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Females earn less overall than their male counterparts within most study areas .
Weathering the storm
Findings from the QILT 2021 graduate outcomes report .
By Wade Zaglas
The Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching ( QILT ) survey program , including the 2021 Graduate Outcomes Survey ( GOS ), highlighted the ongoing effect the COVID-19 pandemic is having on the Australian labour market as well as sharp differences in study areas and salaries .
EMPLOYMENT RATES AND STUDY LEVELS
Despite the negative effects of the pandemic on graduate employability , the period covered by the 2021 Graduate Outcomes Survey ( GOS ) fared better than expected . For instance , while the overall employment rate for recent graduates ( less than three years ) experienced a slight decline since last year ( dropping from 85.1 per cent in 2020 to 84.8 per cent this year ), the graduate full time employment rate rose slightly from 68.7 per cent in 2020 to 68.9 per cent .
While full-time employment rates for graduate students improved over the period , postgraduate students — both coursework and research — did not fare as well .
Full-time employment for postgraduate coursework students , for instance , dipped by less than one per cent , going from 85.6 per cent in 2020 to 84.9 per cent in 2021 . A more significant decline was evident in the full-time employment rate of postgraduate students , falling 2.4 percentage points from 80.1 per cent in 2020 to 77.7 per cent in 2021 .
The statistics for postgraduate overall employment saw falls as well , however they were not as substantial . The survey found that “ the largest decline in overall employment rates was among postgraduate research graduates , with a fall of 1.9 percentage points in comparison with falls of 0.8 percentage points among postgraduate coursework graduates ”.
SALARIES , GENDER AND QUALIFICATIONS
Given that “ graduate salaries in the 2021 GOS includes graduates who were employed full-time in all jobs and asks graduates to report what they ‘ usually ’ earn in all their jobs so it is likely COVID-19 has had less impact on reported annual graduate salaries , at least in the short-term ,” the report states .
Encouragingly , graduate salaries increased $ 300 or 0.5 per cent in 2021 , with a median wage of $ 65,000 per annum . However , equally discouraging was the fact that female graduates earned less than their male counterparts in 2021 than they did in 2020 , with the wage gap growing from 2.5 per cent to 3.9 per cent .
Those with higher level , postgraduate qualifications also , in the main , enjoyed higher median salaries . For instance , those who possessed postgraduate coursework qualifications who were employed fulltime in 2021 took home median salaries of $ 89,700 ; for postgraduate research graduates , the median salary was just shy of the six-figure mark at $ 95,000 .
STUDY AREA According to the latest survey , veterinary science experienced the largest increase in undergraduate full-time employment in 2021 , rising from 78.2 per cent in 2020 to 87 per cent in 2021 , a jump of 8.8 per cent . Rehabilitation services also saw an increase of up to 7.1 per cent this year .
As COVID-19 restrictions eased for much of 2021 , and the economy improved , other service industries also saw increases in undergraduate full-time employment . For instance , tourism , personal services and hospitality were all up by 6.3 percentage points . Health services and dentistry , too , experienced moderate improvements in undergraduate full-time employment , up 5.3 per cent and 4.5 per cent , respectively .
“ Recovery has also been seen in study areas that had large drops in fulltime employment rates between 2019 and 2020 , with creative arts , up from 45.8 per cent in 2020 to 49.2 per cent in 2021 and communications , up from 52.8 per cent to 55.2 per cent in 2021 ,” the report said .
“ The areas with the highest graduate salaries were dentistry at $ 100,000 , medicine $ 76,000 , social work $ 72,600 , teacher education $ 72,000 , and engineering $ 70,000 .
“ The study areas with the lowest full-time median undergraduate salaries were pharmacy at $ 50,000 , creative arts $ 53,000 , tourism , hospitality , personal services , sport and recreation , $ 54,900 and Communications , $ 56,200 .”
In terms of gender and variations in salary between study areas , males experienced a higher deviation : $ 10,400 compared to $ 9,300 for female graduates . The gender gap in undergraduate salaries can be “ explained , in part , by the fact that females are more likely to graduate from study areas which receive lower levels of remuneration ”.
“ However , it is also the case that at the undergraduate level , females earn less overall than their male counterparts within most study areas ,” the report states .
“ The study areas which exhibit the highest gaps between male and female salaries include psychology with a gap of $ 6,900 , architecture and built environment $ 5,200 , law and paralegal studies $ 4,900 , health services and support $ 4,800 , and agriculture and environmental studies $ 4,700 .
“ Medicine , rehabilitation , pharmacy and engineering were the exceptions where female undergraduate median salaries are higher than or equal to their male counterparts .” ■
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