1 in 5 graduates earn less than school leavers!

Labour Force Survey data has been recently analysed by the Office for National Statistics and the results of which were released today.

It found that when comparing data from November-December in 2010 1 in 5 employed graduates are actually on a lower wage than employees with A-levels or equivalent.

When comparing average pay 20% of graduate salaries are lower than those for undergraduates.

Furthermore, the analysis found that 15% of graduate earners are actually earning less than school leavers who are educated to GCSE level.

Although 1 in 5 may sound like a large number the earning prospects for the graduates is likely to be higher than those who are employed with A levels only.

The data analysis compared figures from 1993 which was a period under conservative government and when the UK was recovering from a recession. It found that the percentage of people in the UK who have a degree has jumped from 12% to last year’s figure of 25%.

85% of graduates now earn more than school leavers but in 1993 this was 95%. When the amount of people holding a degree has more than doubled perhaps a 10% drop is inevitable, and really graduate earning prospects are not as dire as is often made out.

But the percentage of workers in the highest skilled jobs such as managerial positions, engineers and accountants who are educated to a degree standard has fallen 11% in the last 17 years from 68% to 57%.

Lower to middle skilled jobs such as retail, machine operative and admin roles are mainly filled by people with GCSE level education with almost one in every two in 2010.