate of 4.6% for all employed residents.

There is no internationally established statistical definition and method for measuring non time-related under-employment and most countries do not have official statistics on this. Nevertheless, we are looking into how we can appropriately measure this.

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Beyond keeping unemployment low, it is also important to help our graduates utilise their time and capabilities fully in the labour market. Secondary and Junior College students can approach their schools' career advisors for career guidance and assistance, and use the Education and Career Guidance (ECG) portal provided by the Ministry of Education to make informed education and career decisions. The ECG portal aims to help these students find out more about suitable programmes across the post-secondary educational institutions (PSEIs) and provide information on related careers and salaries. Career services are also available at our Polytechnics and Universities, to provide career guidance to their students.

Beyond the campus, career facilitation and assistance are available at the Community Development Councils (CDCs), Employment and Employability Institute (e2i) and Caliberlink, with career consultants on-site. MOM also disseminates labour market information regularly to help fresh graduates make informed choices and maximise their employment opportunities.