After postgraduate study, job opportunities remain strong

The trend tells the story. Despite a recent dip, job prospects for people with postgraduate qualifications remain strong.

Jobs prospects remain strong for people with postgraduate qualifications.

Employment prospects for people completing postgraduate coursework degrees remain strong but nevertheless have been in gradual decline over the past 12 years.

Historical data from the graduate outcomes survey, a commonwealth-funded annual project that collects information from more than 100,000 people a few months after they complete higher education degrees, shows that the rate of full-time employment for those completing a postgraduate degree, and the rate of overall employment – which includes those with part-time jobs – are lower now than in 2009.

In 2014 the full-time employment rate dipped to 82.5 per cent, but then rose to a high of 86.9 per cent in 2018 – nearly back to the 2009 level – before falling during Covid to 84.9 per cent in 2021.

The overall employment rate showed less volatility, trending downwards from 94.5 per cent in 2009 to 90.8 per cent in 2021.

Student satisfaction with postgraduate coursework degrees is also lower than it has been in the past, although the change has not been marked. From 2012 to 2015, the satisfaction rate was 83 per cent or higher. Immediately before the pandemic it had dipped below 82 per cent.

The latest satisfaction number – 79.8 per cent in 2021 – is down again and this is almost certainly due to student concern about interim online study arrangements, which universities were forced to make during the pandemic.

On the salary front, remuneration for those completing postgraduate coursework degrees has grown substantially over the ­period since 2009.

The median salary for female graduates rose 35 per cent in the 2009-2021 period reaching $85,000 in 2021. The median salary for male graduates rose 27 per cent in the same period, reaching $99,000 in 2021.

While the gap between male and female salaries remains large, the figures show that it narrowed slightly over the period. In part, the gender salary gap reflects the fact that women are overrepresented in jobs such as teaching and nursing, which pay less, and are also overrepresented in postgraduate courses in these fields.

Employment and salary data, while relevant, is not necessarily a good indicator of the impact that a postgraduate coursework degree has on a person’s career. Many students doing a postgraduate degree study while they work, and their employment status and salary when they complete often reflects the stage their career is at, and the level of job they held, when they began study.