Graduate experience of the workforce and precarity

• Main Author: Lee, Joey
• Other Authors: Xiao Hong
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: DRNTU::Social sciences
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/73677
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The experiences of graduates have largely been overlooked with regard to the study of precarity in Singapore in favour of more obvious forms of precarious employment, namely that of transient workers. However, as our interview data with 18 graduate participants show, precarity is a pervasive phenomenon that extends to all echelons of society, albeit in different forms and to a different extent. This paper thus seeks to explore how young graduates perceived as social elites navigate through labour insecurities and challenges once relegated to work carried out by the lower classes. Findings include how current employment conditions adopted from global market trends contribute to contemporary labour apprehensions and how degree accreditation still retains its importance as a bulwark against unemployment despite the purportedly being overvalued and offering diminishing returns in contemporary times.