Study Area Employment Outcomes in Australia: The 2025 Official Data
QILT 2025 graduate outcomes show how employment varies by study area in Australia. See full-time employment, overall employment, labour force participation and age breakdowns for undergraduates, plus how to verify the data on ComparED.
Source: https://uniapply.au/articles/health-cover-and-visa-proof-australia/
If you are choosing a study area in Australia, the 2025 Graduate Outcomes Survey from QILT gives you the most direct official picture of what happens after graduation.
The headline answer is that employment outcomes differ sharply by discipline, and the differences are not always what you would expect.
Medicine, Pharmacy and Dentistry sit at the top for full-time employment, while Communications and Creative Arts sit much lower.
But the full picture includes overall employment, labour force participation and the age profile of graduates, and each of those tells you something different about how a degree translates into work.
This article uses the QILT 2025 data, which is the official national survey of graduates from Australian higher education providers.
The figures below are for undergraduates from all provider types, measured in 2024 and 2025.
They come from a sample survey, not a census, so treat each number as an estimate of the graduate population rather than a precise count for every individual.
What the QILT 2025 Data Measures
The Graduate Outcomes Survey asks graduates about their employment situation roughly four to six months after completing their course.
The QILT 2025 release covers graduates from the 2024 and 2025 cohorts, and the tables used here break the results down by study area.
Four indicators matter most when you compare study areas.
Full-time employment is the share of graduates working full-time.
This is the number most people think of first, and it is the most direct measure of whether a degree leads to a standard full-time job.
Overall employment is broader.
It counts graduates in any form of work, including part-time and casual roles.
A study area can have low full-time employment but high overall employment, which usually means graduates are working but not in full-time roles.
Labour force participation tells you whether graduates are actively looking for work or available to work.
A low participation rate can mean graduates are not in the labour force at all, which happens for various reasons including further study or caring responsibilities.
The 30 years or under figure shows the share of graduates in that age group.
This matters because younger graduates are more likely to be recent completers, and their outcomes can differ from the overall cohort.
Full-Time Employment by Study Area
Full-time employment is where the gaps between study areas are widest.
Medicine had a full-time employment rate of 88.7 in 2024 and 95.6 in 2025.
That is the highest figure in the table and it reflects the structured pathway from medical study into clinical practice.
Pharmacy was close behind at 90.8 in 2024 and 89.7 in 2025.
Dentistry moved from 93.3 in 2024 to 80.8 in 2025, which is a large year-to-year swing and a reminder that single-year figures can be volatile for smaller cohorts.
Nursing had a full-time employment rate of 67.7 in 2024 and 63.0 in 2025.
That is solid but noticeably lower than Medicine, Pharmacy and Dentistry, even though Nursing is often grouped with the health professions.
Engineering sat at 55.9 in 2024 and 56.2 in 2025, which is a stable mid-range result.
Health services and support was similar at 52.0 and 52.1.
Business and management had a full-time employment rate of 51.6 in 2024 and 48.4 in 2025.
Agriculture and environmental studies moved from 50.0 in 2024 to 43.1 in 2025.
Law and paralegal studies went from 48.0 in 2024 to 57.6 in 2025, a notable increase.
Computing and information systems was 43.5 in 2024 and 42.2 in 2025.
At the lower end, Architecture and built environment was 40.9 in 2024 and 42.2 in 2025.
Humanities, culture and social sciences was 40.3 and 44.5.
Creative arts was 37.8 and 33.1.
Communications had the lowest full-time employment in the table at 32.2 in 2024 and 34.2 in 2025.
Overall Employment Tells a Different Story
Overall employment includes all work, not just full-time roles, and it changes the picture considerably.
Medicine had an overall employment rate of 83.3 in 2024 and 97.9 in 2025.
The 2025 figure is the highest in the table, and it shows that nearly all medical graduates were in some form of work.
Pharmacy was 89.9 in 2024 and 92.6 in 2025.
Dentistry was 94.3 and 91.7.
Nursing was 82.4 and 84.1.
Computing and information systems had an overall employment rate of 63.4 in 2024 and 69.3 in 2025.
That is much higher than its full-time employment rate, which means many computing graduates were working part-time or casually.
Engineering was 66.7 in 2024 and 71.1 in 2025.
Health services and support was 69.8 and 73.4.
Business and management was 62.9 and 65.9.
Agriculture and environmental studies was 66.2 in 2024 and 61.7 in 2025.
Law and paralegal studies was 65.6 and 63.9.
Architecture and built environment was 56.1 and 63.9.
Humanities, culture and social sciences was 57.3 and 64.1.
Creative arts had an overall employment rate of 59.7 in 2024 and 62.1 in 2025.
Communications was 50.8 and 56.5, which is still the lowest overall employment figure in the table but much closer to other study areas than its full-time employment rate suggests.
The gap between full-time and overall employment is itself useful information.
Communications, Creative arts and Computing all show large gaps, meaning graduates find work but often not full-time work.
Medicine, Pharmacy and Dentistry show small gaps, meaning most graduates who are working are working full-time.
