Grad places up, starting salaries frozen

Grad places up, starting salaries frozen

Three-quarters of employers plan to freeze starting salaries for graduates over the next year according to Incomes Data Services’ (IDS) annual Pay and Progression for Graduates 2013 report.

With inflation running at 2.8 percent, the pay freeze equates to a pay cut in real terms for graduates. Median graduate starting salaries are set to remain £25,500 until at least 2014. IDS says that employers are restraining graduate pay due to continued fear over the economy. The number of graduate roles is forecast to decline in traditionally high paying areas like finance and the law by 12 percent and five percent respectively. IDS adds that the finance and legal sectors remain the highest paying sectors for graduates. The median graduate starting salary in the legal sector is £36,500, while the median pay for finance graduates is £29,250. Nasreen Rahman, Assistant Editor at IDS, says: “Key graduate recruiters, like the legal and finance industries, are cautious about hiring large numbers of graduates, but are still offering competitive salaries to lure the cream of the crop.”

Despite a flat outlook on pay for graduates, IDS forecast an eight percent increase in the number of overall available graduate roles over the next year, following an increase of just 0.1 percent last year. The retail sector has reported the largest increases in expected graduate intake by planning to boost graduate recruitment by 30 percent. Likewise, the service sector is also expecting to increase graduate intake by 15.7 percent. IDS adds that there is also a revival in public sector recruiting underway. IDS forecast an increase of five percent in the number of graduate public sector roles over the next year, following a long hiring freeze. Nasreen Rahman says: “Forecasts for graduate recruitment are much more buoyant this year compared to last, although some sectors are much more confident than others. An increase in the number of roles available will be welcome news for many graduates, especially if the optimism in the recruitment market can be maintained.”

Read more

Latest News

Read More

What parenting teaches us about professional growth

15 August 2025

Employee Benefits & Reward

14 August 2025

In the race to attract and retain top talent, HR leaders are constantly reassessing how to create a compelling employee value proposition that aligns with...

Employment Law

14 August 2025

Step-by-step guide for UK employers to prepare for an employment tribunal. Learn ET1/ET3 tips, witness prep, and settlement strategies....

Newsletter

Receive the latest HR news and strategic content

Please note, as per the GDPR Legislation, we need to ensure you are ‘Opted In’ to receive updates from ‘theHRDIRECTOR’. We will NEVER sell, rent, share or give away your data to third parties. We only use it to send information about our products and updates within the HR space To see our Privacy Policy – click here

Latest HR Jobs

University of Cambridge – Department of Clinical NeurosciencesSalary: £33,951 to £39,906

University of Oxford – HR Centres of Excellence based within the Centre for Human GeneticsSalary: £34,982 to £40,855 per annum (pro rata). Grade 6

University of Bradford – Directorate of People and CultureSalary: £40,497 to £45,413 per annum Role 1 – 1 FTE September to end of January 2026.

University of Greater Manchester – Human Resources TeamSalary: £41,671 to £48,149 per annum

Read the latest digital issue of theHRDIRECTOR for FREE

Read the latest digital issue of theHRDIRECTOR for FREE