The Minister for Education, Science and Training, the Hon Julie Bishop MP, has welcomed two reports which show Australian graduates are in a stronger employment position than ever before.

Gradstats 2006 and The Grad Files 2006, released by Graduate Careers Australia, present the preliminary findings from the 2006 Australian Graduate Survey.

“The reports demonstrate that the employment outcomes of new bachelor degree graduates have never been better,” Minister Bishop said.

According to the reports, 82.4 per cent of graduates found full-time employment within four months of graduation compared to 80.9 per cent last year. A further 12.2 per cent were working on a part-time or casual basis while seeking full-time employment (12.3 per cent last year).

The employment results for disciplines such as engineering, medicine and nursing were particularly high with 100 per cent of mining engineering graduates gaining full time work within four months, as did 98.2 per cent of medicine graduates and 96.7 per cent of nursing graduates.

The buoyant job market is also reflected in unemployment rates, with the unemployment rate for new bachelor degree graduates who were seeking full-time employment falling from 6.9 per cent last year to 5.5 per cent this year.

The two reports also found that graduates continue to enjoy strong salary results and on average, bachelor degree graduates can expect to earn $40,800 in their first year out of study (up from $40,000 last year).

While average starting salaries for women continue to lag behind those of their male counterparts, females do have higher salaries in a number of areas including optometry (109.6 per cent of males’ salaries), pharmacy (104.9 per cent), biological sciences (102.6 per cent) and social work (102.4 per cent).

Overall satisfaction with courses remains high, with 89.6 per cent of bachelor degree graduates expressing broad satisfaction with their courses.

“These results show that the vast majority of graduates are satisfied with the education on offer at Australian universities, and are reaping the rewards of their investment in that education,” Minister Bishop said.

“Clearly, there has never been a better time for young people to gain a university qualification.”

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