The latest graduate employment survey found that only one in two private school fresh graduates secured full-time jobs six months after graduation.
This is a sharp decline from the six in ten figure achieved by the previous batch, according to the Private Education Institute (PEI) Graduate Employment Survey.
For private school graduates who commenced from full-time bachelor’s level external degree programmes between 2016 and last year, the overall employment rate was 79 percent, compared to 84.3 percent for the previous batch.
Full-time employment rate dropped drastically from 60.1 percent for the 2015/2016 graduates to 47.4 per cent for the 2016/2017 graduates, said a report by Todayonline.
The percentage of graduates entering freelance employment increased by 1 percentage point year-on-year, to hit 3.7 percent in the latest survey results released by the Committee for Private Education (CPE). Part-time or temporary employment increased from 21.5 percent to 27.9 percent as well.
The survey was conducted between November 2017 and February 2018, drawing from some 2,800 graduates from full-time external degree programmes without previous experience in full-time permanent jobs. Part-time students and mature learners, as well as international students working or seeking employment overseas are not included.