Analysis of Singapore's Graduate Labor Market Trends and Issues

This essay examines the current trends in the graduate labor market of Singapore, focusing on the increasing rate of unemployment among graduates. It explores the opportunities and threats faced by businesses and employees, considering factors such as the influx of foreign talent, technological advancements, and an aging population. The analysis highlights the decreasing employment growth, the impact of foreign technologies, and the challenges related to employee turnover. The essay also discusses the merits and demerits of foreign talent inflow, the effects of technological advancements, and the implications of an aging population on the labor market. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of practical training to address the issues and improve the adaptability of graduates to the practical work environment.

Running head: PERSONAL & ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Personal & organizational development
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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Introduction
In the current business scenario, more and more job opportunities are being created along
with increase in the rate of unemployment. Though the increase of unemployment and job
opportunities at the same time is quite contradictory, but the current trend is showing the same.
There are various reasons behind this phenomenon such as aging population, rapid change in the
technology, lack of training and development programs for the employees and difference in the
knowledge domain of the would be employees and the corporate requirements (Ayres, 2013).
Moreover, in the present era of globalization, inflow of the foreign and updated technologies is
more, which further makes the existing graduates to cope up with the change in the technology.
This essay will discuss about the recent trend in the graduate labor market in the global
scenario along with identifying the opportunities and threat. Moreover, the impact of the factors
such as inflow of the foreign technologies and aging population on the operation of the
contemporary business organizations will also be discussed in this essay.
Trend in graduate labor market of Singapore
In the recent times, the growth rate of graduate employment in Singapore is going down
drastically. According to the various reports, graduate unemployment is the all time highest in
Singapore in 2016 (LOH, 2017). It is being reported that Singapore is having increasing rate of
unemployment among the degree holders is rapidly increasing and it showed the highest rate in
2016 with having the most layoffs. The current rate of unemployment is 2.1 percent, which is the
all time highest for Singapore in the last few years (Morrison, 2014).

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Figure: 1
Source: (Seow, 2017)
From the above figures, it is being seen that, the employment growth is rapidly reducing
from the last 17 years. Moreover, local employment growth is much lower compared to the
foreign employment growth. Thus, the recent trend of graduate labor market is not favorable due
to various reasons. The followings sections will discuss about the reasons of the increase in the
rate of the unemployment among the graduates.
Opportunities
From the recent trend of the graduate labor market, the maximum opportunities will be
gained by the business organizations. This is due to the fact that, the rate of increase in the
graduate employees is more compared to a decade ago. Thus, business organizations are having
more options during their recruitment process (Green & Henseke, 2014). The available talent
pool is more for them. In addition, in the current scenario, graduates employees are not from

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single field or sector rather they are from diversified sectors. Thus, it is also beneficial for the
business organizations to have more options to meet the diversified organizational requirements.
Employees are also having opportunities by having more career options compared to the
non-graduates. Though, in the above discussion, it is been seen that, employment opportunities
are reducing, however, the existing career opportunities will have more preferences for the
graduates. This is due to the reason that, the graduates will have more domain knowledge,
experiences and trained to meet the organizational requirement (Verhagen et al., 2012).
Moreover, it is also helpful for the organizations to have the well trained and knowledgeable
employees in board.
Threat
Apart from the identified opportunities, there are various threats that can get emerged
from the recent trend in graduate labor market. One of the key threats for the business
organizations is the increase in the rate of employee turnover. This is due to the reason that, the
more educated and skilled will be the employees, the more they will be prone to change their
existing organization for better opportunities. Thus, this will in turn increase the cost for the
organizations. The cost will get increase due to the reason that, the more will be the employee
turnover in the organization, the more will be the cost of training and development for the new
employees (Hancock et al., 2013). Moreover, due to the high rate of turnover, employees will
have less motivation to enhance their organizational citizenship. Thus, due to the emergence of
huge number of graduate employees, organizations will have multiple challenges to face.
Another key threat that they will face is the lack of the suitable employees and loss of
opportunity cost. This is due to the reason that, in the current scenario, huge amount of graduate

