AND AVERAGE GRADUATE SALARY IS £24,000 (APPARENTLY)
A new survey has claimed that just 3% of people who graduated during the recession were unemployed three and a half years later – and the average graduate salary for those in work is £24,000. But struggling graduates have called the new figures “bollocks”.
The research – by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) – will stun many of Graduate Fog’s readers, who say you are struggling to get your careers started. Many of you say you’re stuck in unpaid internships, dead-end temp work, low-paid casual work, zero-hours contracts or claiming JSA.
But HESA insists that about 87% of the class of 2008-09 were in work three and a half years after graduating. Meanwhile, 6.7% were engaged in further study and a tiny 3.2% were unemployed. The unemployment rate after three and a half years was lower than it was for 2007 graduates (3.5%) but higher than that of 2005 graduates (2.6%). The unemployment rate in the general population is 7.8%.
The statistics agency – which says it polled more than 60,000 graduates – also claimed that the average (median) salaries for graduates in full-time work was £24,000. Men employed full-time were on an average of £25,000, while women were on £23,500.
And it seems the vast majority of those who graduated at the height of the recession are very happy with the way their career is going. More than eight out of 10 graduates (83%) are satisfied with their career and two-thirds (66%) thought their course had given value for money. Three quarters (75%) felt their course had prepared them well for their career.
There were some differences in employment rates between subject areas, with 89% of 2009’s medicine and dentistry graduates saying they were in a job, compared with 72% of history or philosophy graduates. Salaries varied too. Medicine and dentistry graduates had an average income of £30,000, and those who studied art or design averaged £15,000. Nicola Dandridge, chief executive of the vice-chancellors group Universities UK, said:
“These are encouraging figures and highlight the signs of recovery in the graduate jobs market after the recession. Graduates from UK universities are in demand from employers, both here and overseas, and are more likely to be employed and earn more than non-graduates over a working lifetime.
“Employment figures looking at what graduates are doing three and a half years after graduation are far more useful than those relating to six months after graduation. We know that the majority of those graduates who do not go straight into work six months after graduating are in full-time employment three years later. Some graduates will have postponed looking for a first job in order to undertake further study, to get work experience or for other reasons such as periods of travel.”
David Willetts, the universities minister, said:
“As these figures demonstrate once again, a degree remains an excellent investment, and one of the best routes to gaining a good job and rewarding career. Even during a recession graduates have considerably higher employment rates than those without degrees.”
But the news was met with suspicion by many young people, who questioned what sort of jobs these ’employed’ graduates are doing. Below the Guardian’s coverage of this story, one commenter – RedTsar – posted this:
“The results are utter bollocks and deep down you know it. Average full time salary for a man is £25000? Pull the other one! I have one of these so called graduate jobs and it pays half that. Of the 50 or 60 people I knew at uni, only 5 or 6 are doing high paid jobs. The rest are sat in call centres, or stacking shelves, or mopping floors.
“As for satisfaction – define it. Compared to someone with no work then I guess I am satisfied. I have a little money, but there is no hope of me ever affording to leave home with the crappy pay I am on. There is also little chance of progression because of cutbacks and older staff being rooted to their own jobs. These stats don’t tell the whole story and it would be naive to believe them.”
Another – Craig Monks – said:
“I echo the previous comments here, this article lacks critical evaluation of the term “employment”. I would like to know what % are in a job they could have got without a degree and how happy they are with their current job.”
Tom Brockley said:
“Also class of 2009 with a first class honours BA and MA (first class/distinction 2011) and working a zero hour contract at minimum wage. I completed the survey that gave these results. Can see how it could be overly optimistic due to some of the questions. Also baffled by the average salary of £25k, as even my classmates who have done better and friends, are generally on nowhere near this. Even the Londoners.”
Thatannoyingperson said:
“I just graduated with a masters in engineering from a Russell group, trying to get some internships in design. The closest I’ve got is someone saying that if I’m lucky then I can maybe work for them for free from home, but its unlikely. Yay. I would be able to find a job I really don’t want to do, but if I actually want to do a job I would love I can’t even seem to get unpaid work.”
