According to the Ministry of Education’s Education Counts website, 126,449 students wrapped up tertiary study last year, 34 per cent with a bachelors’ degree or higher. This year’s numbers are likely to be similar, if not higher, with another batch due to graduate in the next few weeks. What can they expect of life after uni?
For a start, the signs are positive that they’ll earn more than if they hadn’t gone on to further study. Average earnings are 24 per cent higher for those with a tertiary education compared to those with only upper secondary and “post-secondary, non-tertiary” education.
The median weekly income for people aged between 15 and 24 with bachelors’ degrees or higher was $455 last year, and $888 for those aged between 25 and 34.
People with a tertiary education are also more likely to be in employment, and less susceptible to overall fluctuations in levels of unemployment, than those without.
Victoria University’s career service asks recent graduates how they’re faring in the real world after graduation as part of its annual Graduate Destinations Survey. The most recent results available apply to those who graduated between July 2011 and end of June 2012, but they’re a telling indication of what this new batch of graduates might have to look forward to.
Photo: VicCareers Graduate Destinations Survey 11-12
Of just under 2000 respondents, more than half had graduated with a Bachelor’s degree alone. 67 per cent were working full-time, and 19 per cent were working part-time. Of the 14 per cent not in paid work, 66 per cent were in full- or part-time study – and just over half of them were not looking for work at all.
The average salary for a Bachelor’s degree graduate was $41,886 per annum, which works out to be about $617 cash in hand per week, after tax, ACC and student loan deductions. That annual average salary skewed a little less ($41,000) if it was their first job, and more ($45,504) if they’d been previously employed.
By way of comparison, the median weekly income from wages and salaries in the year to June ’13 was $844 before tax.
Photo: VicCareers Graduate Destinations Survey 11-12
But it’s interesting to note that at a bachelor’s level, at least, the gender wage gap is more or less absent, with the average male graduate earning $41,957 per annum, only marginally more than the average for women at $41,814. That gap remains negligible for diploma and Honours graduates, but increases at a Masters and PhD level.
According to the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, New Zealand’s gender pay gap is 10.1 per cent, though that is measured against median (not average) hourly earnings. The New Zealand Income Survey last year found that a man with a bachelor’s degree or higher qualification earned a media hourly rate of $31.07, compared to $26.90 for a similarly-qualified woman.
Of course, it’s not just about money. Graduates are just as motivated to find a vocation they’re satisfied with, and which relates to their course of study, as they are to rake in the big bucks.
The world-first Graduate Longitudinal Study was commissioned by Universities New Zealand to explore how graduates fare in the years after university, and is being conducted by the National Centre for Lifecourse Research, based at the University of Otago.
It’s following about 8600 final-year students, chosen in the second half of 2011 from all eight of New Zealand’s universities, for the decade after they graduate.
According to most recent figures, released in April last year, three-quarters of respondents were seeking a career that offered long-term progression in the two years after leaving uni, as opposed to the 48.9 per cent wanting a job to provide them with an immediate wage.
Almost as many were intending to pursue further study during this period, and 16.6 per cent of the total were open to “all of the above” – that’s to say, a career, a job or returning to study if neither eventuated. (Participants were able to select as many outcomes as applied to their situation.)
“Job satisfaction” was the most popular response to “What are you looking for in a career or job?”, followed by “financial security” and “opportunity to apply knowledge and skills”. “A good work/life balance” also rated highly as an important factor to take into account when choosing a career path.
And it seems if a job doesn’t tick those boxes, it seems “youth” – as Statistics New Zealand terms 15- to 24-year-olds – aren’t afraid to move on to one that does. Between 2007 and 2011, the average worker turnover rate for youth in any given quarter was 28 per cent, compared to 13 per cent for people aged 25 and over – meaning that around one in four “youth” changed their workplace in any quarter, compared with only one in seven for people in other age groups.
If you want to know the lay of the land of your chosen career path, job prospects and average pay for individual vocations are listed as part of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s annual Occupational Outlook series.
More broadly, last month, Radio New Zealand’s William Ray investigated what job prospects are like for tertiary students, and what the government and educators can do to balance their needs with those of industry.
We’ll be looking into the value of a tertiary education more in the coming months.
