By Kate Lim

FRESH university graduates will face a tougher search for jobs and lower starting pay this year due to a hiring freeze and retrenchments brought about by the economic downturn.

Although some students have been getting job offers as early as seven months before graduation, the overall mood is downbeat.

While all three local universities - the National University of Singapore (NUS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and Singapore Management University (SMU) - have yet to compile official employment statistics for the class of 2009, they are already preparing their students for the grim prospects.

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