The latest graduate employment data supports what ABS data suggested a few weeks ago: that the worst of the graduate employment downturn might be behind us. Early this year, the proportion of new graduates seeking full-time work but without work or only working part-time was fractionally lower than it had been at the same time in 2014. As the chart below shows, though, it is still at historically high levels.

The discipline-level data shows, unsurprisingly, a less tidy picture. There has been a rebound in construction related occupations, and small improvements in outcomes for big fields such as education and commerce. Mining engineering employment, unsurprisingly, is still heading down and there was an on-going decline in nursing and law. All of these declining fields still have above average levels of graduate employment, but negative trends.

I have been pointing out for many years that, contrary to continuing pro-STEM rhetoric, science is not a good employment option. For the second year running, life science graduates are only narrowly avoiding having the worst employment outcomes of any discipline (visual and performing arts graduates reliably come last in looking for jobs). While outcomes this year were slightly better than last year, 51% of life science graduates were still looking for work 4 months after graduation. Maths, chemistry and physics all trended down, although with small numbers of respondents.

Another STEM discipline, computer science, did slightly worse than the overall average, with 33% un- or under-employment. Of the STEM disciplines, only engineering produces employment outcomes that are significantly better than average, with most improving on 2014.