thestraitstimes a15 freelance free last · 2017-02-27 · 18.2% 12% 25% 6.8% 6% 11.1% source: nus,...

After he graduated from the DigiPenInstitute of Technology Singapore in2013 , Mr Jason Wang, 29, thoughtabout finding full-time work here asa conceptual artist.

This involves creating designs forprojects in the early phases – a skillhe honed during his 21/2-year Bach-elor of Fine Arts course in digitalarts and animation.

But he decided to freelance in-stead. This was because it would al-low him to continue working with aUS-based team on a gaming projecthe first got involved in during a se-mester at the DigiPen US campus inthe city of Redmond.

About a year after he graduated,he headed to the United States tojoin the rest of The Good Mood Crea-tors team at their Seattle-based stu-dio and worked as a full-time art di-rector for about two years.

Mr Wang is among a risingnumber of students who turn totemporary work, such as contract

jobs or freelance work, after gradua-tion. For some, freelance workleads to full-time positions, as wasthe case with Mr Wang.

He returned to Singapore lastyear and the game Mekazoo, whichhe was working on, was launched atthe end of the year.

Tomorrow, he starts work as anInstitute of Technical Educationlecturer.

He said there are not manyfull-time options for those lookingfor work as conceptual artists. “It’smuch easier to start off freelanc-ing,” he added. To make a livingfrom project-based work, he saidfreelancers need to be versatile andtake on a variety of jobs.

Mr Wang’s experience is notunique in an increasingly competi-tive landscape. Said SIM Universitylabour economist Randolph Tan:“Some grads adjust by taking upshort-term opportunities.” These in-clude internships which allow them

to try out different jobs.Ms Tan Yang Er, 23, who gradu-

ated from Nanyang TechnologicalUniversity last year, worked as afreelance make-up artist for threeto four years starting when shewas an undergrad. Ms Tan, whocontinues to work as a freelanceartist and photographer, said:“The beauty of it is being able tochoose who you want to workwith, and have better control overyour work.”

Demand for freelance work ismore prevalent in the creative in-dustry, said Ms Jayce Tham,chief executive of media agencyCreativesAtWork. Her firm,which matches freelancers to cli-ents, said demand for temporaryworkers has grown around 20per cent on average yearly.Projects range from a few days tothree months.

Seow Bei Yi

The slowing economy has prompt-ed some private school students toseek ways to get a head start intheir careers.

Final-year undergraduateMogan Raj, for instance, spends on-ly one day in school every week –the rest of his weekdays are spentat a public relations agency.

The 23-year-old is working as anintern there until August, just onemonth shy of his graduation fromprivate school Kaplan Singapore.

He has been interning at variouscompanies for about a year, in or-der to gain work experience thathe believes will help him get hisfoot in the door.

“I started earlier than my peersso I can have insight into the in-dustry. I’m also hoping that one ofmy internship companies will bewilling to offer me a full-timerole,” he said.

Mr Adrian Tan, co-founder of Ca-reer Hero, a resume optimisationplatform, agrees that internshipsare getting more popular.

He said: “Private university stu-dents recognise that they mightnot be able to compete with thosefrom public universities at the grad-uate level, so they are looking togain an advantage (through intern-ships).”

Internships have helped account-ancy students from Singapore In-stitute of Technology secure jobs.

The university reported that 69 of82 graduates received job offers up-on graduation.

Most graduates of many privateschools have been able to get em-ployment over the years.

SIM Global Education found that70 per cent of its graduates fromthe class of 2015 were able to se-cure full-time employment. This isa slight dip from 73 per cent for theclass of 2014.

At Curtin University, 74 per centof students found jobs within eightmonths of graduation, while 78 percent of Kaplan Singapore’s entirecohort, including part-time stu-dents, found full-time jobs.

These students graduated be-tween June 2015 and May last yearfor both schools.

Even though most private schoolstudents are able to find jobs, someare also willing to accept a lowerpay and clock in experience in aslowing economy.

For instance, Miss Lee Jie, 23, abusiness management graduatefrom SIM Global Education, tookup a commission-based job as afinancial consultant at Prudentialinstead of getting a regular paycheque.

“If you are willing to compro-mise in terms of your salary, youcan find a job,” she said.

Abigail Ng and Raynold Toh

Seow Bei Yi

As the freelance economy contin-ues to grow, the results of a recentGraduate Employment Survey bearthis trend out – a higher proportionof people are taking on temporaryjobs, instead of permanentfull-time ones, after finishing uni-versity.

The survey, released last week,showed that of the 89.7 per centwho found work within six monthsof finishing their examinations,80.2 per cent secured permanentfull-time jobs, lower than 2015’s83.1 per cent.

The survey polled 10,904 freshgraduates from National Universityof Singapore, Nanyang Technologi-cal University (NTU), and SingaporeManagement University last year.

The increase in freelance andpart-time jobs may seem more obvi-ous among graduates from coursesin the arts and humanities, but oth-er fields are not exempt.

While the overall employmentrate for NTU’s art, design and mediagraduates hovered around 80 percent from 2014 to last year, theirfull-time permanent employmentrate dropped from 68 per cent in2014 to 46.6 per cent last year.Meanwhile, 77.1 per cent of NTUbusiness graduates found perma-nent full-time jobs last year – thisnumber was 80.2 per cent in 2014.

Manpower Minister Lim SweeSay said on Feb 7 in Parliament thatalthough the overall percentage ofpeople whose primary work is free-lancing has remained stable, theirnumbers could be growing in sec-tors like private-hire car services.

