From my experience
it really really depends
Sponsored students - no problems
Let’s talk about non sponsored students who just graduated
Where do they want tot work? It’s not so simple as say I wanna work in a public hospital. If they choose clinics of office hour work or maybe specialised areas like operating theatres (they do take fresh grads), it depends if there is vacancy for them. If they chose the “most condemned ward” cos it’s the busiest, usually no issue.
When do they apply? I admit I am a little out of touch here but during my time, cos of poly graduation timing, july and jan are the worst times to apply for jobs.
July - all the students are graduating so the HR has to plan the orientation and attachment for all the sponsored students so if non sponsored maybe u have to wait. Private not so much
Jan - less sponsored students but all the males finishing NS are coming out and if they are sponsored they are going in
Also, July is when the mid term bonus is coming out so relatively few resignations then.
Jan, the Dec bonus just came out so u can only resign in jan onwards BUT u have Chinese new year coming out so u got public holiday. Lesser resignations cos some might way this is a not so busy period (Christmas to Chinese new year) cos a lot of people still celebrating (u can notice in office the real busyness for the year starts after CNY)
So shortage of nursing is real in Singapore. As a fresh grad asking for a standard salary, there should be no issue
Which dept u apply for and when u apply do matter.
Also, sometimes people have wrong expectations. My friend. When he applied for a job in nursing (this was pre internet so u had to go down to submit an application form), he got shortlisted even before he left the office and had to blakang pusing to go for interview. Some people might think that’s the norm but HR can also take a month or so to process your application cos they don’t just hire, when they hire they need to know which dept will be taking in the hiree