Graduate Outcomes 2024 – Key Findings


  • What is the Graduate Outcomes Survey?

    The Graduate Outcomes Survey is a nationally representative annual survey of graduates across the higher education system (for full list of institutes, see Contact Details). Graduates are surveyed nine months after graduation. For the Class of 2024, the survey was distributed in Spring/Summer 2025. Exact timings are determined by the institutes themselves. There is one census date of 31 March 2025. Annually, the response rate for the Survey is around 50%.

    • Class of 2024: Key findings Statistics (see below)
    • Graduate Outcomes – All Years 2017 – 2024 interactive dashboard – See “Access Our Data” link (right)
    • Class of 2024 Dashboard: This looks at main graduate destinations for each HEI by programme type along with employment outcomes for undergraduate honours degrees. See “Access HEI Level Data” link (right)

    Note that No data is available for the Class of 2019, as the timing of the survey coincided with the onset of COVID-19. Therefore, the years available are the Classes of 2017-2018, and 2020-2024.

Graduate Cohort

  •  70,921 graduates (55.6% female; 44.0% male)
  •  The most common fields of study are Business, Administration & Law (24.3%), Health & Welfare (16.2%), and Engineering, Manufacturing and Construction (11.0%).
  • 49.8% graduated from Undergraduate Honours Degree programmes; 27.8% from Taught Masters programmes.
  • The overall response rate is 50.9%.

Main Destination (all graduates)

  • Overall, 80.2% of graduates are in employment nine months after graduation (up very slightly on 80.0% for the Class of 2023 and down from 83.0% for the Class of 2022). Employment is highest for Education graduates (91.6%) and lowest for Arts & Humanities graduates (63.1%).
  • 10.7% of graduates are in further study nine months after graduation, down from 11.1% for the class of 2023 and up slightly from 10.3% for the Class of 2022. The proportion pursuing further study is highest for Arts & Humanities graduates (21.5%) and Natural Sciences, Mathematics & Statistics graduates (18.9%), and lowest for Education graduates (4.3%).
  • 6.5% of graduates were Unemployed, in line with the Class of 2023 and up from 4.4% for the Class of 2022.
    The National Monthly Unemployment rate in March 2025 when the graduates were surveyed, according to CSO figures, was 4.5%. However, for persons aged 15-24 years (Youth Unemployment rate) the rate was 11.4%.
  • Graduates doing other activities such as travelling, volunteering or engaged in home duties has increased slightly from 2.5% for the Class of 2023 to 2.6% for the Class of 2024.

  • Undergraduate Graduates

    Level 6 and 7 graduates

    • 6,286 graduates (41.9% Female; 58.0% Male)
    • 52.5% of Level 6/7 graduates are in further study with 42.4% in employment, nine months after graduation.
    • Of those graduates in employment, 79.7 % have permanent or open-ended contracts.
    • 58.0% of Level 6 and 7 graduates in employment said their qualification was a formal requirement for this job.
    • Of the graduates who were willing to share their salaries, 44.5% earned up to €39,999, with 55.3% earning more than €40,000. 17.3% of Level 6/7 graduates were not willing to share how much they earned.

    Undergraduate Honours Degrees

    • 35,345 graduates (57.4% Female; 42.1% Male)
    • Just under three-quarters of 2024 graduates are employed nine months after graduation (74.9%), down slightly from 75.7% (Class of 2023) and 77.1% (Class of 2022). The proportion of 2024 graduates pursuing further study is 17.0%, slightly down from 17.3% (2023 graduates) but up from 16.9% for the Class of 2022.
    • Unemployment has increased to 5.6% up from 4.7% for 2023 Graduates and 3.7% (Class of 2022).
    • 60.6% of Undergraduate Honours Degree graduates are on permanent or open-ended contracts.
    • Of the graduates who were willing to share their salaries, 68.5% earned up to €39,999, with 31.5% earning more than €40,000. 25.7% of graduates were not willing to share how much they earned.
    • The most common occupation for graduates nine months after graduation is Professional Occupations (49.1%).
    • Nine months after graduation, 92.9% of employed graduates are working in Ireland. Dublin is the most common county for employment (43.4%), followed by Cork (13.0%) and Galway (6.8%).
    • 61.6% of 2024 graduates completed internships. This is up slightly from 58.4 % for the Class of 2023.
    • Just over six in ten graduates consider their course Very Relevant or Relevant to their job (60.6%).
    • The most common sources of employment were already having worked there (including work experience) (21.1%), Recruitment Sites (20.7%) and Personal Contacts (20.6%).

