ITE graduates’ (non post-NS) real starting salaries have decreased by -22% in 18 years?

I refer to the article “ITE grads find doors to good jobs opening wider” (Sep 3, Straits Times).

It states that “The survey tracked 3,500 ITE students who graduated in 2007 – 10 years after they completed their certificate courses. It showed that their median monthly salary last year was $3,000 a month.”

As to “This is more than double their starting median salary of $1,200 when they left the ITE in 2007” – according to the ITE’s own statistics (based on the July 1999 survey) – the starting salary in 1999 was $1,500.

So, how is it possible for the subject Straits Times article to say that the “starting median salary (was) $1,200 when they left the ITE in 2007”?

Does it mean that the starting salary dropped by 20 per cent, in the eight years, from $1,500 in 1999 to $1,200 in 2007?

According to the Ministry of Manpower’s (MOM) Yearbook of Manpower Statistics 2018 –

ITE starting salary $1,700 in 2017?

the median gross monthly starting salary of ITE graduates (Higher Nitec (Engineering)) in full-time permanent employment was $1,700 in 2017.

ITE starting salary $1,500 in 1999?

Since the starting salary in 1999 was $1,500 – does it mean that the increase over the 18 years, from 1999 to 2017, was only about 13 per cent ($1,700 divided by $1,500)?

(Source: ITE)

Real starting pay down (-22%) last 18 years?

Since inflation was about 35 per cent from 1999 (CPI 73.814) to 2017 (CPI 99.5) – does it mean that the real increase was about minus 22 per cent or about minus 1.2 per cent per annum?

Since the proportion (%) of ITE Higher Nitec graduates in full-time permanent employment was only 46.9 per cent in 2017 and for Nitec (Engineering) – it was only 33.5 per cent – how do we reconcile the apparently conflicting statistics, vis-a-vis the “propaganda” that ITE graduates are doing well and have good salaries?

Leong Sze Hian