GRADUATES IN FINANCE JOBS EARN £45,000 – BUT WHAT ABOUT EVERYONE ELSE?
* WANT A NEWER ARTICLE ON AVERAGE GRADUATE SALARIES? PAY GAP WIDENS BETWEEN HIGH- AND LOW-PAID JOBS – AVERAGE GRADUATE SALARY IS NOW ANYWHERE “BETWEEN £80,000 AND £11,000” *
Graduate vacancies at Britain’s top employers – including M&S, Apple, Oxfam and MI5 – are at their highest since 2008, according to new research. There are 4.6% more jobs for new graduates this year than there were in 2012, High Fliers Research says – crushing previous estimates that vacancies would only increase by 2.7%. But experts warn that competition remains “fierce”.
This unexpected rise is certainly cause for some cheer. But news that the average graduate salary remains “unchanged” at £29,000 will trigger surprise among the UK’S many low-paid graduates who are struggling to make ends meet on salaries of less than £20,000.
So what’s going on? Well, the High Fliers survey sampled graduates working for 100 of the UK’s biggest brands – and found this to be the ‘median’ salary (the highest pay at entry level was at investment banks, averaging £45,000!). But it gives no clue as to the fate of all their friends, who didn’t make it on to one of these prestigious graduate schemes. How many of them are earning anywhere close to £29,000? Graduate Fog regularly hears from graduates earning the minimum wage – or nothing at all, as they battle to turn unpaid internships into paid jobs. Is this £29,000 figure representative of the majority of the UK’s graduates – or a tiny minority of those lucky enough to secure a place on a well-paid scheme?
Martin Birchall of High Fliers said:
“It’s great news for the Class of 2013. leaving university that graduate recruitment in Britain’s top employer sis now at its highest level for for five years and that many are expected to expand their graduate vacancies even further in 2014, but our research shows that competition for individual graduate jobs remains fierce.”
The survey also found that an average 46 graduates are fighting for every position for each position. Clearly this is still a large number – but at least it’s down from 53 applicants last year. Despite this year’s increase in recruitment, “vacancies for university leavers at the UK’s best known and most popular employers remain below the pre-recession intake seen in 2007,” says the report.
Just under half (48) of the 100 employers said they expected to hire similar numbers of graduates next year, 18 thought their intake was likely to increase, 13 warned it would probably fall while 21 said they did not yet know. One in six of the firms said it was planning to set social mobility targets for graduate recruitment. And the survey warns that many organisations have already filled all their graduate posts for 2013 through work experience programmes.
Public sector graduate recruits averaged a £22,000 starting salary and this sector saw one of the biggest expansions in recruitment, up by 18.6% in 2013. This was partly fuelled by the expansion of the Teach First scheme. Pam Tatlow of the Million+ university think tank said:
“This is a very good news story for graduates. It is still tough to get a job but studying for a degree remains one of the best ways of securing employment and a career. There are many university courses which allow people to study subjects that interest them and prepare them to get a great job. There is still time to apply to start a course this year.”
Graduate Fog is pleased to see some signs that the graduate job market may be picking up at last. But – speaking to graduates all day, every day, as we do – we know there is a long way to go before job-seeking graduates will be celebrating. Unpaid internships, zero hours contracts and low-paid contract work remains a big problem. So too is the ‘backlog’ of recent graduates still hunting for proper graduate jobs, a cumulative result of low levels of graduate recruitment over the last few years. It is unlikely they’ll be celebrating just yet.
*ARE YOU EARNING £29,000?
Are many of your friends? Does your experience suggest wild fluctuations in salary, depending on which industry you want to enter? Or is it all about the size of the employer – do bigger companies simply pay a lot more? What would you say is the true average graduate salary in the UK today? Please post your comment below!
I am earning £33 000 – but I graduated in 1989……. It took a long time bit I got there!
My friends and I aren’t the sort of people who like to boast about our salaries so its hard to be specific but most of us don’t earn anything like £29,000 and those that do earn above the big 20 only earned that much after being out of university for several years.
I don’t think that the mean graduate wage is a useful way of looking at how much most graduates are earning. It definately gives individuals very false expectations. I remember at uni people saying things like “after graduation when I’m earning +20K I’ll be able to….” and most of us believed that we would be earning the average wage.
It would (possibly) be correct if they reported that the average graduate SCHEME salary was £29000. For some reason they always miss out the word ‘scheme’, which may be a deliberate omission.
Guess I’m just lucky. My starting salary is £38,000. Next year it will be £42,000. When I qualify the year after it jumps to £62,000…
@Corporate: Are you a doctor?
I’m starting a graduate scheme on £34k + £2k sign-on in September
Many of my classmates are starting between £23-27k
I finished university in May and started my job in June. Earning £45,000 per year as salary plus bonus.
@InLondon Wow, congratulations!
