Gan Siow Huang on jobs and pay for arts, design and media and health sciences graduates

The employment rate and salary level for fresh graduates in arts, design and media (ADM) are typically lower compared to sectors such as engineering, built environment and business. This reflects economic demand and labour market conditions. There are also more freelancers and self-employed workers in ADM. In the past 10 years, the average employment rate for ADM graduates was around 88 per cent and the starting salary increased about 3.4 per cent every year. These details were given by Minister of State for Manpower Gan Siow Huang in response to a Parliamentary question on Wednesday (Apr 3). She also spoke about steps taken to improve education, training and industry exposure for ADM graduates to help them get good jobs. Meanwhile, for health sciences graduates, while the growth in median salaries in the past decade was relatively lower, it rose by six per cent in 2023, which was higher than the average increase for university graduates in general. Ms Gan detailed efforts to ensure that salaries in the healthcare and community care sectors are competitive.