Graduate Careers Australia
Graduate Grapevine - Number 8, Winter-Spring 2007
GCA Releases 2006 Australian Graduate Survey Reports
Each year, Graduate Careers Australia (GCA) surveys all new graduates of Australian higher education institutions regarding their activities after study. These include their employment, further study and labour market activities.
The three reports released by GCA in July (Graduate Destinations 2006, Graduate Salaries 2006 and Graduate Course Experience 2006) paint a positive picture for higher education graduates in Australia.
All reports are based on the annual national Australian Graduate Survey (AGS) of new graduates from institutions of higher education. The 2006 AGS gathered 115,603 responses from a total of 205,139 recent graduates.
Graduate Destinations 2006
Graduate Destinations 2006 confirms the preliminary graduate employment figures released last December which showed that, of new bachelor degree graduates who were seeking full-time employment, 82.4 per cent had found it within four months of completing their studies. A further 12.2 per cent were working on a part-time or casual basis while still seeking full-time employment and 5.5 per cent were not working and seeking full-time employment.
GCA research demonstrates that higher education graduates have a notable labour market advantage. In addition, the most recently available Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data (May 2006) show that just 2.4 per cent of those in the general population with bachelor degrees were unemployed compared with 7.3 per cent of those who had not completed post-secondary education and five per cent of all persons.
How did they find work?
Graduate Destinations 2006 examines the mix of methods that graduates use to seek work. The most commonly used, by far, were internet-based job searches (68.7 per cent of all job-seeking graduates) and media advertisements (58.5 per cent). These two methods were also the most commonly cited by those who had found full-time employment (68.8 per cent and 56.7 per cent respectively).
The picture changed slightly when graduates in full-time employment were asked how they had found the job they were in at the time of the survey. Internet-based job searches (19.8 per cent) and media advertisements (12.2 per cent) were most often named as the means by which graduates had found their full-time employment. However, these methods were followed by those who had enjoyed the help of family or friends (12.1 per cent) and those who had approached employers directly (10.8 per cent).
What about part-time work?
As with the wider population, part-time employment for graduates is a common work option.
Graduates categorised as being in part-time employment in the AGS form two different categories. There are graduates in part-time or casual employment who are not seeking full-time employment and graduates who are in part-time or casual employment who are seeking full-time employment.
- Respondents working on a part-time basis while seeking full-time employment were far less likely to see their employment as being permanent (ie. likely to last more than 12 months) than those who were not seeking full-time employment (22.4 per cent and 36.0 per cent respectively).
- The median annual salary for respondents in part-time employment while seeking full-time employment was $18,000 while for respondents who were in part-time employment and were not seeking full-time employment it was higher, at $20,000. In comparison, the median annual salary (not a starting salary) for all bachelor degree graduates in full-time employment was $42,000.
- The two groups also differed in terms of further part-time study, with those not seeking full-time work (13.2 per cent) being much more likely to also be in part-time study than those seeking full-time work (6.4 per cent).
Graduate Course Experience 2006
Graduate Course Experience 2006, which reports on the learning experiences of higher education graduates, shows that 89.5 per cent of bachelor degree graduates were broadly satisfied with their overall study experience.
Graduate Salaries 2006
The Graduate Salaries 2006 report shows that the starting salary for females ($40,000) was 95.2 per cent of males’ earnings ($42,000).
New bachelor degree graduates aged less than 25 and in their first full-time employment were paid a median annual starting salary of $40,800. This changed slightly for other groups. For example, new bachelor degree graduates aged 25 and over and in their first full-time employment earned $43,500 ($45,000 for males and $43,000 for females).
New bachelor degree graduates aged 25 and over and who had previous full-time employment earned $44,400 ($47,600 for males and $43,000 for females).
No matter what level of experience, these graduates were paid higher salaries than all 20-24 year olds in the Australian population, who received $35,600 ($36,400 for males and $34,400 for females).
These figures suggest that employers are willing to pay a premium (however slight in some cases) for age, training and experience.
Geographically, new graduates aged less than 25 and in their first full-time employment in regional areas earned marginally more than their cohorts employed in capital cities across Australia ($42,000 compared with $40,000). Salaries in regional areas were considerably higher in the fields of Earth Sciences (by $15,500), Optometry ($11,500), Physical Science ($5000), Architecture and Building ($4500) and Engineering ($4000).
Cindy Tilbrook, Executive Director of Graduate Careers Australia, said, “Graduate Careers Australia conducts a range of research projects which examine the experience of higher education students and graduates. A new GCA research project is exploring the expectations of current students as well as recording the experiences of recent graduates as they move from higher education into the labour market or on to further study. The outlook for graduates is very positive.”
|
