About This Story
This visual story pitches a data-driven article for The
Conversation on graduate underemployment and the structural
mismatch between Australia’s higher education system and its labour
market. The five charts build a deliberate narrative arc: Chart 1 shows
the macro mismatch between growing graduate supply and stagnating
full-time employment rates; Chart 2 reveals the wide variation in
outcomes by field of study; Chart 3 exposes the disproportionate debt
burden carried by graduates in lower-earning fields; Chart 4 maps the
overqualification trap across fields and career stages; and Chart 5
demonstrates how debt indexation has, in recent years, outpaced both
wages and graduate salary growth trapping some graduates in a
slow-moving debt spiral.
Story Pitch
Australia has spent three decades expanding university enrolment, driven
by a belief that more degrees mean a more productive, prosperous
society. But the data from 2024 tells a more complicated story. One in
four new graduates cannot find full-time work within six months of
finishing. Between 30 and 40 per cent of those who do work say they are
not using their degree at all. And the debt they carry averaging $27,640
grew by 7.1% in a single year in 2023 due to CPI indexation, far
outpacing what most graduates were earning in salary growth. This story
is not anti-university. It is a call to interrogate whether the current
system is delivering on the promise it makes to students at enrolment
and who bears the cost when it does not.
References (APA 7th Edition)
Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2025). Education and work,
Australia, May 2025. ABS. https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/education/education-and-work-australia/latest-release
Australian Taxation Office. (2024). HELP, VSL, SSL, ABSTUDY SSL,
HECS-HELP benefit, TSL and SFSS repayment thresholds and rates.
ATO. https://www.ato.gov.au
Department of Education, Australian Government. (2025). Selected
higher education statistics - 2024 student data. https://www.education.gov.au/higher-education-statistics/student-data/selected-higher-education-statistics-2024-student-data
Finder Australia. (2024). Student debt statistics 2024. https://www.finder.com.au/loans/student-help-hecs-debt-statistics
Norton, A. (2025, September 19). 2024 graduate employment outcomes
and early 2025 trends. https://andrewnorton.id.au/2025/09/19/2024-graduate-employment-outcomes-and-early-2025-trends/
Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching. (2024). 2024 Graduate
Outcomes Survey national report. Social Research Centre /
Department of Education. https://www.qilt.edu.au/surveys/graduate-outcomes-survey-(gos)
Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching. (2024). 2024 Graduate
Outcomes Survey - longitudinal national report. Social Research
Centre / Department of Education. https://www.qilt.edu.au/surveys/graduate-outcomes-survey---longitudinal-(gos-l)
Acknowledgements
All visualisations were created in R (v4.3+) using ggplot2,
plotly, flexdashboard, dplyr,
tidyr, and scales. Colour palette sourced from
The Conversation brand style guide.
Generative AI (Claude, Anthropic) was used to assist with assignment
structure, grammar check and debugging during development. All data
sourcing, chart design decisions, narrative framing, and analytical
interpretations were made independently by me. Acknowledged as per RMIT
Library guidelines: Anthropic. (2024). Claude [Large language
model]. https://www.anthropic.com