Four months after 2014 graduates hit the job market 67 per cent of them had full-time employment but three years later the comparable figure was up, to 89 per cent. And the newer grads were earning more money, with 2014 salaries of $56 000 increasing to $68 700.

The prosperity appear in the new Graduate Outcomes Survey, one of the excellent Quality Indicators in Learning and Teaching suite.

The study points to effectively full-employment for graduates from 13 out of 23 discipline groups, which have employment rates over 90 per cent. The lowest overall employment figures are for science and maths grads (86 per cent) and psychologists (88 per cent).

As for the warnings of graduates stocking supermarket shelves nearly 70 per cent of full-time workers and 65 per cent of part timers say their degree is important for their job. However, this is qualified by the 45 per cent of people not using their degree at work because they cannot find skilled employment in their field.

The five discipline fields with the highest per centage of graduates saying their qualification does not fully utilise “their skills and educations” are: tourism and personal services (48 per cent), psychology (43 per cent), science/maths and humanities (both 41 per cent) and creative arts (46 per cent).