Friday, March 29, 2024

Fresh IT grads still one of highest paid among new PH jobseekers

By Espie Angelica A. de Leon

Graduates of IT-related courses continue to be among the most handsomely paid among fresh graduates entering the job market in the country. In particular, these are the junior software analysts and front-end developers.

With average salaries of P21,947, they placed sixth in the overall ranking of highest paid fresh graduate professionals in the Philippines.

This is according to online job portal JobStreet.com Philippines, which presented the results of the ?2018 JobStreet.com Fresh Graduate Report? to the media on April 18 at the Edades Tower in Rockwell Center in Makati City.

The report was based on unique jobs posted in the portal from October to December 2017 and on the findings of a February 2018 survey among 503 employers around the country.

Law graduates working as legal researchers, legal secretaries, and paralegals, were the highest paid among fresh entrants in the Philippine job market with average monthly salaries of P27,355.

Fresh graduates working in public relations and communications jobs were the next highest paid professionals with salaries averaging at P24,675.

Claiming third spot were those who were hired as content writers, foreign language content translators, junior technical writers, and editors whose monthly salaries average P22,446.

The young IT workers? current salary performance, however, slid from its fourth spot ranking in 2016 and its top position as the highest average salary for fresh graduate professionals in the country three years ago.

However, things continued to look bright for them in 2017. In the list of top nine fields of expertise where fresh graduates were hired in 2017, IT claimed the seventh spot.

Even Grade 12 graduates may set their sights on IT which figured in the list of top five work areas or departments where this new segment of jobseekers are qualified to work. 2018 marks the year that the first batch of graduates from the K-12 system are joining the workforce.

Twenty-five percent of the employers surveyed, including some BPO companies, indicated their approval of hiring K-12 graduates, with some of them willing to pay more than the minimum wage. Meanwhile, 40% were undecided on the issue of hiring K-12 graduates, stating that they are still evaluating the matter and may hire them eventually as well.

Things also looked up for new engineering graduates. Like IT, engineering was also one of the top fields of specialization that took in new college graduates in 2017.

De La Salle University (DLSU), Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) and Mapua Institute of Technology were the top three preferred universities of new fresh grad recruits for IT jobs.

For engineering positions, the top choices were Far Eastern University (FEU), Technological Institute of the Philippines (TIP), and the University of Santo Tomas (UST). For BPOs, the top preferences were PUP, University of the Philippines, and UST.

Generally, the schools most favored by the employers across fields of specialization were PUP, UP, Ateneo de Manila University, UST, Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, FEU, DLSU, TIP, University of San Carlos, University of Cebu, and University of the East.

?This shows that more and more employers are opening their doors to fresh graduates, presenting a significant shift in what employers need in these increasingly digital world,? said JobStreet.com Philippines country manager Philip Gioca.

It was also found that newly graduated job hunters take an average of three to six months to land their first jobs. However, applicants to BPO companies can be hired in less than three months.

Of the qualities they look for in fresh graduate applicants, employers cited attitude and work ethic, communication skills, and analytical thinking as the top considerations.

These 21st-century job skills did not figure strongly among qualities most desired by employers in 2015 when they focused more on applicants? on-the-job training stints, extra-curricular activities, and part-time work experience.

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