7 Real reasons why Singaporeans “no need degrees"

We refer to the article “Growing concerns over graduate employment” (Straits Times, Sep 5).

Root cause – foreign labour policies?

The root cause of the recent rhetoric of “no need degree” may be our liberal foreign labour policies – that may have contributed to rising unemployment, under-employment, economic-inactivity, depressed wages, etc, for degree holders.

More and more degree holders unemployed, no pay increase, etc?

With degree holders forming the largest group amongst the close to 90,000 unemployed and long-term unemployed Singaporeans (there is no breakdown into Singaporeans and permanent residents (PRs) for the long-term unemployed – so, this is an estimate), real basic wages hardly growing in the last 15 years or so, graduates real starting pay being negative in the last 7 years or so, etc – We cannot continue to be “in denial” and do not mention at all the root cause of our degree holders’ woes.

Let’s look at some of the dismal statistics as highlighted in the article.

Highest number of unemployed?

… “the number of unemployed residents with degrees is now higher than for groups of any other educational level

Highest unemployment rate?

… their unemployment rate used to be the lowest before 2012, but has since overtaken those of groups of other qualification levels. Last year, it was 2.8 per cent, compared with 2.7 per cent for the group with diploma and professional qualifications and 2.4 per cent for the below-secondary group

Highest long-term unemployed?

… the long- term unemployed number and corresponding unemployment rate of resident degree holders display the same worsening trends. Last year, there were 5,100 degree holders among the long-term unemployed, translating to a rate of 0.8 per cent.

The group with the second- largest number – diploma and professional qualifications – was way behind at 2,500, with a rate of 0.6 per cent

Highest economically inactive?

… the increase in the number of economically inactive residents possessing a degree exceeded the rate at which degree holders increased in the population over the last decade

More unemployed as they get older?

… among graduates aged below 30, 7.9 per cent are unemployed. The figure falls to 1.9 per cent for those in their 30s, but rises to 2.5 per cent for those in their 40s and further to 3.1 per cent when they hit their 50s. This suggests that for some degree holders at least, the return on investment in a varsity education may fall after the first decade, or that graduates are finding it difficult to keep up with the demands of the labour market when they hit their 40s and 50s

Economically inactive degree holders rose 15 times more?

… while the overall number of economically inactive residents rose a mere 8 per cent, the number of economically inactive degree holders surged 124 per cent over the last decade to last year