Calendar year 2024

Graduate labour market statistics

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Introduction

Graduate labour market statistics is an annual publication which presents labour market conditions for graduates, postgraduates, and non-graduates living in England. The data is available from 2007 to 2024. 

Data is presented by graduate type on:

  • Employment, including part-time
  • Employment by personal characteristics 
  • Earnings by sex 
  • Earnings by industry 

Data is used from the Office for National Statistics' Labour Force Survey to produce these statistics. ONS have faced challenges around the falling number of responses to the LFS, which has led to increased sampling variability. 

This increase in the volatility in the estimates of employment, unemployment, and economic inactivity led to ONS suspending the usual suite of LFS-based labour market statistics from October 2023 through to January 2024. Further improvements were implemented to tackle some of these challenges, including a review of the LFS weighting approach. Data has been reweighted from Q1 2019 onwards using the latest 2024 population weights which has led to slight changes in the GLMS 2024 back series for earlier years, and comparisons of levels prior to this period should be viewed with caution. Full details of the reweighting can be found here: Impact of reweighting on Labour Force Survey key indicators - Office for National Statistics (opens in a new tab)

Due to these challenges this publication is badged as "official statistics in development" until further review.

Changes to these statistics

The Department for Education regularly reviews its statistical publications for quality and relevance of content and to ensure the statistics meet user needs. Due to the ongoing limitations on the quality and availability of data in the Labour Force Survey and following a review of alternative options for availability of these statistics, the Department is proposing to cease publication of Graduate Labour Market Statistics. We have determined that more robust statistics on postgraduate and graduate earnings and employment are now produced elsewhere such as the LEO Graduate and Postgraduate Outcomes release. Ceasing publication of GLMS will give us the opportunity to improve these LEO statistics to better meet user needs as well as streamline our publications.

More information on these changes can be found in section 2 below and in the methodology. We invite users to provide feedback on these changes, please send this to he.statistics@education.gov.uk by 1st December 2025


Headline facts and figures - 2024

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1. About this release

Introduction 

This publication presents a time series of graduates, postgraduates, and non-graduates' employment and salaries living in England from 2007 to 2024. 

For information on data processing and data quality of these statistics, please see the methodology note. 

Statistics are available for the working age population (16-64 years old) and the young population (21-30 years old). This release focuses on estimates for the working age population, statistics covering the young population are available to download in the underlying data files. 

The GLMS publication has previously reported a 'graduate premium' (the difference in average salaries of graduates and non-graduates) with caveats around the interpretation of this value due to the limitations in the available data. These limitations include the inability to control for external factors which can influence salary, such as prior academic attainment, in the available data. Therefore, a direct comparison in salary between postgraduates, graduates and non-graduates based on this data has been advised with caution. The 2024 release does not use the term ‘graduate premium’ to avoid any confusion in interpreting these statistics; however, the data can still be compared by users, and we have caveated the limitations in doing so. 

Other publications on graduate employment and earnings

The Department for Education (DfE) and other bodies have also published research on the absolute, and lifetime returns to undergraduate degrees. For more detailed econometric analysis of the earnings and employment differentials between graduates and non-graduates, please see the links below: 

The DfE also publish other statistics on graduate employment and earnings; LEO graduate and postgraduate outcomes

Data source

Statistics presented in this publication use data from the Office for National Statistics' (ONS) Labour Force Survey (LFS). ONS have faced challenges around the falling number of responses to the LFS which has led to increased sampling variability. 

ONS expect to see improvements to response levels and rates due the reintroduction of face-to-face interviews and a sample boost in October 2023 and January 2024, respectively. However, as these improvements will take time to materialise in the LFS data, LFS statistics are badged as "official statistics in development" until further review. 

Coverage 

In this publication, graduate type is defined as follows: 

  • Graduates are people whose highest qualification is an undergraduate degree at Bachelor’s level; 
  • Postgraduates are those holding a higher degree (such as a Master’s or PhD) as their highest qualification; 
  • Non-graduates are those whose highest qualification is below undergraduate level, i.e. National Qualification Framework Level 5 or below (see methodology note for more details). 

