Australian university graduates are earning less and finding it harder to secure a job, studies find

New data shows university graduates are not getting good bang for their buck with expensive tertiary degrees – and undergraduate employment rates are also falling.

Australian university graduates are not getting bang for their buck on tertiary qualifications, new data has revealed, leading some to question the value of university degrees.

The recent Graduate Outcome Survey (GOS) found the overall employment rate for domestic undergraduates dropped by 2 per cent, with an even sharper 5 per cent decline in the full-time rate, from 2023 to 2024.

As Australia faces a skills shortage, state leaders such as South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas have repeatedly drummed home the message that “you don’t have to go to university to get a great job”.

The annual OECD Education at a Glance report found tertiary-educated Australians have a lower earnings premium than the OECD average.

While some tertiary degrees are a pathway to high-paying careers, others may not even do much to help graduates find a job.

Tertiary-educated Australians are still more likely to earn over twice as much as their compatriots – think surgeons and chief executives – but where the bulk of the population lies in the middle, the earnings are not markedly better than those with non-tertiary qualifications, the report found.

The GOS shows creative arts undergraduates had the lowest 2024 employment rate and earnings, while health and education fields were more likely to be employed and earn higher wages.

In contrast, data from the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) found 94.5 per cent of trade apprentices and trainees were employed upon competition in 2024.

Tradies like bricklayer Dylan Richards are in high demand. Picture: Liam Kidston

Construction manager Indi Ridout, 28, from Melbourne, said he was unsurprised to hear these statistics.

Mr Ridout went straight into a carpentry apprenticeship at age 16.

He said by age 20 he had completed his apprenticeship and was on his way to job security and decent earnings.

Construction manager Indi Ridout says his trade immediately catapulted him into a secure and well-paid career.

“I was earning about $35-50 per hour in 2016 when I became qualified,” he said.

Now with more than a decade in the industry, the Urban Evolution manager said he is earning well above the median wage and seeing many young people finishing apprenticeships and earning large amounts.

“I know a carpenter who has just qualified and he’s charging $65 per hour, which is standard,” he said.

“I know a plumber charging $100 per hour working for himself.”

The 2025 graduation ceremony at Charles Darwin University this month. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

Mr Ridout said government support for apprentices is generous, with regular subsidies for tools and an industry that often pays trade school fees.

He said this was very different to his tertiary-educated friends, who often left university with fewer prospects and a crippling HECS debt.

“Going to the effort to attend universities for three or more years and then as soon as you graduate you have a HECS debt to pay,” he said.

“You get screwed over compared to a tradie.

“As soon as a tradie is qualified they’ve got much less debt and the industry is booming.”

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Originally published as Australian university graduates are earning less and finding it harder to secure a job, studies find