The Graduate Job Market: What you Need to Know

Graduate Earnings

For many this is the most important concern. Graduates starting salaries depend on a number of factors. The industry of the employer, the company size, the location of the job and wider economic trends all have a significant effect on your likely pay packet. So starting salaries can vary widely between employers.

There are a number of surveys available which can give you a picture of salaries, but there are a few things you need to bear in mind when you look at them. Firstly look at media data (the value so that half the values are smaller and half are larger). Also, the type of employer involved in the survey makes a big difference, with salaries varying greatly between large and small employers.

A survey conducted for 2007 showed that graduate recruiters were offering a median salary of £23,500 to new recruits. The highest of these salaries was paid to recruits going into the areas of investment banking, consultancy work and law firms. These were the same top payers as in 2006 when the median salary was £22,953. It is important to note, however, that many of the companies surveyed where London-based firms which would increase the salary figures quoted.

Graduate Vacancies

Early 2000 saw a slump in the number of graduate vacancies but in 2007, a survey showed a 15.1% increase in the number of graduate vacancies from the previous year, this was the fourth consecutive year of rising vacancies. The survey also showed that the largest growth of vacancies was in investment banks or bank managers, and accountancy and professional service firms. 2007 also saw an increase in the number of graduate vacancies to the area of retail management.

The Top 5 Graduate Job Areas

Commercial, industrial and public sector management

Other professional, associate professional and technical occupations; including legal professionals, architects, town planners/surveyors, social workers and librarians.

Nursing and other health professionals, such as midwives, physiotherapists and medical technicians.

Clerical and secretarial occupations, including all kinds of office work.

Retail assistants, catering, waiting and bar staff, including personal assistants, administrative and clerical officers and filing and records clerks.

Employment and Unemployment

The majority of those graduating in 2005 were working within six months of graduating (62.9%), with another 8.8% combining both work and study either in the UK or overseas. A further 13.9% were studying or training and 62% were believed to be unemployed. These figures come from a survey of 256,460 graduates who replied to university questionnaires.

Long-term research of graduates who left university in 1995 found that most unemployment graduates had experienced straight after graduation was short term. Even those who are unemployed to begin with, or start jobs that did not require their degree, gradually moved into graduate-level professions.

What Jobs do Graduates Do?

There is no easy answer to this question other than to say ‘everything’. Graduates can be found working in every part of he economy and it is definitely not the norm for graduates to start work on high-profile training schemes or with the big blue-chip firms.

According to research only a small minority of graduates actually join one of these schemes where fierce competition can mean tens or even hundreds of applicants for each place.

There are many other options available, including working for small or medium-sized enterprises, going self-employed, or working freelance. With so many students entering the labour market every year, having an idea of all the available employment opportunities can help to give you a head start on getting the right job for you.

While it is useful to see what graduates are doing in the short-term, it is unlikely that all graduates who have entered employment within six months of completing their studies have started work in their career of choice. So what are graduates doing further down the line. According to research, less than 10% of graduates three and a half years after graduation are in ‘non-graduate’ jobs, that is a job that does not usually require a high-level qualification, and this ratio drops further over time. The overall unemployment rate for graduates has been quoted at 2.7% lower than the national average.

In the Long Run

Once you’ve started your carer, what is your long-term outlook? The government’s Labour Force Survey recently released figures show that across all ages from 21 to 60, graduates earn 43% more on average than those whose highest qualifications are A-levels or equivalent. When compared with workers who had no academic qualifications, graduates earn more than twice as much on average.