All earnings data in this publication are calculated for full-time workers only and are rounded to the nearest £500. Differences between groups or across years are calculated from unrounded data. 

Information on part-time employment patterns for graduates and non-graduates are also included. For these groups, part-time workers’ employment outcomes are broken down by age group and sex. 

Caveats 

As the results presented in this publication are based on survey data, they are estimates. Individual estimates may be inaccurate reflections of the true population, and differences between estimates may not be statistically significant. 

This publication only provides simple outcome measures based on survey data and does not control for the differences in characteristics between graduates, postgraduates, and non-graduates. This means that the outcomes reported may not be wholly attributable to the fact that an individual holds a particular qualification, but instead could reflect other factors, such as their prior academic attainment, skills, experience, or geographic location. 

The employment and earnings outcomes for 2020 and 2021 should be viewed against the backdrop of the significant adverse shock to the UK macroeconomy due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic which severely disrupted business activity in many sectors of the UK economy. 

Please note, UK inflation peaked in October 2022  (see ONS: consumer price time series (opens in a new tab)). Real median salaries (adjusted for inflation) for graduates and postgraduates fell to their lowest levels in 2023 since the start of the GLMS series in 2007. In 2024, inflation fell and real salaries have stabilised.  

2. Proposed changes to publication

Due to limitations with the Labour Force Survey and duplication of relevant statistics available from other sources, DfE are proposing to cease publication of the Graduate Labour Market Statistics to give users more robust and streamlined statistics.

This is the second year of publishing these statistics based on Labour Force survey data with quality issues. The ONS have introduced several measures to improve future response rates however, these improvements will take time to materialise in the LFS data. This has prompted the Department to consider alternative options for producing these statistics taking into account the latest available data sources. 

We have identified that similar statistics to those presented in this publication are largely available from the following sources:

  1. LEO Graduate and Postgraduate Outcomes produced by the DfE. LEO publishes employment and earnings statistics on graduates and postgraduates by cohort. Full population coverage on all graduates and postgraduates is used to produce statistics on employment and earnings 1, 3, 5 and 10 years after graduation. We have assessed this more recent statistical series to be more robust. 
  2. Graduate Outcomes Survey (opens in a new tab) produced by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA). HESA survey students 15 months after graduation covering qualification NQF levels 4 to 8. Estimates are available on employment and earnings.

The table below summarises the statistics presented in GLMS and where similar statistics can currently be found in these two sources (more detail on this is set out in the methodology):

LEOGraduate Outcomes
  • Graduate and postgraduate employment rate
  • Graduate and postgraduate high skilled employment rate (SOC 1-3)
  • Graduate and postgraduate median nominal earnings
  • Breakdowns by gender, ethnicity, disability status and degree class
  • Part-time employment rates

Statistics not currently available elsewhere:

  • Non-graduate employment rates and earnings estimates – we are planning to develop the LEO publication in future to include comparative statistics for non-graduates with breakdowns by prior academic attainment and other student characteristics.
  • Inactivity rates – there is no plan for these to be available elsewhere. Whilst it is anticipated that these statistics are of low interest, please provide feedback to us if this is an issue.

Discontinuing the Graduate Labour Market Statistics publication will give us the opportunity to improve our LEO publication which provides more robust statistics on the employment and earnings of graduates, postgraduates and non-graduates (to be added).

We invite users to provide feedback on these changes, please send this to he.statistics@education.gov.uk by 1st December 2025.

3. 2024 key statistics

Employment rates

Working age population (16-64 year olds)

In 2024, graduates and postgraduates in the working age population had broadly similar employment, unemployment, and inactivity rates. Postgraduates saw slightly better outcomes across all metrics.

