Disclaimer: Unless otherwise stated, any opinions expressed below belong solely to the author. Data sourced from Singapore’s Ministry of Manpower.

As we know, the median salary for fresh graduates in Singapore is currently S$4,500, while the figure for the entire workforce is S$5,775. However, there are some jobs that pay their young workers much better—if not straight out of school, then at least before they hit 30.

According to the data from the Ministry of Manpower, there are 30 occupations where median salaries for workers between 25 and 29 years of age are already above the national average.

S$100,000 by age 30

The list is, unsurprisingly, dominated by jobs in the tech sector (10 occupations) and finance (nine occupations), with the rest divided among medicine, management, law, and design.

The boom in AI catapulted young engineers to the top, with IT companies already paying them over S$100,000 per year, outranking the usual high-earners with legal degrees.

But these earnings may see an even bigger rise in 2026, as international tech giants from the US and China are competing for local AI-graduates, with the Straits Times reporting packages worth as much as S$350,000, targeting the most qualified PhD holders.

This follows OpenAI’s S$300 million investment to establish a local AI lab, Google DeepMind’s announcement of its AI research lab last year, and Anthropic’s growing presence—both GIC and Temasek are investors in the latter.

This boom may be a boon for young talent, provided that it doesn’t lose steam and the generous offers do not turn into mass layoffs that the tech industry experienced over the past few years.

If that happens, though, there is hope in finding a job in one of the other occupations, which offer very good earnings to 20-somethings, putting them on track to six figure annual salaries in their 30s.

• Read other articles we’ve written on Singapore’s job landscape here.

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