Below are the key findings for sector and occupation responses from all years (return years 2018 to 2024 – classes of 2017 up to classes of 2023) of the Graduate Outcomes Survey.

Occupation

The Occupation section provides a breakdown of the occupation types across all years of the Graduate Outcomes Survey. Over half (53%) of all graduates are in Professional Occupations. The next most common occupation type is Associate Professional and Technical Occupations at 14%.  The next most common occupation is Administrative and Secretarial Occupations (7%), Sales and Customer Service Occupations (6%) and Managers, Directors and Senior Officials (5%).  This means that 72% of all graduates enter the three high skilled occupations (Professional Occupations, Associate Professional and Technical Occupations and Managers, Directors and Senior Officials) within nine months of graduation. This figure compares with 45% of the national total as provided in the SOLAS National Skills Bulletin 2024.

The occupation types with the lowest proportion of graduates employed include Postdoctoral Researchers (1%) and Process, Plant and Machine Operatives (1%).

A breakdown of graduate occupations, for all years of the Graduate Outcomes Survey (2017-2023) is given below.

Occupations categorised by sector

Some overall key findings, for all Fields of Study, all Programme Types, and all years are as follows:

• It has already been noted that the majority of graduates work in Professional Occupations.  These graduates work across a wide range of sectors of the economy. The most common of these were Education (20%), Human Health and Social Work Activities (20%), Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities (13%), Finance, Insurance and Real Estate (12%) and Industry (11%).
• The second most common occupation for graduates was Associate Professional and Technical Occupations: Finance, Insurance and Real Estate (21%), Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities (17%) and Industry (16%) were the most common sectors of employment.
• Those working as Managers, Directors and Senior Officials were dispersed across a wide distribution of sectors in the economy. The most common sectors were Industry (15%), Other (10%), Financial, Insurance and Real Estate (9%), Human Health and Social Work Activities (9%), Information and Communication (9%), and Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities (9%).
• For Administrative and Secretarial Occupations, the most common sectors of employment were Finance, Insurance and Real Estate (21%) and Public Administration and Defence (20%).
• For Caring, Leisure and other Service Occupations the most common sectors of employment were Human Health and Social Work Activities (30%), Education (25%) and Other (24%).
• A total of 40% of graduates in Elementary Occupations were working in Accommodation and Food Service Activities.  This was followed by 15% in Other.
• Postdoctoral Researchers were working mainly in the Education sector (62%) followed by Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities (23%).

Sector

The Sector section provides a breakdown of the economic sectors graduates are employed in.

• Education and Human Health and Social Work Activities were the two most common sectors of employment each with 14% of all graduates.
• This was followed by the Financial, Insurance and Real Estate Sector with 12% of graduates and Industry and Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities each with 11% of graduates.
  • These Graduate Outcomes Survey figures can be compared with overall CSO national figures which show that the largest employment sectors were Human Health and Social Work (14%), followed by Industry (12%), and Wholesale and Retail Trade (12%).
• A total of 8% of graduates worked in the Information and Communication sector, followed by 4% of graduates working in Wholesale and Retail Trade.
• The least common sectors of employment were Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing and Transportation and Storage both at 1% each.
• A total of 7% of graduates worked in the Other sector.  This sector of the economy includes creative arts and entertainment, libraries, archives and museums, gambling and betting, sports and recreation, repair of goods, and domestic personnel, amongst others.

A breakdown of graduate sectors of employment, for all years of the Graduate Outcomes Survey (2017-2023) is given below.

Sectors categorised by occupation

The Sectors categorised by Occupations section of this report provides further detail on sectors and occupations.

• For the Construction sector of the economy, 54% of graduates were employed in Professional Occupations, 14% were employed in Skilled Trades Occupations, 12% were employed in Associate Professional and Technical Occupations, and 9% were working as Managers, Directors and Senior Officials.
• For those graduates employed in the Education sector of the economy, 75% of graduates were employed in Professional Occupations with a further 8% employed in Caring, Leisure and Other Service Occupations.
• For those employed in the Financial, Insurance and Real Estate sector, 54% were employed in Professional Occupations, 23% were employed in Associate Professional and Technical Occupations and 11% were employed in Administrative and Secretarial Occupations.
• For the Human Health and Social Work Activities sector, 73% of graduates were employed in Professional Occupations, with a further 10% employed in Caring, Leisure and Other Service Occupations, and 6% in Associate Professional and Technical Occupations.
• 51% of those employed in Industry were working in Professional Occupations, followed by 19% in Associate Professional and Technical Occupations, and 8% as Managers, Directors and Senior Officials.
• For those employed in the Information and Communication sector, 51% were employed in Professional Occupations, with a further 26% employed in Associate Professional and Technical Occupations, 8% as Managers, Directors and Senior Officials, and 7% in Sales and Customer Service Occupations.
• For those graduates employed in Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities sector, 62% were employed in Professional Occupations, 21% were in Associate Professional and Technical Occupations and 5% were working as Managers, Directors and Senior Officials.
• 54% of those employed in the Wholesale and Retail Trade sector of the economy reported their occupations as Sales and Customer Service, followed by 15% in Professional Occupations, 9% as Managers, Directors and Senior Officials, and 7% were in Associate Professional and Technical Occupations.
• The Accommodation and Food Services sector of the economy sees a significant range in the types of occupations graduates can work in.  The most common category is Elementary Occupations (21%), followed by Sales and Customer Service Occupations (19%), Skilled Trades Occupations (17%), Managers, Directors and Senior Officials (10%), Professional Occupations (9%), Caring, Leisure and Other Service Occupations (8%) and Administrative and Secretarial Occupations (7%).