Tan Kin Lian's Blog: Survey - views of the young

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Survey - views of the young

Here are the revised survey results, based on 84 responses, from young Singaporeans, below 30 years.

I am quite well educated ................................................................ 87%
I am willing to be engaged with the community ................................50%
I can get a job easily ......................................................................49%
I am willing to speak my mind ........................................................40%
I am happy with my work environment ...........................................37%
My job pays quite well ...................................................................30%
I can compete easily against foreigners ............................................29%
I am happy with life in Singapore .....................................................29%
I will encourage other Singaporeans to be proud of our country .......29%
I prefer to stay in Singapore (even if I have the chance to emigrate) ..26%
My pay is adequate for the cost of living ......................................... 19%
I have a good future in Singapore ....................................................17%
I find the HDB flat to be affordable .................................................. 7%

My observation
Although the young Singaporeans are quite well educated and can get a job easily, they are unhappy with the pay, work environment, competition with foreigners for jobs, high cost of living and cost of HDB flats.

A small percentage said that HDB flats are affordable (7%), that they have a good future in Singapore (17%), and would prefer to stay in Singapore, even if they have a chance to emigrate (26%).

Earlier, I thought that the young Singaporeans fared better than older workers, but this survey results indicate otherwise. However, the sample size is small and this could reflect the unhappy segment of the young Singaporeans.

Tan Kin Lian

9 comments:

Anonymous said...: Mr Tan. It's good to see what you're doing here. May I suggest that for surveys to be credible, a reasonable sample size is required. While your survey correlates to what is people hear and see, the sample size is way too small for it to be credible.

Credibility is important.

Keep up the good work!; July 10, 2010 12:15 PM
Tan Kin Lian said...: reply to 12:15 pm

my survey has been running for 1 day. so far, i only got 28 responses.

can you try to publicise it and get more people to do the survey?; July 10, 2010 12:20 PM
Anonymous said...: Anony 12.15 pm is correct. The bigger the sample size, the more representative the result would be of the population.

Unfortunately, Mr Tan's survey is NOT mandatory, so it is very difficult to obtain a large enough sample size.

It is more like a straw poll.

Doing a street survey of the target group should be better, can garner more responses. But this is definitely more time-consuming and more costly.

As long as Mr Tan states the no. of responses and the survey method, it is O.K. It is up to the readers to decide how much they want to read into those survey results.

From: An experienced Statistician; July 10, 2010 6:26 PM
Anonymous said...: I'm 36, so I can't participate in the survey.

Based on some of my relatives (cousins, nephews & nieces) as well as interaction with younger colleagues, my feel is that most of the young adults especially in their 20s are too caught up in the "good living lifestyle". Uni grads, especially, expect to be able to easily afford their own car within 1 month of their first job, and to easily buy a choice HDB within 2-3 years time, and then upgrade to condo after another 5 years. That means maximum by 33 yrs-old (for guys) they must be living in condo and driving a nice new car (change every 3 yrs).

All these while still enjoying long haul holidays 2 times a year, and not working more than 9hrs a day, strictly 5 days a week.

Come on, no matter what, those in their 20s are still a whole world better than those in 40s or 50s year olds. Maybe the youngsters are predicting that they'll become like those 50+ yr olds now? That's why so pessimistic...; July 10, 2010 7:03 PM
Anonymous said...: First thing that young people who are below 35 should be kicked out of their parents home.
Then they will experience budgeting in real time and real life.

Next, they should get a car, an expensive one that costs above $90K
With a car loan of $80K for the next 10 years.

Third, get married with a hu-ha at Fullerton Hotel with at least 30 tables costing $1K per table

These 3 events will wake them up real quick... no help from parents, and they will grow up super duper fast.

Otherwise, its just simply cruising along from one pub to another, one car to another and one vacation to another.. such a glorious life! exactly what the ang mohs are doing... and getting a big debt along the way..

I have 2 sons.. I told them they should sign on with the SAF.. best job in the world.. free housing, free uniforms, free medical, free coffins too!.. unitl 45 years.. then drive taxi!; July 10, 2010 7:30 PM
Anonymous said...: My daughter was/is doing well:
2003 SP graduate
2006 Aust graduate
2006 Found a temp job in CBD
2007 Found a perm job in Jurong
2008 till now & future: working on Jurong Island. She busy day & night and receiving $$.....

Her husband was a SP graduate. He is now busy in a Arab nation.

They have a 5-room flat bought 3 years ago @Woodland. It cost only S$250k. How they got it so cheap? Not choosy and know the market.

Above mentioned is a real case.; July 11, 2010 6:03 AM
Tan Kin Lian said...: I only received 3 more participants in this survey for the past day, making a total of 31 participants.

I need your help to pass the world ardung and get more young people to take part in this survey.; July 11, 2010 12:20 PM
Anonymous said...: Teach less to learn more.
Increase fair to save costs.
Increase gst to help the poor.
Unqiuely spore.; July 12, 2010 7:22 AM
Anonymous said...: Yes, I did hear that Jurong Island pays above market, and with shorter work hours. But do you know the sacrifice? Do you know how long is travelling time to Jurong Island? Do you know the damage to health working in that kind of environment? There was a case about a chemical factory in an American town, all the women in that town sufferred miscarriages.; July 12, 2010 10:16 PM