I graduated nearly 6 years ago and work in an industry that requires you to have a relevant degree unless you can already demonstrate significnt relevant experience. My current salary is 16,830. The grade I work at (assistant supervisor, 3rd level up from entry) peaks at a salary of 17,190. The next grade up (supervisory level) goes up to about 18,500 and the grade up from that (site management) stretches as far as around 23,500. Office based management starts at roughly 25k but I’m not sure where it peaks, possibly around 30-35k. The opportunities for promotion above that level are very limited. My company is one of the biggest (if not the biggest) companies in the industry but they do not offer the best wages, these are considered to be competitive wages as there are companies that offer more as well as those that offer less, though not by much. There is also no guarantee of a year on year salary increase and we do not get bonuses.
Graduates really need to wake up and see what’s going on. The “education sector” is now a very important contributor to the UK economy, easier exams and a determined effort from teachers to push as many people into university (after all, that’s the system they know and have come through) means more and more people with expensive degrees and increased competition for jobs.
All this “average graduate salary” information (disinformation) has always been nonsense. Even when I graduated in 1992 (when about 13% of the pop. went to poly or uni), it was clear that this just reflected those graduates who managed to get onto a graduate scheme. No one I knew got on to one of these schemes, so this figure was always highly suspect.
I do believe in education for its own sake, but with the fees as they are, people need to understand that many degrees are not necessarily a ticket to an above-average salary.
The “graduates earn more over their lifetime” scheme is another red herring. Sure, if you study medicine, vetinary science, engineering, economics, etc. you are going to get that graduate premium, but not in many other disciplines.
And what are they comparing these earnings to? Is this compared to people with just A levels or people with barely any GCSEs? I would love to see a comparison with those who went into work after A levels and those we took a degree in a subject which is not obviously vocational. I’m pretty sure the information would be an eye opener…
I started on a graduate scheme last autumn and am indeed on £29k. It’s in engineering, and the much-publicized national shortage of engineers was one reason I chose to study the subject.
Just to add, I left school 10 years before going to uni so had time to carefully consider my career path. You don’t have to take that long but I’d really recommend people don’t rush into university courses. Shame so many schools push their pupils to do so.
I have a BSc and an MSc in economics from two Russell Group UK uni’s, and it took me 4 years after my masters to get onto a graduate scheme. The salary is £24k plus about 10-15% bonus. I live in London and I am 30.
so they are actually anual salary?
I graduated last year July and was offered £40k job in August at a new start up property investment company.
I believe it was because I had specialist financial modelling skills.
I think if you develop yourself personally and professionally then you will become more valuable to employers.
Today, on 47.5K (but live in London), graduated with a first degree in 1996 and a second in 1998. Never been able to get on a GMP, all applications were rejected at the time. Welcome to the real world of the graduate premium.
Hi All,
I graduated in 2013, got a graduate role in asset management and am currently on 40k, but that is going to go up in December, plus pay and performance based bonus. So i would say the only reason why there are so many recent graduates that are earning below the 29k is because they are going for roles that don’t require a degree. For instance, my friend went on a grad scheme at Enterprise rent a Car…..he later found out majority of the people on the scheme were college leavers or even school leavers. At the end of the day you earn the salary that you deserve, work hard and get remunerated well.
I graduated in 2013 in Romania and have an offer for a 60k salary in IT (London).
Carlos, although £40k is not uncommon for Finance graduates in London, it doesn’t represent graduates as a whole at all. I’m looking to recruit a fresh graduate now to train under me and become a fellow certified accountant and we offer a starting salary of £26-£27k with full study support based in Greater London. Graduate engineers in my company also start at £28k with full study support and these include first class Oxford and Cambridge grads. Try telling those guys that anything less than £29k means they haven’t studied hard enough! Even doctors only start on £30k. It totally depends on industry and location but the Finance industry skews things massively!
@ Tim
And that’s in London…I started on £11K in Bristol in 1999, I could have wiped my backside with my degree certificates.
@Tim
May I ask which company this is? I’m a recent engineering graduate looking for any suitable opportunities
Graduated ’10 BSc Psych, London, 22yo. 1yr later, finally success with online application but for a 3mth FT unpaid internship with SME marketing company. Started 06/11 (continuing PT job 18hrs weekends), after offered job 18k, promoted 06/12 25k, now 27k salary.
Graduated in 2011 with an Economics degree from a Russell Group uni. Currently earning £20,500 three years later. Between graduation and now I have been unemployed, an unpaid intern, and on £15k.
I arrived in the UK aged 22 with an English degree from a developing country in Asia, full of optimism, and with a hot body. I got an MEng in 2013, been unemployed ever since! I did have an IT job at the uni, but was shoved out when they redundified my boss.
…but then I am a mum of 3 (I had them during my degree), over 30, and brown/yellow-skinned, so I guess it’s over for me… I’ll end up never having had a job above working on a checkout. You can polish a turd as much as you like, but they can always reply “sorry, not experienced”.
