Graduate employment surges back to pre-pandemic levels

Graduate employment has climbed out of its Covid-19 trough and is back at pre-pandemic levels.

Dentists earned the highest graduate salary of any profession in 2021.

The level of graduate employment has climbed out of its Covid-19 trough and is back at pre-pandemic levels, according to the ­latest federal ­government figures.

The 2021 Graduate Outcomes Survey reveals the graduate full-time employment rate stands at 68.9 per cent overall for those who completed undergraduate courses last year. However, employment conditions for graduates were rapidly improving over the period of the survey.

The third of the three data collections – in May, when about two thirds of those surveyed gave their response – shows a full-time ­employment rate of 72.1 per cent, just fractionally below the 72.2 per cent recorded in 2019 before the impact of Covid-19.

Universities Australia chief executive Catriona Jackson said that as vaccination rates improved and more states opened up their economies, graduate employment conditions were likely to improve even further.

The data also shows that graduate working hours have picked up, emerging from the Covid slump. In the May 2021 data collection, graduates reported working an average of 41.4 hours a week, compared to 38.5 hours a week a year earlier.

The survey, which is released annually, asks all graduates questions about their employment within four months of the completion of their degree.

The key measure – the full-time employment rate – is the proportion of people who have completed an undergraduate ­degree and have a full-time job, measured against those who are available for full-time work.

The survey also found that graduate salaries are continuing to improve, with a median of $64,200 a year earned by female graduates in 2021 (compared to $63,400 in 2020) and $66,800 earned by male graduates in 2021 (compared to $65,000 in 2020).

But the gender gap, between higher male graduate median salaries and lower female ones, widened from $1600 in 2020 to $2600 in 2021.

The fields with the highest full-time graduate salaries in 2021 were dentistry at $100,000, medicine at $76,000, social work at $72,600, teacher education at $72,000, and engineering at $70,000. The areas with the lowest full-time graduate salaries were pharmacy at $50,000, creative arts at $53,000, tourism, hospitality, personal services, sport and recreation at $54,900, and communications at $56,200.

The 2021 Graduate Outcomes Survey received responses from 127,827 graduates.