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employees are there for jobs. However, according to various reports, there are only few those
who actually suitable for the business corporate. Thus, it is challenge for the business
organizations to choose the right and eligible candidate from the huge talent pool.
Employees will also face from the threat from the current scenario of graduate labor
market. This is due to the reason that, the more employees will be graduated, the less will be
chance of being employed in the organizations. Job opportunities are not increasing at similar
rate of increase in the graduate employees. Thus, there will a huge gap between the supply and
demand of employees. With the existing job availability, a good number of graduate employees
will fail to have job (Tewell, 2012). Moreover, another threat that they will face is the higher risk
of attrition. This is due to the reason that, if the business organizations are having more number
of options to replace any existing employees, they will less likely to rectify the particular
employee in case of any mishaps. Rather they will terminate and replace with another employee.
Thus, the employees will face the threat of termination at any point of time.
Influx of foreign talent
Inflow of the foreign talent will have both merits as well as demerits for the
organizations. This is due to the reasons that, in the current scenario, inflow of the foreign
employees pose both challenges and opportunities for the contemporary business organizations.
One of the key demerits is the creation of diversity issues among the employees in the
organization. This will emerge due to the reason that, more inflow in the foreign employees in
the organization will create the issue with the local employees (Gomes, 2014). Local employees
will have the impression that their effectiveness is not being valued by the organization and thus
foreign employees are being recruited. Thus the level of motivation and job satisfaction for the

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local employees will get reduced. Moreover origination of the issues related to diversity in the
organization will in turn reduce the organizational productivity and effectiveness.
Another demerit of the inflow of the foreign talents will be the lower job opportunities
for local talents. As discussed earlier, Singapore is already having the shortage of job
opportunities for their local population. Thus, with the inflow in the foreign employees, this issue
will get enlarged. Eventually, the issue of unemployment will get increased. In addition,
language barrier will get emerged due to the difference in the language of the local and the
foreign employees (Giulietti et al., 2013). Thus, the effectiveness of the business communication
will get hampered.
Apart from the demerits of the inflow of the foreign employees, there are various merits
for the organizations. One of the key merits will be increase in the talent pool for the business
organizations. With having the access to the foreign employees, business organizations will have
the more options of potential candidates to choose from. Moreover, the cost involved in hiring
the human resources will also get low with the initiation of the inflow of the foreign employees.
This is due to the reason that, selection of the employees from the developing countries will
involve less cost due to the low labor cost in those countries. Thus, the cost for the business
organizations will get lowered.
Impact of inflow of technologies
In the present era of globalization, majority of the business organizations are having
access to the latest technologies. Moreover, with emergence of the multinational organizations,
developing and underdeveloped countries are also having the access of the updated technologies
from the developed countries (Brincikoya & Darmo, 2014). However, this will have negative

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implication on the graduate labor market. This is due to the reason that, with the rapid inflow of
the latest technologies, it becomes difficult for the employees to cope up with the change and
majority of them becomes unproductive with the change. Thus, they lose their competitiveness in
the job market along with losing their job. In addition, up gradation of the technologies also lead
to the automation of the operational facilities that further reduces the need of the manual labor.
Thus, the issue of unemployment will get enhanced.
Impact of aging population
Aging population will have negative implication on the organization and employee flow.
This is due to the reason that, the more aged will be the population, the less will be the
availability of the candidates in the working age group (Anderson & Hussey, 2017). Thus, the
organization will face the challenge of selecting the employees from the right age group.
Conclusion
Thus, from the above discussion, it can be concluded that, issues related to the graduate
employees are rapidly increasing in Singapore. This is due to the reason of increase in the
graduate employees and creation of less job opportunities. However, one recommended measure
that may be beneficial in overcome this issue is providing the potential candidates practical
training rather than just providing the theoretical knowledge. This will help the employees to get
adjusted with the practical situation effectively.

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