This yearís graduates can expect 21,000 a year

Starting salaries for new graduates have risen to a median of 21,000 this year, according to study by IRS Employment Review.

The research also reveals that although four out of ten employers targeting recent graduates have experienced recruitment problems this year, starting salaries have increased by just 2.4% over the past 12 months ñ some way behind the 3% rise across all employee groups.

This slowdown follows a long-term trend for graduate salaries to rise at a faster rate than wages in the economy as a whole.

The research found that graduate starting salaries this year run from just 12,500 to 31,000. The middle half of all salaries fall in a band ranging from 18,275 to 23,000.

This yearís is the 17th annual IRS graduate recruitment survey and is based on responses from 150 organisations which together employ 1.8 million people. A copy of the full report is attached to this press release as a PDF.

Over the past two to three years, the IRS research has uncovered a steady rise in demand for recent graduates. More than twice as many employers expect to increase their graduate recruitment this year compared with last year as cut it back.

Age law has little impact
Nearly nine out of ten organisations that recruit graduates (89%) had reviewed their policies and procedures in advance of the Age Regulations. But fewer than half (43%) had modified them as a result.

Bringing graduate recruitment into line with age discrimination is not easy ñ not least because far more younger people (37% of those aged 25 to 29) than older people (24% of those aged 55 to 64) have degrees.

But virtually none of the organisations contacted by IRS believes that the regulations will have a major impact on graduate recruitment and development in the long term (see chart below). More than one in four (27%) said it would have no impact at all.

Comment
Commenting on the findings, Neil Rankin, recruitment and retention editor for IRS Employment Review, said:

Graduate recruitment has survived the economic turbulence of recent years, demand is up and the Age Discrimination Regulations seem to have been revealed as a paper tiger, at least in the eyes of graduate recruiters themselves.

ìUnless there is a serious economic shock during the coming months, graduate recruitment looks set for a relatively uneventful season ñ that is, if recruitersí sanguine attitude towards the new anti-ageism legislation turns out to be well-founded.

Long-term impact of the Age Regulations
No impact - 27%
Minor impact - 46%
Major impact - 1%
Donít know/too soon to say - 26%

Source: IRS.