Recent joint survey conducted by the Nanyang Technological University (NTU), National University of Singapore (NUS) and Singapore Management University (SMU) suggested that while the overall employment of graduates from the three institutions remained high, there is a slight drop in the percentage.

According to the report released on Monday (Feb 26), 88.9 percent graduates found jobs within six months of completing their final exams last year, compared to 89.5 percent in 2016. Meanwhile, the other 3 percent had accepted job offers but had yet to start work at the time of the survey, indicating an increase from 2 percent last year.

The report also noted a declining number of graduates that secured full-time permanent employment last year. As much as 78.4 percent graduates surveyed got such jobs last year, representing a drop of 1.5 percentage points from 2016, Channel News Asia reports.

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On the other hand, there is an increase in the freelance employment, with the report noted 2.4 percent job seekers successfully secured freelance job opportunities in 2017, compared to only 1.7 percent in the previous year.

The survey also presented how much fresh graduates from these institutions earn from their jobs. Those who land on full-time permanent jobs drew a mean gross monthly salary of S$3,613 in 2017, higher than the S$3,509 in the previous year. Meanwhile, the overall median gross monthly salary was S$3,400, compared to S$3,300 in 2016.

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