The Graduate labour market statistics 2016 report shows that graduates who studied Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects, on average had higher employment rates, greater high-skilled employment rates, lower unemployment rates and higher median salaries than the graduate population as a whole.

The Department for Education’s report finds that STEM graduates had greater high-skilled employment rates than both Law, Economics and Management (LEM) graduates and Other Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities (OSSAH) graduates. This figure is particularly high in the working age population, where 72.5% of STEM graduates worked in high-skilled jobs. The equivalent figures for LEM and OSSAH graduates were 64.8% and 59.5% respectively.

According to the report, the unemployment rate for working age STEM graduates (16 to 64 years) stands at 2.3%, and at 3.8% for young population (21 to 30 years). In comparison, LEM graduates had respective unemployment rates of 3.3% and 4.3%, and OSSAH graduate unemployment rates were 3.5% and 5.8% respectively.

Broken down into sectors, the 2016 statistics show that the four sectors where graduates earned the highest amount were manufacturing; construction; transport and communication; and banking and finance.

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