Grads crave banking and finance jobs, snub SIA

The banking and financing sector is now heating up the economy, along with the oil-and-gas industry, with grads naming these sectors as their number one choices for employment for their first job.

According to an online survey by JobsFactory, 47% of graduates want to join the sector and seven out of the top 10 preferred employers are financial institutions. In an earlier survey by JobsFactory, junior college students expressed less interest in engineering and more inclination towards business studies.  Business management has become the top choice for A level graduates this year, followed by arts and social sciences and then engineering, which has fallen from its first position last year.

Singapore Airlines, ranked first on the list of preferred employers by entry-level graduates last year, lost its position to Citibank this year and slipped four notches down and settled at the fifth position.

Out of those entry-level graduates surveyed, 37% say they expect an annual salary of $30,001 to $36,000, which includes bonuses and variable pay. Some 77% of the respondents also responded that they expect first promotion by the second year of work, latest.