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Pay Rises for Graduate Jobs

• November 15, 2021

Amazing news for new Graduates!

It appears that firms have boosted salaries for young people as a direct result of graduate job competition. According to new findings around the ‘Top 100’ employers, a graduate’s typical pay will now be going up by £833, with the total amount now being £30,500!

Not only has the payroll increased for new graduates but also for other educated individuals. The average pay for those fresh out of school has seen an increase of £1,039, so this is great news all around in terms of pay rises.

Though, this rise is not just a happy accident. The rise in salary is prompted by the competitive nature of graduate jobs recently. Over the past year, there has been a huge 17% increase in applications. The average graduate job now receives a whopping 91 applicants. With some graduate jobs receiving applications in their hundreds, like those in the Health and Pharmaceutical Industry which received an average of 155 applicants per job posting, or even more with 182 applicants per vacancy in Retail and Tourism roles. The number of applications are now at a record high since the records began to be collected in 1999.

As there are so many people actively searching for a new role, companies have had to consequently boost their appeal which is why there is the sudden increase in job salaries. These companies are having to fight for graduate’s attention as it is such a tough market right now.

With this overwhelming surge in applications, the job market appears to still not be recovered from the pandemic as the levels have not reached the height they were at before Covid-19 hit the country. This is similar to the result of the financial crisis of 2008 wherein graduate salaries stagnated for a few years afterwards as the country settled back to the new norm.

However, despite all of this news, experts believe that there will be growth in all sectors which will continue into 2022. They also expect there to be a return to normal next year with graduate jobs and internships exceeding pre-pandemic levels.

Since the majority of research conducted is around these companies that are considered the ‘Top 100’ the findings may not be as realistic in all companies. The typical pay for jobs outside of this elite group is around £21,000 to £25,000 depending on the industry a graduate is looking to go into. This difference in job pay is seen, for example, between Education and Teaching’s typical graduate pay (£19,899) and Military and Defence’s graduate pay (£29,386).

So, there is quite the difference in pay if you are not looking to go into a career with one of the biggest companies or if you are going down a different route. But either way it seems like the country is hoping to return to normal next year and will likely keep the increase in job salaries. This is evidently doubly good news as the job market will return to normalcy but will be rewarding graduates by offering up a bigger salary than what would previously have been offered for these roles.