I wasted a decade of my life on education; I should have stayed in my own country and had a career instead. Unless you get a 2.1 or a 1st, are under 25, and without kids, you’re wasting your time in the graduate game. I can at least prepare my kids for engineering apprenticeships.
I graduated this year and most of my fellow graduates earned between £22k-£29k with £29k with jaguar and only one person. I myself got a graduate scheme with £25k with a different automotive company plus I have to relocate and no help with relocation cost. I would say £29k is a pretty good deal. But if you are willing to relocate every few months and relocate alot, u can easily get nearer to £30k.
Ting Tong, I am too a mature student, with a child, brown skinned and over 30. Its harder to get a job compare to the young ones but I got mine within 2 months. Its doable, just keep trying.
just lie on your cv. what i mean is, they don’t need to know your age or if you have children. take the dates off your cv or put them forward a few years. just get references for your most current things.
@chec
“Take the dates off your CV”
Dates of birth shouldn’t be on your CV at all. If you’re referring to employment dates, for many jobs it’s a requirement to have those on for screening purposes.
“Put them forward a few years”
That is the crime of Fraud by False Representation. You can be arrested and put in prison for that.
I cannot believe with the advice to lie on ur CV! I agree with CostaDel, its against the law, plus when they found out they will see ur level of integrity. However i agree with not putting DOB or gender on CV. I dont put them on my CV as I believe they disadvantage me as my field is male dominated. But they can see from the years or ur school graduation anyways. Or if u like me, u graduated from 2 diff uni 13 years apart, they will know anyways lol
Don’t be silly. There are people committing murder, robbery, rape etc who are spared jail in this country. You are going to be jailed for telling a fib on your cv? LOL
Tim, doctors start on 24k in their first year and move up to 28k in their second year. Not 30k…
I’m earning 65k starting salary with a 50% bonus. I work twice as many hours than most (circa 65 hours/week) but I get to live in Monaco and don’t pay income tax.
I graduated in 2012 with a 1st in Software Engineering.
I started on 24K and after 2 years make 26k and I get 3k benefits, so I’m making 29k a year all together.
Most the other graduates at my Uni had starting salaries of 18k-22k so I was one of the lucky ones.
I’m a mature student and I’ve worked many jobs in catering, building and social care, and it seems to me to be more about where you work and who you work for than anything else. Skill seems almost an after thought, as most people are trained on the job as no one really has 100% of the skills required for any given job.
I can safely say that no one on the course was happy with how their futures looked, and I was surrounded by guys who had straight A’s in Maths, English and Science and already had part time jobs which paid a similar amount.
I think it’s luck of the draw, you just have to keep looking for the next job that pays more. You might find another job, doing the exact same thing, which pays 50% more.
It seems quite random.
I left university in 2nd year without graduating. I got a job in a bank working in HR and then in their customer service department, both over a period of 2 years. My salary was just over £13k in the bank. I applied for a Graduate Sales and Marketing role in an IT company and I got the job. My salary jumped from £13k to £17k and 6 months into the job I just negotiated my salary up to £24k. Don’t give up. If you don’t have the working experience, then get the experience in your own time (classes, hobbies etc.) From working in HR I know that you don’t always have to meet the ‘essential criteria’ to get the job – be confident and ambitious and you’ll get there.
I feel depressed right now, about jobs, about the future, everything. I don’t want to work in HR, or sales, or customer service. I’m in line for a first class degree in science but it seems like it won’t be worth anything.
Yes Science degrees aren’t worth anything, I graduated in Biochem and its only leads to 16-18k jobs even after 5 years experience. I would recommend changing if possible to IT, Business roles as friends are earning much more doing far less.
Graduated 6 years ago, went back and did a Masters 2 years ago, currently unemployed (again). My highest ever wage was £16,000. So there we go.
A quick question…
I’ve seen MSc courses in finance at places such as Imperial and LSE where the fee is £20k – £30k. It is a huge amount, but do these courses actually guarentee a good, well paid career? Before embarking on a masters I want to know if it’s a case of ‘you get what you pay for’.
I have an undergrad degree from a Russell Group University. Passed that, and my MSc with good grades, finishing in 2013. Despite years of work experience I’m still only on £23k. Most grad schemes in the area are sales based, so salary is dependent on performance & there’s little recruitment within my academic field.
lol @ Nicolas. Should have done a PhD then work as a quant earning 6 figures.
I graduated with a Masters from a Russell Group University and got onto a graduate scheme paying 23.5k (not in London). However after the first year pay rises to 25k, then to 30k after qualifying in the second year.
@James
“Graduated 6 years ago, went back and did a Masters 2 years ago, currently unemployed (again). My highest ever wage was £16,000. So there we go.”
What was your masters degree subject?