The number of university graduates with large debts is growing but fewer graduates are earning enough to pay back their loans – fresh evidence that today's new graduates are struggling to find full-time work and are receiving lower starting salaries than their predecessors.

The drop has led to calls to reduce the amount at which graduates have to start paying back their debts, currently $54,126, so they start their repayments sooner.

The increase in graduates with large debts could be due to a growing number taking on postgraduate study, says Grattan Institute's Andrew Norton. Credit:Josh Robenstone

The latest Australian Tax Office statistics, released this week, show that the number of graduates with debts above $40,000 has doubled over the past two years to more than 100,000 people.

The figures also show the number of people repaying their debts fell by 2000 between 2011-12 and 2012-13 despite the number of people with a student debt increasing by over 140,000 over the same period.