Business & administration graduates form largest share of overqualified workers: MOM
This is due to high intake for such courses, says the ministry in a new study
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[SINGAPORE] Business and administration graduates account for the largest share of overqualified workers in Singapore, according to a study by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) released on Tuesday (Apr 14).
Four in 10 overqualified resident workers – those who have a higher educational qualification than needed for their jobs – are from that field of study.
“Their higher representation can be attributed to the higher number of intakes for graduates in this field relative to more niche fields of study,” said MOM in its report.
The report found that about one in five workers in Singapore are overqualified for their jobs, but the vast majority are in such roles by choice, as they value factors such as job stability or interesting work.
Business and administration graduates accounted for 41.3 per cent of involuntarily overqualified workers, and 42.2 per cent of the voluntarily overqualified.
Coming a distant second was engineering sciences, at 14.3 per cent and 16.1 per cent, respectively. Third was humanities and social sciences, at 8 per cent and 9 per cent.
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However, in terms of incidence of qualification – the share of each field’s graduates that are overqualified – business and administration was not the top field.
The incidence of overqualification was higher for fine and applied arts, as well as mass communication and information science. It was also high for humanities and social sciences.
This suggests that such graduates may be in “a broader spectrum of jobs that may not typically require tertiary qualification, but with a focus on technical or practical skills”, said MOM. These may include creative trades or community-oriented roles.
Among the tertiary-educated, about half of overqualified workers were working as associate professionals and technicians: 47.6 per cent of the involuntarily overqualified, and 50.1 per cent of the voluntarily overqualified.
MOM said that this was “as more young workers take on entry-level executive jobs to accumulate the experience required to take on higher-skilled jobs”.
Private-hire drivers
By industry, the largest share of overqualified employed residents were in transportation and storage. This accounted for 15.2 per cent of the involuntarily overqualified and 10.6 per cent of the voluntarily overqualified.
These were mainly private-hire car drivers, noted the report.
“The relatively lower barriers to entry in ride-hail and delivery services create greater opportunities for higher-educated workers to take up lower-skilled roles,” it said.
Other sectors with higher shares of overqualified workers were financial and insurance services; administrative and support services; and food and beverage services. These sectors each accounted for between 8 and 8.8 per cent of involuntarily or voluntarily overqualified workers.
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