MiCasaSuCasa Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 (edited) Daily Telegraph: The best and worst paid graduate jobs - in pictures Is the average starting salary really £29K (about 3k higher than the national average)? Does anybody have a clue what the real figure is? • The largest recruiters of graduates in 2011 will be PricewaterhouseCoopers (1,200 vacancies), Deloitte (1,000 vacancies), KPMG (900 vacancies), Teach First (780 vacancies) and Ernst & Young (740 vacancies). • Starting salaries at the UK’s leading graduate employers in 2011 are expected to remain unchanged from 2010 levels – a median of £29,000. Salaries increased by 7.4% in 2010 and 5.9% in 2009. • A quarter of top graduate programmes will pay new recruits more than £30,000 when they start work and seven organisations are offering at least £40,000 to this year’s graduates. • The most generous salaries are those on offer from investment banks (average of £42,000), law firms (average of £38,000) and oil & energy companies (average of £32,000). • Public sector employers (average of £22,200), retailers (average of £24,000) and engineering & industrial companies (average of £24,500) have the lowest graduate pay rates for 2011. Edited January 11, 2012 by MiCasaSuCasa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
porca misèria Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Daily Telegraph: The best and worst paid graduate jobs - in pictures Is the average starting salary really £29K (about 3k higher than the national average)? Does anybody have a clue what the real figure is? Hmmm ... Well, if it is then we can infer real rents have fallen by 60% in 30 years even as quality has risen. Not so bad! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiCasaSuCasa Posted January 11, 2012 Author Share Posted January 11, 2012 If graduate salaries are rising by that much each year, most people (i.e. tiny or non-existent pay rises) would be better off getting a new job each year and say that they are new graduates and have no experience! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madpenguin Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 (edited) Hmmm ... Well, if it is then we can infer real rents have fallen by 60% in 30 years even as quality has risen. Not so bad! My eldest daughter and her boyfriend recently graduated, both with IT degrees and are looking for work, from what they say there is lots of stuff around 20 - 25k, jobs around 30k or higher are fewer and have a lot more competition. Jobs with the banks and investment companies I find invariably demand a 1st from a "Red Brick University" (i.e. "no riff raff", have seen some actually state "No Polytechnics or Open University") :angry: Edited January 11, 2012 by madpenguin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
19 year mortgage 8itch Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 "Leading graduate employers" Is that a technical term? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
57percent Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Misleading article. It's already an undefined subset of 'top' jobs: "Starting salaries at the UK’s leading graduate employers" "A quarter of top graduate programmes" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LivingWithTheInlaws Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 These would be specific jobs for people just leaving university. They will have been recruited directly from University recruitment fairs. It is not the same as the average salary of graduates in general. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PopGun Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 (edited) Misleading article. It's already an undefined subset of 'top' jobs: "Starting salaries at the UK’s leading graduate employers" "A quarter of top graduate programmes" +1 Very very misleading. Edited January 11, 2012 by PopGun Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VeryMeanReversion Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 I've just been recruiting for a zero-experience engineering graduate for £25-30K. No UK applicants, most were from India or China (one of which has now been hired). One of the applicants that we declined has offered to work for free until they can find a job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snafu Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 These would be specific jobs for people just leaving university. They will have been recruited directly from University recruitment fairs. It is not the same as the average salary of graduates in general. The salary is the ball park figure of what a graduate scoped job would expect to be paid (excluding R&D) but IT, sales and marketing definitely. I of course had no idea graduate jobs existed while studying or when starting working. 5 years behind the curve through having to work through the ranks. Not bitter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rw42 Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Lets see what the average is when you include the number of unemployed graduates on a salary of £0. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cells Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 I always thought teaching was the single biggest recent graduate employer with some 10k pa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cashinmattress Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 If 21 year olds are starting out life after uni on an average of £29k p.a. I'll eat the proverbial Krusty's hat. That's a very poor reflection of reality going on there. With 'journalism' like that, no wonder graduating kids are so messed up and pissed off. Perhaps this pertains to graduates who finish 2-1 and higher, in engineering and with other 'real' educations {traditional vocational stuff}. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cashinmattress Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 I've just been recruiting for a zero-experience engineering graduate for £25-30K. No UK applicants, most were from India or China (one of which has now been hired). One of the applicants that we declined has offered to work for free until they can find a job. Good luck. Most of the grads hired within my sector of engineering of late have been European and African, and that's looking for explicitly 1st degree holders. Problem with grads in British engineering is that they can't bloody write and think outside the box, as they so often get tripped up by very simple competency tests, and have the attention span of a gnat. It is however nice to see a young lad, or even better, a young lassie perform exceptionally during a competency interview, especially one who's from the UK. Sadly, I think with £9000 p.a. tuition fees and engineering jobs in steady decline in the UK, a lot of smart young folk are not going to make it. [i think the writing thing is not so exclusive to engineers. Most of my mates kids have the penmanship of a 1970's era 8 year old] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cozza Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Daily Telegraph: The best and worst paid graduate jobs - in pictures Is the average starting salary really £29K (about 3k higher than the national average)? Does anybody have a clue what the real figure is? Utter tosh. Where do they get their information from? Law graduate salaries are more like £14-16K as you have to do a training contract of two years before becoming a solicitor. Pharma science starting salaries are about £20K and that's with a masters. Wubbish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rented Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 (edited) If 21 year olds are starting out life after uni on an average of £29k p.a. I'll eat the proverbial Krusty's hat. That's a very poor reflection of reality going on there. With 'journalism' like that, no wonder graduating kids are so messed up and pissed off. Perhaps this pertains to graduates who finish 2-1 and higher, in engineering and with other 'real' educations {traditional vocational stuff}. The four top employers they quote total less than 4000 jobs, which would provide jobs for less than 1% of graduates of a single year. I'd bet that Tesco is a far larger graduate employer, provided the term graduate employer (i.e. employer of graduates) is used rather than 'graduate job'. The article notes the research is by High Fliers, from their website: As well as its student research, High Fliers Research produces regular reports analysing the level of graduate vacancies and starting salaries available at the UK's top employers. So yes, the article is incredibly misleading the average is for top employers and not for an average for all graduates in employment. Edited January 11, 2012 by rented Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manchester50 Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 We're recruiting somewhere between 150-200 IT graduates this year in the UK, with 2.1 or above on starting salaries of 28-31k (meagre London uplift and meagre MSc uplift account for the range). Clearly the figures aren't 'graduate salaries' (i.e. including those at MacDonalds and on the dole) but 'graduate jobs (i.e. those listed in Prospects catalogue, Uni careers offices, milkrounds etc). We struggled to recruit the best last year as some of our competitors were offering more. Whilst the figures may be misleading for many grads, it's also true that many people are out of touch with how grad salaries have risen. It's also true that a new grad can be on a higher starting salary than a grad from a few years prior - generally that's a sign that the grad who's been around a while hasn't been performing as well as expected and will be on their way out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
worried1 Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Whilst the figures may be misleading for many grads, it's also true that many people are out of touch with how grad salaries have risen. Definitely the case for me. I had a figure of about £25k in my mind for London based grad jobs with only the investment banks and law firms going above £30k. It also shows that it is only really financially worth going to university if you are in the (presumably small) percentage that end up in one of these proper graduate jobs. The vast majority of graduates start on half this salary and probably only get up to £30-35k by the time they are 30. The problem is that so many people are being put through university that employers can insist on a degree for jobs that are definitely not graduate positions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
57percent Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Back when I was a lad ('98), investment banks were offering 25-30k, accountants (which are all now the big consultancies), 16-20k. ... so even the top jobs haven't gone up that much. I'd suggest there's less available now .... and a lot more students. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
19 year mortgage 8itch Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 I'm in engineering, mixed disciplines, we used to be in the times top 100, probably recruiting high double figures to start this year, currently offering 28k to grads compared to the 22k I started on in 2003. Much the same in real terms, not London based either. Still a decent progression route to 40k+ too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winkie Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 If I were a graduate today I would work for myself, be my own boss, sales, selling what people are looking for...there are a lot out there looking for something, looking for answers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thirdwave Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Surprised to see no mention of the medical profession. An F2 doctor (1 year out of med school) would typically be on about 45k (or higher in London if one includes 2 k London weighting) with the 50% on call supplement, which is the going rate in most acute specialties. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manchester50 Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 If I was living through it all again I'd take a year out after A-Levels and try and get on one of the big apprenticeship schemes - i.e. start on ~12-14k and over the course of 4-5 yrs do a p/t degree whilst salary gradually rises to ~25k, then progress as per grads. Not sure I'd be willing to take on today's levels of uni debt for the chance of a 'graduate job'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
libspero Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 (edited) I presume this is a study based on graduate training schemes.. not graduate recruitment. Training schemes are usually used to fast-track the best graduates into positions of responsibility.. these will always pay better than your average entry level job. There are also usually very few places available so as others have said, not at all representative of the majority. I expect the average graduate salary, when you factor in all the ones who end up in Tescos, is probably closer to £17kpa. Edited January 11, 2012 by libspero Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PopGun Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 If I was living through it all again I'd take a year out after A-Levels and try and get on one of the big apprenticeship schemes - i.e. start on ~12-14k and over the course of 4-5 yrs do a p/t degree whilst salary gradually rises to ~25k, then progress as per grads. Not sure I'd be willing to take on today's levels of uni debt for the chance of a 'graduate job'. Even that isn't viable in an era of low or zero wage inflation. Anecdotally I’ve been told a few specialty graduate jobs start on relatively high salaries, but don’t tend to rise that much YOY. Seems like the best way to get ahead these days is to job hop, rather than develop into a single role. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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