  • Postgraduate Graduates

    Postgraduate Taught Graduates

    Postgraduate Taught Graduates are graduates from Postgraduate Certificate, Postgraduate Diploma or Taught Masters programmes.

    • Postgraduate Taught Graduates are graduates from Postgraduate Certificate, Postgraduate Diploma or Taught Masters programmes.
    • 25,059 graduates (56.0% female; 43.4% male)
    • 86.6% of 2024 Postgraduate Taught Graduates were in employment nine months after graduation, up from 84.6% (2023 Graduates) but down from 89.3% (Class of 2022). The proportion of graduates pursuing further study was 2.8%, slightly down from 3.3% in 2023 and 3.0% in 2022. Unemployment has decreased slightly, from 9.4% in 2023 to 8.3% in 2024, but up from 5.8% for the Class of 2022.
    • Almost 3 out of 5 Postgraduate Taught graduates (59.7%) are employed in Professional Occupations, nine months after graduation.
    • 71.2% are on permanent or open-ended contracts, down slightly from 71.8% in 2023.
    • 62.4% of Postgraduate Taught who were willing to declare their salary earn more than €40,000 per annum. 13% of Postgraduate Taught Graduates earn over €80,000 compared to 1.6% of Undergraduate Honours Degree graduates.
    • 66.8% of graduates believe that their course is Relevant or Very Relevant to their job.

    Postgraduate Research Graduates

    Postgraduate Research Graduates are graduates of Masters Research and Doctoral programmes.

    • Postgraduate Research Graduates are graduates of Masters Research and Doctoral programmes.
    • 2,124 graduates (56.2% female; 43.7% male).
    • 89.8% of 2024 Postgraduate Research graduates were employed nine months after graduation. (In 2023, it was 90.1% and in 2022 it was 89.7%).
    • The proportion of graduates pursuing further study has increased slightly, to 3.3% up slightly from 2.7% in 2023, and 2.3% in 2022.
    • At 4.4%, unemployment is down slightly from 4.9% in 2023, but up from 3.7% in 2022.
    • A total of 80.6% are earning more than €40,000 per annum.
    • 15.0% of Postgraduate Research Graduates earn over €80,000, this compares to 13% of Postgraduate Taught Graduates and 1.6% of Undergraduates Honours Degree Graduates.
    • 60.9% are on permanent or open-ended contracts, up slightly from 59.7% (2023 Graduates).
    • Professional Occupations are the most common occupation type, accounting for 59.2% of Postgraduate Research Graduates, this was 56.4% for the Class of 2023.
    • 79.4% of Postgraduate Research graduates believe that their course is relevant to their job.

  • International Graduates

    • 14,179 graduates were internationally domiciled (52.1% female; 47.5% male)
    • Business, Administration and Law is the most popular field of study for this group with 33.2% choosing this field of study.
    • In 2024, 76.6% of Internationally Domiciled graduates were in employment nine months after graduation, up slightly from 74.6% in 2023.
    • The proportion of international graduates pursuing further study remains at 7.8% in 2024.
    • Top employers for internationally domiciled graduates included Amazon, UCD and the HSE as well as Primary/Post-Primary schools.
    • Recruitment sites (21%) were the most popular source for finding a job for internationally domiciled graduates, closely followed by Social media/professional networking sites (20%).

  • Institutional Data

    • Technological Universities generally have higher employment rates than Universities as more of their graduates tend to go directly into employment rather than pursue further study. Between 79.4% and 85.6% of Undergraduate Honours Degree graduates from TUs are in employment nine months after graduation whereas this figure is between 65.1% – 79.1% for Universities.
    • In the University College Dublin for example, 29.7% of Undergraduate Honours Degree graduates from the Class of 2024 were in further study. This compares to 3.9% of this same cohort from ATU.
    • 43.1% of all Undergraduate Honours Degree graduates who are employed are working in Professional Occupations; however this varies across institutions. For example, 38.5% of graduates of TU Dublin were in Professional Occupations, compared to 66.8% of graduates of Trinity College Dublin.

    More information can be found in our HEI level data following this Link:
    Access HEI Level GOS Data