Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data follows a cohort of 162,000 people who graduated with a university qualification in 2011, and can be shown in linked datasets.
Data shows the occupation, industry and income outcomes for the cohort over 10 years.
Compare the 2021 occupation outcomes of 2011 university graduates through interactive pathways. For comparison, 2016 occupation outcome data is also available.
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics 2024 (unpublished)
In 2011 about 162,000 people graduated with a university qualification. About 26,000 people received a STEM qualification, this represents 16% of all 2011 graduates.
While women comprised 61% of all graduates, they made up 38% of STEM graduates.
Of this cohort, a greater proportion of women than men completed qualifications in:
A greater proportion of men than women completed qualifications in:
The analysis follows this 2011 cohort over time. It shows that in 2016 (5 years after graduating), when not including graduates whose occupation was not stated or not applicable:
Following the same cohort to 2021 (10 years after graduating), it shows:
Compare employment status of 2011 graduates in 2021, as well as income over time for all years from 2011 to 2021.
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics 2024 (unpublished)
In 2021, employed STEM-qualified women were more than twice as likely to work part time as STEM-qualified men (23% of women, 10% of men).
For women, this was lower than:
There were lower rates of part time employment for men. 10% of men with STEM qualifications worked part time, compared to:
For those with a STEM qualification not working in 2021, 9% of women were not in the labour force (this includes people who didn’t state their employment status) and 2% were unemployed. This compares with 4% of men not in the labour force and 2% unemployed.
In 2012–13, about 2 years after graduating with their STEM qualification:
By 2020–21, the proportion of employed men who earned $75,000 or more was 78%. That was 1.4 times higher than the proportion of women with that income, at 57%. This increased further with men 1.8 times more likely to have earned $100,000 or more than women (55% and 30% respectively).
In 2012–13, the group of men graduates reached a threshold where over 50% of men earned $50,000 or more per year. The group of women graduates took until 2015–16 to reach a similar threshold (54% of women graduates in 2015–16 earned $50,000 or more per year). This shows women STEM graduates were more than 3 years behind men STEM graduates in reaching earnings of $50,000 a year.
Compare the occupation and industry of 2011 STEM graduates in detail for the years 2011, 2016 and 2021.
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics 2024 (unpublished)
Of the 2011 STEM graduate cohort, 56% of men were working in a STEM occupation in 2021, compared to 31% of women. This means men STEM graduates were 1.8 times more likely than women STEM graduates to be working in a STEM-qualified occupation 10 years after graduation.
Looking at detailed occupation outcomes for university STEM qualified occupations, the largest proportions of women were:
The largest proportions of men were:
Looking at industry, 10% of employed women with a STEM qualification worked in a STEM-qualified industry in 2021 (783 out of 7,979 employed women graduates). By comparison, 22% of men with a STEM qualification were in a STEM-qualified industry in 2021 (2,886 out of 13,360 men graduates).
The STEM industry where the highest proportion of both women and men STEM graduates worked was architectural, engineering and technical services. 37% of women working in STEM qualified industries were in architectural, engineering and technical services, compared to 42% of men.
The only 2021 STEM industry with a higher number of women 2011 STEM graduates than men was scientific research services. In 2021, 259 women STEM graduates were working in scientific research services (33% of women 2011 STEM graduates employed in a STEM industry) compared to 205 men STEM graduates (7% of men 2011 STEM graduates employed in a STEM industry).
The occupations and industries on this page use Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO) and Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC).
Our department commissioned the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) to carry out this longitudinal study.
The ABS looked at the occupational outcomes of the 2011 cohort of university graduates for the following 10 years through to 2021. To do this, the ABS analysed the Person Level Integrated Data Asset (PLIDA, formerly Multi-Agency Data Integration Project or MADIP) which is a linked dataset providing anonymised and aggregated analysis of the following:
This allowed the ABS to determine income, occupation and industry details through the years from 2011 until 2021. For each chosen variable of analysis, the outcomes have been explored using one of these datasets. Coverage of the 2011 graduate cohort in each of the linked datasets differs because of differences between the data collected in those datasets and the PLIDA “spine” (key linking information). For more information, see ABS 2024.
We have grouped the qualifications, occupations and industries broadly into STEM, non-STEM and health, and used granular details for analysis where possible. Determinations between STEM, health and non-STEM occupations and industries were based on the 2021 Census of Population and Housing, see STEM Equity Monitor methodology for more information.
This analysis covers 10 years of graduates’ careers and builds on the previous output of the STEM Equity Monitor, which showed only the initial 5 years of graduates’ careers. Changes to the size of the 2011 cohort between the current and previous analysis are because of improvements to the PLIDA “spine” (key linking information), and changes to the characteristics of people, such as those recorded as deceased or visiting from overseas in the 2021 Census were removed from the cohort.
Read about the ABS’ Person Level Integrated Data Asset
Read more about our methodology.
