Pay bonanza for new graduates

GRADUATES are in increasing demand and can earn up to pounds 50,000 as soon as they leave college, according to a survey of incomes to be published next week.

Although stratospheric salaries are rare - the top wage was offered to a graduate installing security systems in an Angolan diamond mine - the news for all new students is good, according to the higher education Careers Services Unit.

A survey of nearly 3,000 graduate jobs found average salaries had soared by 8.32 per cent, more than six times the rate of inflation.

It also shows that students investing thousands of pounds in their education can expect a good return on their money.

The survey found average graduates can expect to earn pounds 16,344, compared with pounds 11,145 for the average 20 to 24-year-old.

At the top end, management consultancies offered the highest average salaries at pounds 18,957, but with even greater rewards available for the lucky few entering the City of London.

The boom in computer technology is also reflected in the graduate jobs market. Information technology jobs made up one in five of those on offer. Computer firms paid the second highest salaries at pounds 17,254.

There were also significant rewards to be had in accountancy, finance and private training companies, all offering graduates over pounds 17,000 a year.

Engineering, an area where many universities have faced difficulties recruiting in recent years, was one of the largest graduate recruiters, accounting for 13 per cent in the survey.

Pat Raderecht, chief executive of the Careers Services Unit which carried out the survey, said: "With the expansion of higher education we were all concerned that there would be substantial unemployment amongst graduates and substantial downgrading of their jobs.

"But it's clear that people are going into a wide range of jobs and are being successful."