The findings reveal the following:
- If you want a high starting salary: Glasgow and London command the highest graduate salaries (£26,195 and £25,909 per year) - the lowest salaries were for jobs in Birmingham (£21,823) and Newcastle (£20,757)
- If you want a substantial pay rise in the future: While Birmingham has the second lowest starting salaries for graduates (£21,823), you can expect this to rise by 53.9% in the future. London and Newcastle also offer great prospects, with average pay in these cities being 52.8% and 50.2% higher than graduate salaries
- If you want cheap rent: Sheffield and Newcastle are the cheapest cities for graduates to live in, with rent costing professionals £368 and £375 per month respectively. Unsurprisingly, London is the most expensive city to rent in (£698 per month), with Cardiff coming in second (£593)
- If you want to buy a house in five years’ time: You only need to save 17.9% of your monthly salary if you live in Glasgow, which equates to £201.67 a month. In comparison, Londoners have to save 80.5% of their pay packet each month (£799.66!)
- If you want more disposable income: After bills and rent, you can expect to have £1,158.37 leftover to spend each month if you live and work in Sheffield! That’s followed by Glasgow (£1,129.51) and Southampton £1,095.41). Professionals in Bristol have some of the lowest amounts of disposable income (£986.74)
Lee Biggins, founder and CEO of CV-Library comments: “With candidates holding more power than ever before, it’s an exciting time to be entering the job market as a graduate. Not only is there an abundance of employment opportunities at your fingertips, but pay for these roles is competitive across the UK.
“What’s more, our findings suggest that while salaries in certain cities lag behind slightly, when you take into account living costs in these areas, you may actually be in a better position than you would if you lived in London. It’s crucial to take these major elements into consideration when searching and applying for graduate jobs.”
The full breakdown of findings* can be found here: www.cv-library.co.uk/best-cities-for-graduates
