The most useful degrees in Australia, by graduate outcomes

Full-time employment and starting salary by study area

The Graduate Outcomes Survey (GOS) is run for the Australian Government Department of Education as part of the Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching (QILT). Graduates are surveyed about four to six months after they complete their course. The 2025 national report, released in June 2026, covers domestic graduates who responded between November 2024 and May 2025, from 136 universities and other higher education institutions.

The table shows domestic undergraduates only, listed alphabetically rather than ranked. Each column answers a different question, so read them separately.

The full-time employment rate is the share of graduates working at least 35 hours a week, out of those who were available for full-time work (either already working full time or looking for it). Graduates who were studying and not looking for full-time work aren't counted in that group. The salary column is the median for graduates employed full time. Graduates of a double degree across two study areas are counted in both.

In 2025 QILT changed how it defines the labour force, removing people who were only passively looking for work. The Department of Education estimates this pushed undergraduate full-time employment rates up by around 3.5 to 4.5 percentage points, so the 2025 figures shouldn't be compared directly with earlier years.

Why a high job rate doesn't mean a high salary

The two columns in the table don't move together, and the survey report makes the same point. Pharmacy graduates had the highest full-time employment rate of any study area, 96.4%, and the lowest median salary, $62,600. QILT notes that around 80% of pharmacy undergraduates report working as pharmacists, and that pharmacy graduates have one of the highest rates of salary growth over the following three years.

Dentistry had both a high employment rate (84.6%) and the highest median salary ($103,100). Computing and information systems went the other way, with one of the lower employment rates (65.3%) but an above-average median salary of $80,000. Medicine graduates, at 93.2% and $85,900, are at the start of supervised training when they're surveyed, because Australian medical graduates need to complete an internship on provisional registration before they can apply for general registration.

Ranking on salary alone would put computing ahead of nursing and business, even though about a third of computing graduates who wanted full-time work hadn't yet found it. Ranking on employment alone would put pharmacy first, with the lowest starting salary in the table. Both figures are useful, but they measure different things, and neither tells you what a graduate earns after the first year.

Why some degrees look weaker at first

Psychology and science and mathematics graduates had some of the lowest full-time employment rates in 2025, and also the highest rates of further full-time study, at 33.7% and 35.9%. QILT's explanation is that many professions in these fields need extra training or qualifications. Becoming a registered psychologist, for example, involves four years of accredited study followed by a postgraduate degree or a supervised internship, so a lower job rate straight after a bachelor degree partly reflects people who haven't finished training yet.

The same report groups the lower-scoring study areas, including creative arts, communications, and computing and information systems, as ones that teach a broad range of knowledge that can lead to many kinds of work. Degrees like these don't feed into one obvious job title, so it can take longer to find a first full-time role.

The picture also changes over time. QILT's longitudinal survey followed domestic graduates from 2022 to 2025. Undergraduates' full-time employment rate rose from 79.5% four to six months after finishing to 91.7% three years later, and their median full-time salary rose from $69,000 to $91,000. More generalist study areas, and those that require further study or accreditation, had lower rates of professional employment early on but bigger gains three years later. The 2025 methodology change affects the three-year figures too, so treat the size of the rise with some caution.

Postgraduate outcomes are a separate comparison

Graduates of postgraduate coursework degrees, such as a master's by coursework or a graduate diploma, had a full-time employment rate of 88.3% and a median salary of $104,700 in 2025. Those figures are higher than for undergraduates, but the two groups aren't alike. Only 32.2% of postgraduate coursework graduates were aged 30 or under, compared with 77.5% of undergraduates, and QILT notes they're more likely to have been working before they finished their studies.

The last column in this table shows how much the age mix varies. In some fields, such as veterinary science, medicine and pharmacy, a postgraduate degree is often the first qualification for the profession, so graduates are younger. In others, such as business, social work and teaching, most graduates are older and many are returning to study mid-career.

Business and management shows why the postgraduate and undergraduate tables shouldn't be read side by side. Postgraduate business graduates reported a median salary of $130,000, while just 22.1% of them were 30 or under. A figure like that reflects the experience many people brought to the course, so it isn't evidence that the qualification alone produced the pay. If you're thinking about postgraduate study to change direction, the career change guide looks at which moves need a full new qualification and which don't.

Degrees linked to occupations in shortage

A shortage list gives you a different angle: where employers are having trouble filling jobs. Jobs and Skills Australia's 2025 Occupation Shortage List, released in October 2025, rated 293 of the 1,022 occupations it assessed (29%) as in national shortage. Many of those that stayed in shortage from 2024 to 2025 were professional roles in health, education, engineering and science.

These degree-qualified occupations were rated in national shortage in the 2025 list:

• Health: registered nurse (acute, aged care, mental health and primary health care), pharmacist (community), physiotherapist, occupational therapist, speech pathologist, psychologist, dentist and general practitioner
• Education: early childhood teacher, primary school teacher and secondary school teacher
• Engineering and construction: civil engineer, land surveyor and quantity surveyor
• Law: solicitor
• Veterinary science: veterinarian

Ratings can also differ between states and territories, which matters if you're planning to work in a particular place. Electrical engineer was in national shortage but rated as in shortage only in New South Wales, South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory. Mechanical engineer and social worker weren't in national shortage, but mechanical engineer was in shortage in South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory, and social worker in South Australia, the Northern Territory and the ACT. Hospital pharmacist was rated as a regional shortage in every state and the Northern Territory, and in shortage across the ACT.

Several occupations that people often study for were not in national shortage, including software engineer, general accountant, architect, graphic designer and journalist. Of the 69 occupations that moved out of shortage between 2024 and 2025, 31 were professional roles, including a cluster in business, finance, engineering and technology.

Treat the list as context rather than a promise. Jobs and Skills Australia says a shortage doesn't necessarily make it easier to get a job, because the unmet demand may be for experienced workers, particular specialisations or particular locations. The list is also a snapshot, updated each year, and a degree you start now will finish in a different labour market.

How to use the figures when choosing a degree

The data is most useful for checking a shortlist you've already started, rather than picking a course from the top of a table. A few questions can help you apply it:

• Where does the degree lead? If it prepares you for one registered profession, check how long the full path takes, including any honours year, master's degree or internship.
• What happens straight after? A high further study rate, as in psychology or science, can mean the bachelor degree is only the first step.
• What do graduates earn later? Starting salaries are a snapshot of the first few months. Occupation pay, such as the figures in the highest paying jobs guide, gives a sense of where a career can go.
• How does your course compare? Results vary between institutions. ComparED, the government's QILT comparison site, shows survey results for individual universities and study areas.

A degree you're interested in and likely to finish may serve you better than one chosen only for its employment rate. The figures can help you see what a field's first few years usually look like, and where you might need a plan for further study or a longer job search.