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 2022, the survey was distributed in Spring/Summer 2023. Exact timings are determined by the institutes themselves. There is one census date of 31 March 2023.

    Annually, the response rate for the Graduate Outcomes Survey is around 50%.

    An “Access our Data” dashboard is produced, in the form of an interactive dashboard. This dashboard facilitates further analysis and findings.

    An “Access HEI level data” dashboard is also available. This looks at main graduate destination by programme type and employment outcomes for undergraduate honours degrees for each HEI.

    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 2020-2022.

Graduate Cohort

  • 70,818 graduates  (54.5% female; 45.5% male)
  • The most common fields of study are Business, Administration & Law (26.0%), Health & Welfare (15.8%), and Arts & Humanities (11.5%).
  • 48.0% graduated from Undergraduate Honours Degree programmes; 27.4% from Taught Masters programmes.
  • The overall response rate is 49.6%.

Main Destination (all graduates)

  • Overall, 83.0% of graduates are in employment nine months after graduation (up from 81.9% for the Class of 2021 and 75.9% for the Class of 2020). Employment is highest for Education graduates (93.9%) and lowest for Arts & Humanities graduates (66.3%).
  • 10.2% of graduates are in further study nine months after graduation (down from 11.9% for the Class of 2021 and 13.8% for the Class of 2020).  The proportion pursuing further study is highest for Arts & Humanities graduates (20.9%) and Natural Sciences, Mathematics & Statistics graduates (16.8%), and lowest for Information & Communication graduates (3.6%).
  • Unemployment has increased very slightly from 4.2% for the Class of 2021 to 4.4% for the Class of 2022. This figure was 8.1% for the Class of 2020.
  • Graduates doing other activities such as travelling, volunteering or engaged in home duties has increased slightly from 2.1% for the Class of 2021 to 2.3% for the Class of 2022.

  • Undergraduate Graduates

    Level 6 and 7 graduates

    • 7,676 graduates (42.2% Female; 57.8% Male)
    • 60.6% of graduates are in further study with 36.7% in employment, nine months after graduation.
    • Of those graduates in employment, 87.1% have permanent or open ended contracts.
    • Over 1 in 3 (35.1%) 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, 62.9% earned up to €39,999, with 37% earning more than €40,000. 23% of graduates were not willing to share how much they earned.

    Undergraduate Honours Degrees

    • 34,022 graduates (56.1% Female; 43.9% Male)
    • More than three-quarters of graduates are employed nine months after graduation (77.2%), up  from 75.8% in 2021, and significantly above 69.7% in 2020. The proportion of graduates pursuing further study has decreased to 16.9% in 2022, down from 18.3% in 2021 and 20.9% in 2020. Unemployment has decreased to 3.7% in 2022, down from 3.9% in 2021.
    • 64.1% of Undergraduate Honours Degree graduates are on permanent or open-ended contracts.
    • Of the graduates who were willing to share their salaries, 77.5% earned up to €39,999, with 22.5% earning more than €40,000. 22.3% of graduates were not willing to share how much they earned.
    • The most common occupation for graduates nine months after graduation is Professional Occupations (51.3%).
    • Nine months after graduation, 91.2% of employed graduates are working in Ireland. Dublin is the most common county of employment (44.9%), followed by Cork (13.3%) and Galway (7.0%).
    • In 2022, 55.9% of graduates completed internships. This is up from 53% in 2021.
    • More than six in ten graduates consider their course Very Relevant or Relevant to their job (62%).
    • The most common sources of employment include Recruitment Sites (23.9%), Personal Contacts (19.4%) and already having worked there (including work experience) (18.1%).

  • Postgraduate Graduates

    Postgraduate Taught Graduates

    • Postgraduate Taught Graduates includes graduates from Postgraduate Certificate, Postgraduate Diploma or Taught Masters programmes.
    • 24,574 graduates (56.0% female; 44.0% male)
    • Nine months after graduation, 89.3% of Postgraduate Taught graduates were in employment. This was 89.7% in 2021 and 84.9% in 2020. The proportion of graduates pursuing further study decreased to 2.9% in 2022 from 3.6% in 2021. Unemployment has increased, at 5.8% in 2022, up from 4.6% in 2021.
    • Just over 3 in 5 Postgraduate Taught graduates (62.0%) are employed in Professional Occupations, nine months after graduation.
    • 71.8% are on permanent or open ended contracts, remained steady from 71.7% last year and the highest level for this cohort since the survey began.
    • More than half (55.2%) of graduates earn more than €40,000 per annum.
    • 10.5% of Postgraduate Taught Graduates earn over €80,000, this compares to 1.7% of Undergraduate Honours Degree graduates.
    • 68.5% of graduates believe that their course is relevant to their job.

    Postgraduate Research Graduates

    • Postgraduate Research Graduates includes graduates of Masters Research and Doctoral programmes.
    • 1,738 graduates (51.8% female; 48.2% male)
    • In 2022, 89.7% of Postgraduate Masters Research graduates were employed nine months after graduation, in line with 89.6% in 2021 and down from 2020 when this figure was 91.2%.
    • The proportion of graduates pursuing further study decreased, at 2.3% in 2022, down from 3.2% in 2021.
    • Meanwhile, unemployment increased to 3.7% in 2022, up from 3.4% in 2021.
    • A total of 72.9% are earning more than €40,000 per annum.
    • 13.1% of Postgraduate Research Graduates earn over €80,000, this compares to 10.5% of Postgraduate Taught Graduates and 1.7% of Undergraduates Honours Degree Graduates.
    • 63.5% are on permanent or open-ended contracts, up from 62.3% last year and the highest level for this cohort since the survey began.
    • Professional Occupations is the most common occupation type, accounting for 64.7% of Postgraduate Research Graduates, this was 58.5% for the Class of 2021.
    • 75.8% of graduates believe that their course is relevant to their job.

  • International Graduates

    • 12,033 graduates were internationally domiciled (52.8% female; 47.2% male)
    • Business, Administration and Law is the most popular field of study for this group with 37.2% choosing this field of study.
    • In 2022, 79.7% of internationally domiciled graduates were employed nine months after graduation, up from 79.3% in 2021.
    • The proportion of graduates pursuing further study decreased, at 8.8% in 2022, down from 10.4% in 2021.
    • Top employers for internationally domiciled graduates included the HSE, Ernst & Young and Amazon.
    • Recruitment sites (28.1%) were the most popular source for finding a job for internationally domiciled graduates.

  • 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 82% – 87% of Undergraduate Honours Degree graduates from TUs are in employment nine months after graduation whereas this figure is between 64% – 85% for Universities.
    • In the University of Galway for example, 31.7% of Undergraduate Honours Degree graduates from the Class of 2022 were in further study. This compares to 10.6% of this same cohort from ATU.
    • 52.9% of all graduates who are employed are working in Professional Occupations; however this varies across institutions, more information can be found in our HEI level data following this link – Appendix (GO 2022).