Graduate salaries drop 11 percent in five years

Research for the Complete University Guide has revealed that on average graduate starting salaries in professional posts have dropped by 11 percent from 2007 to 2012. This equates to £21,702 in real terms.

Statistics show that the decline is increasing as salaries only fell by four percent in 2005 to 2010.

Graduate earnings in medicine and dentistry, which had the highest starting salaries in 2007, have decreased by 15 and nine percent respectively.

Only two subjects saw an increase in starting salary. Graduates of Materials Technology and Librarianship and Information Management had an increase of 13 percent and three percent.

In all other subjects analysed, starting wages fell. The amount by which they declined varied from two percent for general engineering to 25 percent for Middle Eastern and African Studies.

Shifts in the graduate premium have also occurred with the gap between graduates in professional employment and those in non-graduate jobs widening.

For example, when adjusted for inflation, figures show that a building graduate entering into a graduate-level job in 2007 earned £4,045 more than a graduate entering into non-graduate employment.

By 2012 this difference had increased by 77 percent to give those in graduate-level work a £7,174 advantage.

Dr Bernard Kingston, the guide’s principal author said that this continuing decline “must be a concern to students when choosing what to study at university.

While financial returns should not be the only consideration, they are becoming more important whether we like it or not.”

Dr Kingston did warn, however, that the volatile state of the labour market makes it “difficult to predict the future for any particular subject”.

According to a spokesman from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills: “A degree is still one of the best routes to a good job and a rewarding career. Typically those with a degree earn considerably more over their lifetime, an estimated £165,000 for men and £250,000 for women.”

However research suggests that many current students will still be repaying their student debts during their fifties.