One in four Australian graduates ‘squandering their skills’

Around one-quarter of Australian graduates say they are overqualified for their jobs, with many unable to fully apply their skills after three years in the workforce.

Results from a survey of more than 48,000 graduates from over 125 Australian higher education institutions, including every university, suggest that degrees deliver strong salary and employability dividends – but not necessarily job fulfilment.

The annual longitudinal study of graduate outcomes found that the respondents’ full-time employment rates had risen from between 80 and 90 per cent in 2022, around three months after they had completed their studies, to between 92 and 95 per cent last year.

The salary premium from higher study also improved, with bachelor’s graduates attracting a median salary of A$91,000 (£48,300) after three years, compared to A$69,000 just after they had obtained their degrees.

Taught master’s graduates commanded a median salary of A$116,000 after three years, up from A$91,300 a few months after completing their courses, while median pay for higher research degree graduates rose from A$97,000 after three months to A$120,000 after three years.

But rates of skills utilisation improved by only a few percentage points over that period. After three years, 24 per cent of bachelor’s and PhD graduates and 27 per cent of taught postgraduates still said they were not fully applying their knowledge on the job.

Among the PhD graduates who felt their skills were being squandered, 27 per cent said there were “no suitable jobs in my area of expertise”. Another 16 per cent blamed a lack of local jobs or “other labour market factors”.

Master’s and bachelor’s graduates, on the other hand, were more likely to blame personal factors for staying in jobs that did not match their skills.

The findings come from the Department of Education’s latest Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching (Qilt) survey, conducted by the Social Research Centre. Director of Qilt research Angela Baker said some respondents who claimed to be overqualified had indicated that they were nevertheless “sticking with the job” to consolidate what they learned in their degrees.

Others had reported that their current jobs gave them the freedom to pursue further study, and were likely to “draw on more skills from their degrees as their careers progress”, Baker said.

But the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations (Capa) said the findings reflected a structural failure. “The Australians the country [has] trained to be its scientists, engineers and senior researchers are telling us, in their own words, that there are no jobs in their fields,” said Capa president Jesse Gardner-Russell.

“This is the result of flatlining research funding, which will only be exacerbated by the missed opportunity to act on the Strategic Examination of Research and Development final report.”

Gardner-Russell said the strong salary premiums for postgraduates showed that higher research study delivered more than private benefits. “It is a public investment that returns outsized value to the economy,” he said.

The survey found that short-term employment outcomes were strongest in rehabilitation, pharmacy and teacher education. But full-time employment rates improved markedly over the ensuing three years less in less “vocational” disciplines like law, psychology and the humanities.

Some 5 per cent of taught master’s students, 6 per cent of doctoral candidates and 7 per cent of undergraduates reported that they were stuck in part-time jobs, despite seeking full-time work, three years after they had graduated.

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com