He said there were about180,000 primary freelancers as oflast June – some 8 per cent ofSingapore’s working residents.

Experts who spoke to The Sun-day Times expect the trend ofnon-permanent employment tocontinue, at least in the short term.They point to factors such as chang-ing demands from companies and ashift in employees’ mindsets.

Technology has also enabled therise of a freelance economy. A simi-lar term, the gig economy, wascoined during the financial crisis in2009, when the unemployed madea living by working “gigs”, orpart-time jobs to make ends meet.

Last October, Forbes magazine re-ported that freelancers made up 35per cent of workers in the UnitedStates. The US’ freelance workforcegrew from 53 million in 2014 to 55million last year, said the study.

STAYING NIMBLERecruitment company Kelly Ser-vices Singapore’s managing direc-tor Foo See Yang said alternative ar-rangements such as contract workallow companies some degree offlexibility to adapt to changing staff-ing needs, to remain agile in an un-certain economic environment.

He added that between 2012 andlast year, the firm saw a two-fold in-crease in the number of new con-tract placements, with the averagecontract duration being around oneyear. The increasing trend, he said,was in contract work across govern-ment, healthcare, IT and logisticssectors.

Mr Kek Sei Wee, chief executiveof online platform for IT profession-als IoTalents, said although free-lancers and those on contracts havelargely served the IT sector, thetrend is moving “up the valuechain” with more professionals,

managers, executives and techni-cians (PMETs) taking up such jobs.

He said that some companies,particularly fresh start-ups, hirefreelancers as they cannot affordto hire such employees on afull-time or permanent basis.

CHANGING ATTITUDESBeyond companies’ demands,there seems to be a shift in workers’mindsets as well.

Employees today tend to job hop,with their tenure getting shorter,said Mr Kek, from his experiencespeaking to hirers. And even whenthey land full-time work, they startlooking for other jobs the moment aproject is done.

Mr Foo said freelance arrange-ments have become more accepta-ble to employees because of “an in-creasing preference for flexibility,and a desire for a greater sense ofcontrol in managing one’s own ca-reer development”.

After just one year, Mr CalvinTan, 27, left his full-time job as aweb designer after graduating in2014 from the University of the ArtsLondon. He is now part of a teamworking on a documentary project,while juggling other gigs.

TECHNOLOGY AS AN ENABLERSIM University economist WalterTheseira said that because of tech-nology, tasks can now be distribut-ed to freelancers at low cost and

their completion and quality veri-fied automatically.

“These solve the information andcontrol problems that used to re-quire having workers under directday-to-day control,” he said.

Labour MP Ang Hin Kee said thattechnology, such as job-matchingapps, gives companies “immediateaccess to sizing up whether or not”a worker’s skills match their needs.

He said this also allows workersto try out gigs on the side, decidingif it is viable or sustainable beforeembarking on them permanently,instead of making an immediateswitch to freelancing.

But Dr Theseira said: “Most pro-duction of goods and services stilltakes place through traditional firmsand employment arrangements.”

“Permanent staff offer a level ofcommitment and institutionalknowledge that can’t be found fromcontractors.”

PROTECTING WORKERSThe biggest problem with freelanc-ing is that workers fall outside theemployment protection and socialsafety net framework, said Dr The-seira.

“They often don’t contribute toCPF (Central Provident Fund), andthey are not protected by having en-titlement to annual leave, medicalbenefits and so on,” he said. “Thismeans they are very vulnerable toincome and job loss if they fall sickor if other emergencies come up.”

While he believes that policyshould respond to this, he said iffirms are required to provide suchbenefits to freelancers, businesscosts will increase and this will re-duce take-home wages.

There is also the concern thatfreelance arrangements may endup suppressing wages.

At the same sitting, Members ofParliament quizzed Mr Lim on theimpact of freelancers on wages andsupport for these workers includ-ing financial planning.

Mr Lim said the Manpower Minis-try initiated a new annual survey,starting in September last year, togather more in-depth statistics onthe changes in the freelancing land-scape. “This will help us better un-derstand the profiles of freelancers,including whether they take up free-lancing as a primary or secondarysource of income, as well as the sec-tors and occupations they are in,”he said.

He added that based on initial find-ings from the first survey, thenumber of primary freelancers didnot increase significantly.

“Any increase might have comemainly from the secondary freelanc-ers. In other words, with the growthof the sharing economy, workerswho have their primary employ-ment are now taking advantage ofsharing platforms to earn additionalincome, which may not be a badthing,” said Mr Lim.

SIM University labour economistRandolph Tan said these freelanceworkers will need protection.

But he cautioned: “Too much reg-ulation will remove the flexibilitythat is an intrinsic feature in free-lance and temporary work arrange-ments. But basic benefits... cannotbe ignored if the proportion of theworkforce taking up freelance andtemporary work grows.”

byseow@sph.com.sg

Higher proportion of graduates taking onpart-time, temporary and freelance jobs

NTU(Art, design & media)

SMU(Social sciences)

NUS(Industrial design)

2014 2015 2016 2014 2015 2016 2014 2015 2016

Employment rate

18.2%12%

6.8% 6%11.1%

Source: NUS, NTU, SMU SUNDAY TIMES GRAPHICS

To make a livingfrom project-based work,freelancers needto be versatileand take on avariety of jobs,said Mr JasonWang (left).ST PHOTO:CHEW SENG KIM

Experts point to thechanging demands offirms, shift in workers’mindsets, technology

From projects to full-time job

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The beauty of it is beingable to choose who youwant to work with, andhave better control overyour work.Workbecomes so much moremeaningfuland less of aroutine.

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