Labour Force Participation and Age Profile
Labour force participation adds another layer.
It tells you whether graduates are in the labour force at all, and a low rate can indicate that many graduates are not available for work.
Nursing had a labour force participation rate of 95.0 in 2024 and 90.5 in 2025, the highest in the table.
Law and paralegal studies was 93.2 and 81.8.
Agriculture and environmental studies was 88.5 and 68.2, a large drop that suggests many graduates left the labour force in 2025.
Engineering was 86.1 in 2024 and 79.7 in 2025.
Computing and information systems was 85.3 and 78.0.
Dentistry was 81.4 and 85.7.
Medicine was 81.5 and 64.4, which is a striking decline and worth noting alongside its high employment rates.
Business and management was 78.4 and 71.1.
Health services and support was 80.1 and 77.0.
Architecture and built environment was 77.7 and 67.4.
Communications was 74.2 and 67.3.
Humanities, culture and social sciences was 73.1 and 65.7.
Creative arts was 79.8 and 68.2.
Pharmacy was 87.8 and 80.6.
The age profile shows the share of graduates aged 30 years or under.
This is useful because it tells you how concentrated each study area is among younger graduates.
Communications had the highest share at 98.2 in 2024 and 98.9 in 2025.
Law and paralegal studies was 97.1 and 97.7.
Business and management was 96.4 and 97.3.
Engineering was 96.1 and 95.0.
Architecture and built environment was 96.4 and 96.1.
Computing and information systems was 95.7 and 96.6.
Creative arts was 95.9 and 92.5.
Humanities, culture and social sciences was 93.4 and 95.4.
Agriculture and environmental studies was 93.1 and 94.3.
Health professions had lower shares of younger graduates.
Medicine was 97.5 in 2024 and 95.9 in 2025.
Dentistry was 90.7 and 90.5.
Pharmacy was not shown in the age breakdown for this table.
Nursing had the lowest share at 77.0 in 2024 and 77.3 in 2025, which reflects the fact that nursing students are more likely to be older or studying after a previous career.
How to Use These Numbers in Your Decision
The QILT data is a national aggregate, not a prediction for any individual or any specific institution.
A study area with high full-time employment may still have weak outcomes at a particular university, and a study area with lower national figures may have strong outcomes at a specific provider.
When you compare study areas, look at the pattern across all four indicators rather than a single number.
A high full-time employment rate with a low labour force participation rate can mean that the graduates who are working are working full-time, but a notable share are not in the labour force at all.
A low full-time employment rate with a high overall employment rate usually means graduates are working part-time or casually.
Year-to-year changes also matter.
Dentistry moved from 93.3 to 80.8 in full-time employment between 2024 and 2025, and Medicine moved from 81.5 to 64.4 in labour force participation.
These swings show that single-year figures can be noisy, especially for smaller study areas.
Looking at both years gives you a better sense of the underlying pattern.
The data also does not tell you about salary, job satisfaction, or whether graduates are working in jobs related to their field of study.
Those are separate questions, and QILT publishes other surveys that address them.
Where to Verify the Data
The QILT website is the official source for the Graduate Outcomes Survey.
You can find the survey results there, along with the methodology and data processing procedures that explain how the figures are calculated.
ComparED is the official public tool for comparing higher education providers.
It lets you look up specific institutions and see their graduate outcomes alongside the national data.
This is the right place to check whether a particular university performs above or below the national average for your study area.
When you use these numbers, remember that they are estimates from a sample survey.
The QILT website publishes the survey methodology, and ComparED includes guidance on how to understand the data, including the limitations of survey-based estimates.
The data in this article was checked on 2026-09-07 against the QILT 2025 release.
The figures are the most recent official national data available at that date.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which study area has the highest full-time employment in Australia?
Medicine had the highest full-time employment rate in the QILT 2025 data at 95.6 in 2025, up from 88.7 in 2024.
Pharmacy was close behind at 89.7 in 2025.
These figures are for undergraduates from all provider types and come from a sample survey.
Which study area has the lowest full-time employment?
Communications had the lowest full-time employment rate at 34.2 in 2025, up slightly from 32.2 in 2024.
Creative arts was also low at 33.1 in 2025.
Both figures are well below the national pattern for health and engineering disciplines.
Why is overall employment higher than full-time employment?
Overall employment counts graduates in any form of work, including part-time and casual roles.
Full-time employment only counts graduates working full-time.
A large gap between the two means many graduates are working but not in full-time positions.
Computing and information systems showed a particularly large gap in 2025, with 69.3 overall employment versus 42.2 full-time employment.
Can I use these numbers to predict my own job prospects?
No.
The QILT data is a national aggregate across all provider types.
Your outcomes will depend on the specific institution you attend, your individual performance, the labour market at the time you graduate, and many other factors.
Use the data to compare study areas at a national level, then use ComparED to look at specific institutions.
What does labour force participation mean?
Labour force participation measures the share of graduates who are either working or actively looking for work.
A low participation rate means many graduates are not in the labour force, which can happen for reasons including further study, caring responsibilities, or other circumstances.
It is not the same as unemployment.