BTExclusive: Grim times for fresh grads as pandemic hits job opportunities Covid19
Recruitment portal Indeed said its job postings fell by 14.9 per cent year on year in early April, while Microsoft-owned LinkedIn reported that"hiring growth in Singapore has been on a gradual decline since February".
The SGUnited Traineeships Programme was unveiled in February's Budget. While full details of the initiative are not yet available, the government has committed to co-fund training allowances for up to 8,000 fresh graduates seeking work experience. Varsities here have even shifted recent career fairs online, with some 3,900 jobs and internships up for grabs at a National University of Singapore event held in end-March. The Singapore Management University , which held a virtual career fair on March 27, is planning at least two more, in May and September.
All the same, Andrew Rose, dean of NUS Business School, has told industry partners that graduating students'"employment prospects now look bleak", with some students already having job offers rescinded. In an e-mail circulating online, Dr Rose appealed to the industry to"consider whether you or your organisation are able to use a highly subsidised, soon-to-graduate" employee. BT understands that he was referring to government wage subsidy schemes.
While he expects fresh graduates to apply for entry-level roles that will not put them in competition with retrenched job seekers, Prof Theseira also said that"a bad résumé can be worse than a fresh degree" if they remain persistently under-employed."There are structural reasons why graduating into a recession tends to have lasting damage... Research shows that the harm goes away with time, but there is uncertainty about whether there is permanent scarring.
But, citing research on recessions in the US, James Miles, managing director at RGF Talent Solutions Singapore, told BT:"The looming economic downturn will deeply affect starting pay... as annual salaries are expected to decrease by 10 per cent."
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