DBS tops list of employers sought by Singapore’s fresh graduates: survey

[SINGAPORE] DBS Bank is the top employer sought by fresh graduates in Singapore in 2026, indicated an annual survey by GTI Media Singapore.

Conducted between June 2025 and April 2026, the survey polled more than 10,500 students and fresh graduates across 22 higher education institutes in Singapore, said GTI on Monday (Jun 22).

The company specialises in graduate recruitment, education, and employer branding.

Beyond the top employers that students and graduates want to work for, the survey also asked respondents about their job search, career decisions and expected salaries.

Behind DBS , the Ministry of Education ranked second and was followed by Microsoft, Marina Bay Sands and Micron. AMD, JPMorgan, Mandai Wildlife Group, Mastercard and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research rounded off the top 10.

All in, a total of 45 Singapore-based companies and public sector agencies featured in the top 100.

Graduates said salary and remuneration was the top influence on their preferred choice of employer, followed by good career prospects, job security, good leadership and friendly colleagues.

Graduates downbeat on job search

The survey found that seven in 10 respondents expect it to be difficult to find a job in 2026, up from 65 per cent in the previous year. Graduates also expect to spend a longer time looking for work, with 60 per cent expecting a search to last from three months to a year.

More than a third of respondents also expect to apply for more than 40 jobs during their search, the survey found.

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Cost of living concerns also remain at the forefront, with four in five strongly concerned about managing living expenses in Singapore on a fresh graduate’s salary, up from 73 per cent in 2025.

The median expected salary by graduates rose accordingly, coming in at the S$60,000 to S$70,000 range, up from the S$50,000 to S$60,000 range in 2025.

“The fact that graduates have no qualms about openly stating that salary is their number one priority when evaluating job offers should be read as a sign of how openly anxious they are about meeting their material needs in the current job market,” said Isaac Hee, managing director at GTI.

Nearly two-thirds of graduates were also concerned about artificial intelligence adoption and its impact on their ideal careers, up from about half in 2025.

“The good news is that there is no evidence that generative AI can replace jobs in any meaningful sense,” said Hee, pointing to a July 2025 study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology which found that 95 per cent of enterprise AI pilots failed to deliver measurable financial savings or uplift in profit.

More than a third also indicated a desire to seek overseas roles, with 60 per cent of such respondents spurred by better career advancement opportunities outside Singapore.

Despite their concerns, 70 per cent of respondents said that moral and ethical issues still play an “important role” in their choice of employer. About 69 per cent also indicated a desire to feel that their career “serves a broader social purpose beyond themselves”.