More than one in five fresh graduates from four local autonomous universities were in part-time or temporary employment last year.
As a proportion of the newly graduated workforce, they more than tripled from 7 per cent in 2019 to 22.3 per cent.
A total of 11,800 fresh graduates from full-time programmes at the National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Management University and Singapore University of Social Sciences participated in the Joint Autonomous Universities Graduate Employment Survey 2020. They were surveyed on their employment status as at Nov 1, about six months after their final examinations.
Of the 10,700 respondents in the labour force, 22.3 per cent were in part-time or temporary jobs. Just over half of the graduates in this group had preferred to be in full-time permanent employment. The corresponding figure in 2019 was about one-third of those in part-time work that year.
Three out of four of the graduates in part-time or temporary work last November reported that they were then under the SGUnited Traineeships Programme.
The programme supports recent and soon-to-be graduates to take up traineeship opportunities across various sectors.
It aims to help them develop skills in a professional environment in the current economic climate and become better equipped to enter the job market when the economy recovers.
Ms Gracious Pang, 25, is undergoing training as an art instructor at Artlette Art Studio as part of the programme. The fine arts major, who graduated from Lasalle College of the Arts in 2019, had spent almost a year job hunting.
"After graduation, I couldn't find a job, then (the pandemic) happened and it got even harder to find a job," said Ms Pang.
The traineeship proved fruitful as her employer, Artlette director Charlotte Loh, said she intends to offer Ms Pang a full-time position.
Ms Pang said she is thankful for the opportunity as she was able to learn more about the industry, including aspects such as administration and curriculum planning.
