Rough seas ahead for College Graduates

With the ongoing pandemic, fresh graduates, like everyone else, have encountered obstacles amid the hiring freezes across the industries, but have encountered further ramifications. Graduates feel pessimistic towards their career future due to heightened competition and fewer job openings. Findings from the Employment Status of Hong Kong’s Tertiary Students 2020 Survey by JobsDB brought to light unfortunate truths about college graduates and their job prospects and career futures. One thousand one hundred ninety-seven college graduates were canvassed by JobsDB this year, and nine out of ten respondents reported that the epidemic had affected their job-hunting plans. More than half felt there were too few vacancies, and a significant number noted that competition for those vacancies and job interviews had increased. On average fresh graduates receive an average monthly salary of HKD 16K, which is 3.7% lower than their salaries in 2019, representing a drop for the second consecutive year. For the average salaries for fresh graduates in each industry see the chart below. The Survey also revealed that only 76% of fresh graduates are satisfied with their first job, a decrease of 11% compared to last year. With barely half of the respondents feeling optimistic about their career future, marking a significant 20% drop from 2019.

Mr. Isaac Shao, Chief Executive Officer, JobsDB Hong Kong, said, “Fresh graduates should enrich their resumes by including soft skills accumulated from past internships and extracurricular activities and elaborate on how these experiences fulfill the requirements of their desired positions. Employers are increasingly relying on remote recruitment processes during the pandemic. Additionally, they can highlight their knowledge in digital technologies to bolster their employability as enterprises are rapidly speeding up their digital transformations to sharpen their competitiveness under the pandemic situation.” 

Though roughly 80% are still able to get a job within three months of graduation half of the respondents had gone through 4 or more job interviews until they received an offer, which is a 5% increase compared to last year. Only 60% of undergraduates now plan to look for a full-time job, a considerable fall of 10% from that of last year; whereas 18% of undergraduates prefer to continue their studies, a significant growth of 8%, indicating a preference to further equip themselves before entering the job market. Only a quarter of the respondents found jobs relevant to their academic degree, mostly those with specialized expertise in fields such as healthcare or education. Almost matching that number is the number of graduates working in fields irrelevant to their academic background. Such patterns are explained by the lack of job vacancies in certain fields, not to mention the emerging trend of fresh graduates taking what they can get in terms of different job opportunities. To an extent, career preferences are no longer solely determined by their respective educational background.

Despite being able to acquire a job, a lack of alignment between graduates’ interests and field of work is resulting in rising dissatisfaction in their first job. Though less than half reported feelings of satisfaction “Salary and benefits” remains the top reason graduates are satisfied with their first jobs, followed by “Alignment with one’s personal interest” and “Relationship with supervisors and colleagues”. More than half reported dissatisfaction and 30% reported that “Salary and benefits” is also the main factor contributing to dissatisfaction as it is for satisfaction highlighting an interesting dichotomy. Other leading factors are a  lack of “Career development and on-the-job training” and lack of “Alignment with one’s personal interests”.

Shao added, “Fresh graduates are proactive in job hunting, but satisfaction towards their first jobs has decreased by 11% over the past year. While salaries remain top of mind, job satisfaction is also highly affected by career advancement opportunities, as well as other personal factors such as graduates’ interests. It suggests that employers could spare more resources on things such as employee training or digital transformation.”

Top 10 industries with the highest starting salaries