Future bright for graduates
It's time for university graduates to start hunting for jobs and, based on last year's experience, their prospects are looking good.
According to a survey conducted by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, more than 99 per cent of last year's 1,285 graduates from the university had found a job, started a business or begun further studies by December.
Even more encouraging was that the mean gross monthly income of recent graduates had increased by eight per cent to $11,554 from the previous year. The highest individual monthly salary in the survey was $53,000.
HKUST described banking and finance as the 'must-have' profession last year. The sector hired nine per cent of interviewed graduates who earned a mean gross monthly income of $14,555, about 20 per cent higher than the previous year.
The most popular professions were engineering (17 per cent), accounting (15 per cent), sales or marketing (15 per cent), systems administration and programming (12 pre cent), and administration (11 per cent).
Business is still the largest employment sector, drawing 67 per cent of graduates, followed by manufacturing and industry (18 per cent), education (8 per cent), construction (3 per cent), and government (3 per cent).