The employment rate for the three groups were:

  • 90.0% for postgraduates
  • 87.6% for graduates
  • 68.0% for non-graduates

Employment outcomes for non-graduates were considerably worse compared to graduates and postgraduates across all three metrics. The unemployment rate was:

  • 5.6% for non-graduates
  • 3.1% for graduates
  • 2.0% for postgraduates

In addition, over one in four non-graduates (27.9%) were economically inactive in 2024, compared to 9.6% of graduates and 8.1% of postgraduates.

Type of employment

Working age population (16-64 year olds)

Please note employment type definitions are found in the methodology.

In 2024, the high-skilled employment rate within the working age population was highest for postgraduates at 79.0%. This is 11.1 percentage points higher than graduates at 67.9% and 55.3 percentage points higher than non-graduates at 23.7%.

Non-graduates are most likely to be in medium/low-skilled employment at 44.2%.

Median Salaries

Please use caution when making comparisons between salaries across graduate groups. The statistics presented do not control for external factors such as prior academic attainment, skills, experience, or geographic location which can influence salary.

Please also note that comparisons between figures are calculated using unrounded data.

Nominal salaries; working age and young population

In 2024, nominal median salaries were highest among the working age population (16-64 years old), with postgraduates seeing the greatest average earnings at £47,000. This is £10,500 higher than young postgraduates (21-30 years old) at £37,000. 

Non-graduates saw a difference of £3,500 between the young and the working age populations in nominal terms. 

Real salaries; working age and young population

In real terms, working age postgraduates have the highest earnings at £29,500 and non-graduates have the lowest at £19,500. 

Similarly to nominal salaries, postgraduates can expect the greatest increase in median salary throughout their working life in real terms. The difference in the average real earnings among the young and the working age populations for the graduate types were (differences are calculated on unrounded figures):

  • £6,500 for postgraduates
  • £5,500 for graduates
  • £2,000 for non-graduates

4. Year-on-year changes in employment rates (2023 - 2024)

Employment rates

In 2024, the employment rate increased for working age (16-64 years old) postgraduates by 0.6 percentage points, but remained stable for graduates. However, it fell for working age non-graduates by 0.7 percentage points.

For the young population (21-30 years old), the employment rates for postgraduates, graduates and non-graduates fell by 1.1, 0.7 and 1.9 percentage points respectively in 2024.

The unemployment rates fell slightly for working age postgraduates (down 0.1 percentage point), but it increased for graduates (0.1 percentage point) and non-graduates (up by 0.5 percentage points). 

For the young population groups, unemployment rates increased slightly for postgraduates (up 0.4 percentage points) but fell very slightly (down 0.1 percentage points) for graduates in 2024.

The biggest difference was seen in the unemployment rate of young non-graduates, where the rate increased by 1.1 percentage points from 7.0% in 2023 to 8.1% in 2024, the highest rate since 2015.

5. Employment rates time series (2007 - 2024)

Employment rates

Working age population (16-64 year olds)

In 2024, employment rates for working age graduates were unchanged from 2023 at 87.6% and were slightly below the peak in the series, 87.7% in 2018. The latest data for 2024 shows that the working age graduate employment rate is above pre-pandemic levels in 2019.

The working age postgraduate employment rate rose by 0.6 percentage points to 90.0% in 2024 compared to 2023, the highest employment rate in the time series.

The employment rate for working age non-graduates fell in 2024 by 0.7 percentage points to 68.0%. This follows annual declines since 2019, showing that working age non-graduates' employment rates are yet to recover to pre-pandemic levels (71.8% in 2019).

High-skilled employment rates

Working age population (16-64 year olds)

The likelihood of being in high-skilled employment grows as the level of education increases. In 2024, 23.7% of working age non-graduates were in high-skilled employment, reaching its highest level in the time series. However, this compares to 67.9% for graduates and 79.0% for postgraduates.

The difference between working age graduate and postgraduate high-skilled employment rates was 11.1 percentage points in 2024. 

