Recent university graduates have fewer and fewer problems finding a job quickly. However, their salaries remained about the same in 2005, while their purchasing power decreased.
This was reported in the news magazine Elsevier in their recent issue on the job market. The figures were based on a survey of almost ten thousand first-time employees. The survey covers their position on the job market in 2005 and the first two months of 2006, leaving the recent economic surge out of the picture.
The average net salary of a university graduate is now 1612 euros per month, 324 euros more than a HBO graduate. After peaking in 2002, the average salary of starters has gone down again and it is now just above the 1999 level.
The highly and badly paying jobs are still in the same sectors. A recently graduated archeologist will have to survive on a net monthly salary of 1100 euros, while a dentist already gets 3125 euros at that stage. Between the dentist and other physicians (1950 euros) is a gap of over a thousand euros a month. Young pharmacists earn 1875 euros. The medical degrees are followed by econometrics, fiscal law and business administration (between 1775 and 1850 euros).
A science background does not guarantee a fat bank account. Biologists earn only 1350 euros a month. Mathematicians and physicians get the same as communication scientists: 1550 euros per month. Chemistry is even less than that. Mechanical engineers, managers and aviation scientists can expect more: between 1725 and 1775 euros per month.
It does take university graduates less time to find a job than it used to, according to Elsevier's data. In 2005 it took them on average 4.7 months to find a job at the right level, down from 5.5 months in 2004. Of course there are differences. A cultural anthropologist takes over a year, while dentists get a job almost immediately. For the sciences, biology is again the biggest weight: that will take you over half a year to find a job. HBO graduates take on average 3.5 months to find suitable work.
