Journalism and education are now among the top five highest paying jobs for fresh college graduates, according to a report by JobStreet.com.
JobStreet.com Philippines country manager Philip Gioca said it was the first time journalism figured among the highest paying jobs for new graduates.
The 2017 JobStreet.com Fresh Graduates Report showed law/legal services as the top job with the biggest entry level salary followed by health-related services, journalism, IT-related industries and education.
“Many of the journalists I spoke to said the report was a misnomer, especially those from the mainstream media. Well, we at JobStreet.com believe there is a wide definition of journalism. Now that we are in the digital era, we now have the so-called digital media or bloggers, they say. wContent writers are also considered part of the field,” he said.
The report was a part of a survey conducted annually by the jobs portal.
The report said from an average of P21,232 in 2015, average earnings of fresh graduate specialists in law jumped to P27,124 in 2016. Healthcare-related specialists also experienced a huge increase in average salaries, from P20,048 two years ago to P23,216 last year.
Journalism jumped from fifth to third with a starting salary of P21,777, while IT specialists settled in fourth place, with average earnings decreasing to P21,703 from P22,567 in 2015. Education was fifth with P21,457.
Completing the top ten fields are actuarial sciences, training and development, banking, public relations, and advertising. Education, banking, and advertising are the new entrants to the top 10, replacing public relations, quality control and customer service.
Among trends in the job market for its newest members, the business process outsourcing industry took the lion’s share of the available employment opportunities for fresh graduates at 66 percent, followed by retail and real estate, contributing 2 percent and 1.5 percent of total jobs available for fresh graduates, respectively.
The other industries comprising the top ten with the most fresh graduate jobs include manufacturing, food and beverage, banking, construction, telecommunications, general and wholesale trading, and IT-software.
The Fresh Graduate Report also included a portion that revealed the results of a survey conducted to employers on their hiring behavior in relation to this segment of the population.
According to the survey, eight out of ten employees are happy to employ a recent graduate into their workforce, similar to last year’s figures.
While the 2016 survey championed their need for applicants who have a solid working experience through internships and part-time employment, this year’s results revealed attitude, field of study, and asking salary as the primary factors they consider for hiring fresh graduates.
Employers prefer graduates from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, the University of the Philippines and the University of Santo Tomas.
When asked to assess the performance of these fresh hires, UP graduates scored the highest, followed by alumni of PUP and the Ateneo de Manila University.
Particular industries also had different views of where their best new hires graduated. PUP graduates came up on top among employers in the BPO, retail, manufacturing, and real estate industries, while IT and education companies gave their highest marks to UP alumni.
