Highest graduate starting salary hits £60,000 for the first time

2019-01-30

The highest graduate starting salary has hit £60,000 for the first time, an annual survey has found.

Investment banks offer the most lucrative jobs for university leavers with average first year salaries of £47,000, according to a report published by High Flyers Research.

Last year graduates were being lured into investment banks with salaries upwards of £50,000 but year is the first time they are being offered up to £60,000.

The report, called The Graduate Market in 2019, found that graduates who take a job at Aldi can expect a starting salary similar to those who head to the world's top law firms.

The £44,000 pay packet of the budget supermarket's graduate scheme, which also includes a company Audi, is on par with similar programmes at the law firms Baker McKenzie and Allen & Overy, which both offer £45,000.

The report discovered a 9.1 per cent year-on-year increase in graduate vacancies for 2019 but predicted the average starting salary to remain unchanged since 2015, at £30,000.

Martin Birchall, the managing director of High Flyers Research, said: "Our latest research shows that despite all the continuing uncertainty over Brexit, the UK's top employers are planning to recruit a record number of new graduates in 2019."

The number of graduate roles is rising again after it fell for the first time in five years over uncertainty around Brexit, he said. In 2019, a sixth of the top 100 schemes will pay more than £40,000, according to the research.

Other top paying companies include Linklaters, the law firm, which offers £47,000, and the software firm TPP, which supplies the NHS and offers graduates £45,000.

Mr Birchall added: "The graduate job market dipped two years ago in the aftermath of the vote to leave the EU but recovered well in 2018. "

The growth in graduate vacancies for 2019 is the highest for nine years and there are more opportunities than ever before for university undergraduates to do paid work experience with the country's leading employers."

Public sector employers, accounting and professional services firms, and engineering and industrial companies are expected to create the most roles, recruiting an additional 1,500 graduates this year, according to the research.