Graduate Fog has questions too. These figures bear no relation to the stories we hear every day from the tens of thousands of you who are struggling to get your careers started. What’s going on? Is there something fishy about these numbers? Or are Graduate Fog’s readers not a typical sample of graduates? Not being great with statistics, we are struggling to get to grips with HESA’s endless tables of numbers. Can any mathematically-minded Foggers help shed any light?
*WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF THESE NEW FIGURES?
Do you think it’s true that only 3% of graduates from 2009 are unemployed? Is the median graduate salary really £24,000? Is there something fishy about these numbers – or are graduates doing better than we previously thought?
“Or are Graduate Fog’s readers not a typical sample of graduates?”
I think GF by its very nature will have a tendancy to attract the 3%…
The graduating cohort in 2008-9 was 674,415 people. 3% of those would equal 20,232 unemployed graduates so it is possible for both “tens of thousands” to be unemployed and the 3% figure to be correct.
@CostaDel: To be fair, I was on Graduate Fog when I was employed too. It remains to be seen what my situation may be in 3.5 years – agencies seem to be offering me temp work again (I have a few weeks of work I can just about afford to take next month) after quite a few months of ignoring my emails and calls.
Given there are 1 million NEETS in the 18-25 age bracket, I recon a substantial number of those are graduates, possibly 25 percent. I would also bet there are many graduates working part time jobs in retail, supermarkets, bars etc. There may even be those on the Work Programme, who are not listed on the unemployment figures. All in all there are probably a huge number of graduates who find themselves no better off than before they went to university.
Employment status after 3.5 years isn’t a great definition for graduate unemployment rates. I would not feel satisfied with my degree if it took me more than 3 years of constant applications and interviews to get my first job after graduating.
It’s an easy fudge like a few of the comments have already mentioned? I graduated in 2005 and have NEVER gained a job that required a degree. Three and a half years after I graduated I was in a full-time temp job which wouldn’t have made me one of the 3%.
In the January after I graduated I received a call from my university asking if I was employed. I said yes, even though it was only a part time bar job. The girl seemed quite pleased and took down all the details. It was only after I put the phone down that I realised that I would be used as part of their “COME TO OUR UNI, 1000% OF OUR GRADUATES ARE EMPLOYED 6 MONTHS AFTER GRADUATION” statistics.
The story is in the details and it’s quite a shameful. Wonder how easy it is to do a survey of graduates that asks “Are you in a job that REQUIRED a degree?” and similar questions rather than “Do you earn any sort of money at the end of the month for your effort?”
Certain universities have always had very good prospects, namely Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial and LSE. Then there are courses like medicine which guarantee a good career. For the rest it seems you’re on your own.
I have to say, I think it’s terrible that £24,000 is these people’s idea of a graduate wage – even if it was anywhere near reality.
What gets me most is the amount of job postings I see that offer sub £20k in LONDON! Where I’m from in the North West, a lot of people would get by on that, but down there where the tube alone could cost between 2 and 3k a year and rents are stupid for the dumps that are on offer…!!! Words fail me.
I won’t make this an anti-Londoner rant, but seeing these wages makes me think that only those grads whose parents live in or around the Capital and therefore can commute to London (of course, still having to live at home) are going to have even a slight chance of moving out and getting on the property ladder. As for the rest of us in “the regions/ the provinces”, well, they can all get stuffed as per usual.
Incidentally, for those who speak Portuguese, Spanish, Hindi, Arabic or Mandarin, then check out tpp-uk.com; they’re offering proper graduate salaries and are located in Leeds. I’ve just come out of a long search and got a job offer here, so I recommend everyone, not just linguists, have a look. They’re nice people and up front.
Good luck to everyone, there is light at the end of that tunnel, so just keep going.
The reason why the figure is so low is that the HESA count those in any form of an unpaid internship as working, even though they don’t get paid for it. So really what it means is that those 3% are people who haven’t or won’t work for free due to their principles.
As Nick says there should be a requirement that the questionnaire asks:
a) whether your job required a degree?,
but also
b) have you been unemployed during any point after graduation?
