UNDERSTANDING THE EFFECT OF TRAINEESHIPS ON THE LABOR MARKET EXPECTATIONS OF COLLEGE STUDENTS DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC.

Abstract

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic’s adverse effects on Singapore’s labor market, the government introduced the SGUnited Traineeships to provide job training and experience. Expectations were studied to understand the labor market prospects of college students by surveying the labor market expectations of 4000 respondents from the largest publicly-funded university in Singapore, using hypothetical policy scenarios to elicit perceived causal effects. The pandemic was found to have significantly negative and heterogeneous effects on labor market expectations. Encouragingly, traineeships were found to mitigate some of the perceived labor market effects of the pandemic and helped resolve inequalities in the pandemic’s effect. Finally, an additional hypothetical postgraduate subsidy provides more alternatives to work and improves both perceived long-term job satisfaction and the likelihood of embarking on postgraduate education. Expectations data were also found to be plausible and valuable for future economic analysis and policy-making.