Degrees not an assurance of long-term employment: MoM

Degree holders are in for a surprise.

Graduates typically assume they’re going to be in the game longer, with their diplomas securing better bullets in the workplace and immunity against lay-offs, but the MoM warned of landmines in the workplace and cited that graduates composed a huge chunk of laid off workers last year, and less than half of all employees.

Thirty-nine percent of workers who lost their jobs in 2013 held a degree despite constituting only 34% of the workforce.

The numbers slightly improved from 2012 when graduates composed 45% of laid off workers and only 32% of employees, owing to tighter immigration rules for skilled foreign labour.

MoM recently warned about a graduate glut in nearby countries, which may be impending in Singapore due to the oversupply of fresh graduates.

Experts observed that white-collar jobs are getting more redundant while employers are looking for skills that a degree may not guarantee, and highly trained people may need to unlearn more things to easily acquire new skills.