(as 3 and a half years down the line probably means that many unemployed graduates ended up taking any job they could find, if they had been unemployed for so long. My guess is that most graduates are unemployed for some point in that long time period)
I did a part-time, unpaid internship with a CofE church at the time i responded to HESA (i graduated in 2012), and i was counted in the statistic that was working, due to the fact they count it as work.
At the time, I was on JSA and trying to find a part-time job (which didn’t happen during the length of the internship, but has luckily happened now. It feels as though i’ve been used by HESA, and ultimately the government, as a statistic to cover up the true and accurate picture of graduate employment levels, which i hate.
It would be really great if Graduate Fog could challenge these issues with the HESA, and create more transparency with the statistics- then we would actually have a realistic picture of graduates in the UK today.
I graduated in 2008 with a 2:1 in History. I have not had a paid job yet which was ever higher than entry level school leaver. Your degree is given a shelf life of 2 years by employers. I stopped looking for graduate jobs after 3 years. Call centres have got enough out of me – 3 months, 3 months there – and have thrown me back on the scrap heap. Temping agencies pick over the heap like scavengers, calling me with promises of glowing prospects, which never amount to much.
After so long, maybe 6 months, maybe less, employers assume you have a fundamental flaw and stop inviting you to interviews. After 12 months, they consider you as unemployable and need a financial sweetner from the government to take you on.
Many thousands of graduates suffer the indignity both in work and out of work of being treated as non-graduates, their hard work recognized only by family and friends. But what can we do? We are too dispersed around the country to organise and campaign. How would we organise and would it make a difference?
Yes, it’s true. If you have large time gaps on your CV then you will face great prejudice. The fact that you were applying for jobs and attending interviews doesn’t seem to matter and you can be written-off even before you have had a chance to gain experience. The only avenue left will be going from one low-paid temporary job to the other, lacking direction and facing even more prejudice for flicking between different types of sector. You can’t win either way. You either ‘lack direction/are unambitious’ if you take any kind of job or are ‘snobbish’ if you hold out for more relevant jobs.
I would class myself as long term unemployed but I’m not counted in the unemployment statistics as I don’t claim JSA or any kind of benefits.
My A-level grades are AABB including 540/600 in maths.
I then did a BSc in physics, gaining first class honours in 2015.
In 2017 I got a stipend and bursary to study an MSc in nuclear science and technology which I completed in may this year. I’ve been applying for jobs and have been hitting the same problems again (lack of experience). My applications are immediately chucked in the bin. If I apply for graduate schemes; I usually reach the latter stages of the application process before being filtered out.
My last job was a temp job in june/july marking GCSEs and A-level physics papers. I did the same job last year and the year before that and the year before that. All I have ever done is temp work – either marking exams, admin or working in retail.
I went to an engineering consultancy and they told me that they tend to hire school leavers now instead of graduates, as they can be “molded” as the company sees fit. Most of the work was in mechanical and electrical engineering whereas my nuclear knowledge is classed as “niche”. I don’t want to do another MSc.
I just feel hopeless.
I enjoyed studying and found it interesting but the reality is I have wasted the last 5 years studying physics. Now I don’t know what to do.
Having been long-term unemployed the one important takeaway for me is that escaping is a gradual process. There is no magic wand. There is a Carpenters song – ‘It’s gonna take some time…’
I would say it has taken me *three years* of the working world to get my finances and CV in a decent position. There is still a made up gap year on my CV to cover a long period of unemployment around the peak of the recession. It sounds ridiculous but it helps to keep the focus where it should be – on the fact I now have several years of relevant experience.
My job is to put casefiles together when people complain to the Ombudsman and generally defend my employee against angry complainants. It is a line of work I did not expect to be in but I’ve got quite good at it and it pays well. I got there like this:
Volunteering > 1 year contract > Full time Role > Promotion
I put hundreds of applications in for roles in a number of competitive industries c. 2015. Accepting that I wasn’t going to get work in industries my peers found work in was difficult but necessary. I was being rejected for unpaid internships and there does come a point when you think ‘Can I lower my sights any further?’. Perhaps paying for an internship would have been the next step!