Unemployment rates

Working age population (16-64 year olds)

Since 2007, the working age postgraduate unemployment rate has remained persistently below graduates. In 2024, the unemployment rate was 2.0% for postgraduates compared to 3.1% for graduates. The unemployment rate increased for graduates and non-graduates, it fell by 0.1 percentage point for postgraduates in 2024.

The unemployment rate was highest for working age non-graduates and increased from 5.1% to 5.6% between 2023 and 2024. The non-graduate unemployment rate fell annually between 2011 and 2019, before increasing in 2020 during the COVID pandemic.

Inactivity rates

Working age population (16-64 year olds)

In 2024, for working age graduates, the inactivity rate was 9.6% (unchanged on 2023), the lowest rate of the time series for this group. However, this is still above the postgraduate group at 8.1%.

Inactivity rates are highest in the working age population in 2024 for non-graduates at 27.9%, (the highest since the start of the series) which has been increasing since 2019. 

6. Employment rates by personal characteristics (2024)

Sex

Working age population (16-64 year olds)

In 2024, both working age graduate employment rates and high-skilled employment rates were higher for males than females:

  • Employment rate - 89.5% for males vs 85.9% for females
  • High-skilled employment rate - 71.6% for males vs 64.6% for females

Working age graduate inactivity rates for males (7.6%) were lower than for females (11.4%). However, working age unemployment rates for females (3.0%) were slightly lower compared to males (3.1%) in 2024. 

Ethnicity

Working age population (16-64 year olds)

White working age graduates had the highest employment rate of 88.5% and high-skilled employment rate at 69.5% in 2024.

Graduates of Other ethnic group had the lowest employment rate at 82.5%, while Black or African or Caribbean or Black British graduates saw the lowest high-skilled employment rate  at 58.7%.

The variation in the high-skilled employment rate across ethnicities was much higher (a range of 10.8 percentage points) than the variation in the employment rate (a range of 6.0 percentage points).

White graduates had the lowest inactivity rate at 9.3%. Graduates in the Asian or Asian British group had the highest inactivity rate at 11.9%.

Disability status

Working age population (16-64 year olds)

Disabled graduates were less likely to be employed (high-skilled or otherwise) and more likely to be inactive than their non-disabled peers in 2024. The inactivity rate for disabled graduates (19.7%) was more than double the rate for non-disabled graduates (7.5%).

Degree class

Working age population (16-64 year olds)

In 2024, working age graduates with first class and upper second (2:1) degrees had very similar employment rates (89.4% and 88.5%) and similar inactivity rates (7.8% and 8.8%) respectively. 

Working age graduates with either a lower second (2:2) or third class degrees had lower employment and high-skilled employment rates, and higher inactivity rates compared to those with first class and upper second degrees. For example, the difference between those who obtained a first and third class degree are:

  • Employment rate – first class degree is 89.4% vs third class degree is 84.3%
  • High-skilled employment rate – first class degree is 71.5% vs third class degree is 62.7%
  • Inactivity rate - first class degree is 7.8% vs third class degree is 14.8%

However, working age unemployment rates were very similar across the higher degree classes, with first class, upper second-class and lower second-class degrees being 3.0%, 3.0% and 3.1% respectively. 

Please note that due to small underlying sample sizes, particularly for unemployment and inactivity rates, these figures could be subject to higher annual volatility.

7. Part-time employment

Proportion of workers in part-time employment in 2024 by graduate type and age group

In the younger age groups, non-graduates have the highest proportion of workers in part-time employment. For example, in the 21-30 age group, 22.8% of employed non-graduates were working part-time compared to 10.5% of postgraduates.

These proportions level out as the age group increases, among the 51-60 age group the proportion working part-time are:

  • Postgraduates - 22.4%
  • Graduates - 23.2%
  • Non-graduates - 24.4%

Time series of part-time employment by graduate type

Working age population (16-64 year olds)

In 2024, the proportion of working age employees working part-time fell to 18.6% for graduates, down 1.3 percentage points. The proportion also fell for postgraduates  to 18.2%, down 0.8 percentage points on 2023. This was 27.2% for non-graduates, down 0.5 percentage points on 2023.

