Data insights
Occupation outcomes (detailed)
Of the 2011 STEM graduate cohort, 56% of men were working in a STEM occupation in 2021, compared to 31% of women. This means men STEM graduates were 1.8 times more likely than women STEM graduates to be working in a STEM-qualified occupation 10 years after graduation.
Looking at detailed occupation outcomes for university STEM qualified occupations, the largest proportions of women were:
- environmental scientists (383, or 19% of all women in university STEM qualified occupations)
- life scientists (338, or 17%)
- medical laboratory scientists (253, or 12%).
The largest proportions of men were:
- civil engineering professionals (1,123, or 19% of all men in university STEM qualified occupations)
- software and application programmers (924, or 16%)
- industrial, mechanical and production engineers (658, or 11%).
Industry outcomes
Looking at industry, 10% of employed women with a STEM qualification worked in a STEM-qualified industry in 2021 (783 out of 7,979 employed women graduates). By comparison, 22% of men with a STEM qualification were in a STEM-qualified industry in 2021 (2,886 out of 13,360 men graduates).
The STEM industry where the highest proportion of both women and men STEM graduates worked was architectural, engineering and technical services. 37% of women working in STEM qualified industries were in architectural, engineering and technical services, compared to 42% of men.
The only 2021 STEM industry with a higher number of women 2011 STEM graduates than men was scientific research services. In 2021, 259 women STEM graduates were working in scientific research services (33% of women 2011 STEM graduates employed in a STEM industry) compared to 205 men STEM graduates (7% of men 2011 STEM graduates employed in a STEM industry).
About the data
The occupations and industries on this page use Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO) and Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC).
Our department commissioned the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) to carry out this longitudinal study.
The ABS looked at the occupational outcomes of the 2011 cohort of university graduates for the following 10 years through to 2021. To do this, the ABS analysed the Person Level Integrated Data Asset (PLIDA, formerly Multi-Agency Data Integration Project or MADIP) which is a linked dataset providing anonymised and aggregated analysis of the following:
- 2011 higher education data
- 2021 Census of Population and Housing data
- 2010–11 to 2020–21 personal income tax income tax return data.
This allowed the ABS to determine income, occupation and industry details through the years from 2011 until 2021. For each chosen variable of analysis, the outcomes have been explored using one of these datasets. Coverage of the 2011 graduate cohort in each of the linked datasets differs because of differences between the data collected in those datasets and the PLIDA 'spine' (key linking information). For more information, see ABS 2024.
We have grouped the qualifications, occupations and industries broadly into STEM, non-STEM and health, and used granular details for analysis where possible. Determinations between STEM, health and non-STEM occupations and industries were based on the 2021 Census of Population and Housing, see STEM Equity Monitor methodology for more information.
This analysis covers 10 years of graduates’ careers and builds on the previous output of the STEM Equity Monitor, which showed only the initial 5 years of graduates’ careers. Changes to the size of the 2011 cohort between the current and previous analysis are because of improvements to the PLIDA 'spine' (key linking information), and changes to the characteristics of people, such as those recorded as deceased or visiting from overseas in the 2021 Census were removed from the cohort.
Read about the ABS’ Person Level Integrated Data Asset.
Read more about our methodology.