Graduates with bachelor degrees in science struggle to find work in comparison with their counterparts in other science, technology, engineering and maths (Stem) disciplines, the Grattan Institute has found in a new report.

The Mapping Australian Higher Education 2016 report, released on Monday, shows that science and information technology graduates have patchy prospects in the labour market despite increasing demand for Stem skills.

In 2015 only half of bachelor degree science graduates seeking full-time work had found it four months after completing their degrees, 17% below the average for all graduates.

“Although many recent science graduates struggle in the labour market, things improve over time,” it said.

“For 2011 bachelor degree science graduates, their full-time employment rate four months later was 65%, but three years later, in 2014, 82% of those who were looking for full-time work had found it.

“While this is a considerable increase, it is below the 89% rate for all graduates.”

Skills under-utilisation was also more common for science than for other Stem fields. Among recent science graduates who found full-time jobs, only half say their qualification is required or important for their job – about 20% points below the average.

A total of 64% of graduates with bachelor degrees in science work in managerial or professional jobs, compared to 69% of IT graduates and 73% of engineering graduates.

But when postgraduate qualifications are included, science and IT have the same level of managerial and professional employment, the report found.

It concluded that the employment situation for science graduates was “troubling” and the labour market was being “overwhelmed by the 35% increase in domestic completions between 2008 and 2014”.

The Grattan Institute’s higher education program director, Andrew Norton, said despite poor employment outcomes, demand for science courses continued to grow.

“Prospective students thinking about studying science need to know that a bachelor science degree is high risk for finding a job,” he said. “Often students need to do another degree to improve their employment prospects.”

The report found there was no shortage of IT jobs relative to the number of graduates. But IT graduates still found it difficult, with one third of recent graduates unable to get full-time work.

That was due to “weaknesses in IT university education, and strong competition from a globalised IT labour force”, it said.

Engineering graduates had better employment prospects than science or IT graduates. Three-quarters of new engineering graduates found full-time work, and they had the highest rate of professional or managerial employment of all Stem graduates.



“Despite the decline in professional engineering jobs in the economy, 80% of engineering graduates employed full time in 2014 were in jobs closely matched to their qualification, compared to 53% for science and 64% for IT graduates,” the report said.

The Grattan Institute found graduates with bachelor degrees in health, education and law had the highest rate of professional and managerial employment – all above 80%.

Those with bachelor degrees in humanities, science, creative arts, management and commerce or agriculture all had professional or managerial employment rates below two-thirds.

Uncapping course places in 2009 helped students get into their preferred courses. The proportion of applicants receiving an offer in their first-preference field increased from 77% in 2009 to 84% in 2015.

It also helped universities respond to skills shortages. In 2008 40 professional or managerial occupations reported shortages, down to just six in 2015.

The report said enrolments had increased in 12 of the 14 fields with skills shortages that could be investigated, showing “the system had responded positively” to the shortage.

Regardless of their field, having a university degree pays off for graduates.

According to the Grattan Institute the median male with a bachelor degree will earn $1.4m more over his lifetime compared to the median male with no higher education past year 12. For women, the figure is just under $1m.

After deducting education costs and income tax, male graduates are $900,000 and female graduates are $700,000 better off.

And the benefits of having a degree are growing. Both male and female graduates increased their lifetime earnings by about $80,000 between 2006 and 2011.