The proportion of working age employees working part-time has also fallen compared to 2019 (pre-pandemic) for both graduates, non-graduates and postgraduates, who experienced the largest fall of 2.6 percentage points since 2019. 

Gender; working age population (16-64 year olds)

Please note the graduate group here does not include postgraduates.

There were large differences between the sexes for both graduates and non-graduates for the proportion of working age employees working part-time. In 2024, there were more females in part-time employment than males:

  • Non-graduates – 42.4% of females vs 13.7% of males
  • Graduates – 27.9% of females vs 8.7% of males

This creates a gap between the sexes of 19.2 percentage points for graduates. For non-graduates, the gap between females and males was higher at 28.7 percentage points.

For female non-graduates, this proportion peaked in 2012 at 47.2% and has fluctuated over time, it fell in 2024 to 42.4%. However, the proportion of male non-graduates in part-time employment was the highest in the time series in 2023 at 13.9%, it fell slightly to 13.7% in 2024.

8. Salaries time series by graduate type (2007 - 2024)

Please use caution when making comparisons between salaries across graduate groups. The statistics presented do not control for external factors such as prior academic attainment, skills, experience, or geographic location which can influence salary.

Please also note that comparisons between figures are calculated using unrounded data.

Nominal median salaries

Working age population (16-64 year olds)

In 2024, nominal median salaries increased for working age postgraduates (up £2,000), graduates (up £2,000) and non-graduates (up £1,000) from 2023. Salaries were highest for postgraduates at £47,000, followed by graduates at £42,000 and non-graduates at £30,500. 

Growth in nominal median salaries since 2019 (pre-pandemic) for those of working age has been highest for graduates (up £8,000). This contrasts with an increase of £5,000 for postgraduates and £6,500 for non-graduates.  Growth since the start of the time series in 2007 in nominal salaries has been similar for graduates (up £12,000), postgraduates (£11,500) and non-graduates (£11,000).

Real median salaries

Working age population (16-64 year olds)

Real median salaries were highest for postgraduates at £29,500, followed by graduates at £26,500 and non-graduates at £19,500 in 2024. 

Real median salaries increased modestly for working age postgraduates and graduates (both up £500) but were unchanged for non-graduates on 2023. This contrasts with previous falls in real median salaries between 2022 and 2023 for both postgraduates and graduates and a modest increase for non-graduates.

Whilst non-graduate real median salaries were very similar in 2024 compared to 2007 (before the 2008 economic recession), they were lower for both postgraduates (down £6,000) and graduates (down £3,500) over this period and have not recovered to pre-recession levels.

9. Salaries time series by sex (2007 - 2024)

Please use caution when making comparisons between salaries across graduate groups. The statistics presented do not control for external factors such as prior academic attainment, skills, experience, or geographic location which can influence salary.

Please also note that comparisons between figures are calculated using unrounded data.

Median salaries by sex

In 2024, median (nominal and real) salaries were higher for males than females across all graduate types in the working age population. The salary differences between males and females for each graduate type are:

  • Postgraduates - £5,000 (nominal) / £4,000 (real)
  • Graduates - £10,500 (nominal) / £6,000 (real)
  • Non-graduates - £6,000 (nominal) / £4,000 (real)

Nominal median salaries; working age population (16-64 year olds)

In 2024, the highest nominal median salaries were found among:

  1. Postgraduate males = £50,500
  2. Graduate males = £48,500
  3. Postgraduate females = £45,000

The lowest nominal median salary were female non-graduates at £27,500, an increase of £1,500 from 2023.

Postgraduate females’ earnings increased by £3,000 in 2024, compared to £2,000 for males. Postgraduate females have seen greater increases in nominal median salaries since 2019 (pre-pandemic) with females’ salaries up by £8,000, compared to £5,000 for males. In 2024, the difference between working-age postgraduate male and female nominal median salaries have narrowed slightly to £5,000 from £6,000 in 2023.

Graduate male nominal median earnings increased by £3,000 compared to £2,500 for graduate females from 2023 to 2024. This led to the widest gap in earnings of £10,500 since the start of the time series in 2007.

Non-graduate nominal salaries for males and females were the highest in 2024 throughout the time series. The gap in nominal median salaries between male and female non-graduates was unchanged at £6,000 in 2023 and 2024.

Real median salaries; working age population (16-64 year olds)

Similarly to nominal median salaries, the highest real median salaries in 2024 were for:

  1. Postgraduate males = £32,000
  2. Graduate males = £30,000
  3. Postgraduate females = £28,000

Real median salaries for postgraduate males and females were at their lowest in 2023 due to high inflation. Real median salaries increased modestly in 2024 for both postgraduate males (up £1,000) and females (up £500) on 2023. 

Similarly, graduate real median salaries increased more for males, up £1,000, compared to females which increased by £500 from 2023 to 2024. However, graduate female real median salaries have exceeded 2019 (pre-pandemic) levels, whereas graduate males are still below 2019.

Again, real median salaries for non-graduate males and females increased modestly in 2024 by £500 for females and males. Non-graduate males had the highest real median salary in 2024 at £21,000. Real median salaries for both non-graduate males and females have been stable over the GLMS series, though the gap between females and males has narrowed since 2007.

Caveats

Please note differences between groups or over time are calculated using unrounded data.

Since median salaries are calculated for individuals employed in full-time work only, the higher proportion of females in part-time work does not contribute to differences in pay between males and females in these figures. Data on the proportion of men and women in part-time work can be found at the Office for National Statistics’ dataset on full-time, part-time and temporary workers . (opens in a new tab)

Using median salaries mitigates against average values being skewed by extremes. However, it conceals other features of the data, for example, that the difference in pay between males and females is largest among high earners. Further analysis of this difference in pay in 2024 can be found in the Office for National Statistics’ publication: Gender pay gap in the UK: 2024. (opens in a new tab)

10. Median salaries by industry (2024)

Median graduate nominal salaries by industry

Gender; working age population (16-64 year olds)

In 2024, working age male graduates had the highest median salaries in the following sectors:

  • Construction = £57,500 
  • Manufacturing = £54,500
  • Energy and water = £54,500

Working age female graduates had the highest median salaries in the following sectors:

  • Transport and communication = £44,000 
  • Banking and finance = £41,000
  • Manufacturing = £40,000

Whilst working age male graduates earned more than female graduates across all sectors, the sector with the largest differences between males and females was the construction industry where male graduates earned on average £21,000 more than graduate females. In contrast, distribution or hotels or restaurants had the smallest difference between salaries for males and females at £1,500.

Sectors with the lowest median salaries were agriculture, forestry and fishing, distribution or hotels or restaurants, and public admin or education or health.

Please note that some of the figures covering median salaries by industry and sex are based on small sample sizes and can therefore be subject to higher annual volatility.

Help and support

Methodology

Find out how and why we collect, process and publish these statistics.

Official statistics in development

These statistics are undergoing a development. They have been developed under the guidance of the Head of Profession for Statistics and published to involve users and stakeholders at an early stage in assessing their suitability and quality.

They have been produced as far as possible in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics.

This can be broadly interpreted to mean that these statistics are:

  • managed impartially and objectively in the public interest
  • meet identified user needs
  • produced according to sound methods
  • well explained and readily accessible

Find out more about the standards we follow to produce these statistics through our Standards for official statistics published by DfE guidance.

Contact us

If you have a specific enquiry about Graduate labour market statistics statistics and data:

HE Analysis Priority Statistics Policy Support Team

Email: PSPSTeam@education.gov.uk
Contact name: Steve White
Telephone: 07712423965

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