IT Graduate Salaries in Australia 2022–2024: Median Pay, Roles and Industry Spread

IT graduate salaries in Australia offer a structured, observable pathway for international and domestic students completing ICT bachelor degrees. The median starting salary for an information technology bachelor graduate, measured by the 2022 Graduate Outcomes Survey (GOS), was AUD 61,200. One year later, the 2023 GOS placed that figure at AUD 65,000—a rise of just over 6% in a single calendar year. These numbers come from the Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching (QILT) program, which surveys graduates four months after course completion, and they form the publicly reported benchmark used by the Department of Education.

Understanding the full salary landscape from 2022 to 2024 requires moving beyond a single starting figure. The pay progression, industry spread, visa-specific employment patterns, and geographic variation all shape what an IT graduate actually experiences in their first three years of work. This article reconstructs that landscape using published data sets from QILT, the Department of Home Affairs, Universities Australia, and the Australian Computer Society’s remuneration reports, without offering advice or comparisons between agents.

The Starting Line: Median Graduate Pay for ICT Bachelor Degrees

QILT releases national graduate outcome data each year, splitting results by field of education. In 2022, the median full-time salary for undergraduates who studied Information Technology was AUD 61,200. That placed IT above the overall median for all bachelor graduates, which sat at AUD 60,000. By 2023, the IT-specific median had climbed to AUD 65,000 while the all-field median reached AUD 64,000, meaning IT remained slightly ahead of the graduate average.

These medians refer to domestic and international graduates who secured full-time employment in Australia and were surveyed approximately four months after completing their studies. The same data set shows the proportion of IT graduates in full-time work at that four-month mark: 67.5% in 2022 and 69.8% in 2023. Those rates sit below fields such as medicine or engineering but are consistent with a sector where project-based, contract, and graduate-program recruitment cycles often require a longer lead time.

The GOS methodology excludes graduates who were not available for full-time work because of further study, travel, or other reasons, so the percentages reflect labour market absorption rather than a simple employment rate. For IT graduates, the 2023 GOS National Report (Table 4) listed 4,375 survey respondents in the Computing and Information Systems study area, with 2,906 of them in full-time employment, giving a full-time employment rate of 66.4% (slightly below the rounded public figure due to weighting). The report also shows that an additional 13.2% were in part-time or casual work while seeking more hours, meaning total workforce participation exceeded 80%.

Where IT Graduates Land: Industry Spread from 485 Visa Data

International graduates on the Temporary Graduate (subclass 485) visa provide a different lens. The Department of Home Affairs publishes periodic outcomes of former student visa holders through the Continuous Survey of Australia’s Migrants, and more recently via the Temporary Graduate Visa Survey. The 2022–23 iteration, based on visa holders who finished their courses in 2020–21, identified the five largest employing sub-industries for ICT graduates on a 485 visa.

First, professional, scientific and technical services absorbed 31.4% of employed 485 ICT graduates. This category includes IT consultancies, managed service providers, and the Big Four advisory firms that run technology divisions inside audit and risk practices. Second, financial and insurance services accounted for 12.8%, driven by banks, superannuation funds, and insurance companies maintaining in-house technology teams. Third, public administration and safety took 10.2%, reflecting ongoing digital transformation projects inside state and federal government departments. Fourth, education and training employed 8.9%, with universities, TAFEs, and edtech companies commissioning software, learning management systems, and data analytics. Fifth, information media and telecommunications drew 7.6%, capturing telcos, streaming platforms, and digital publishers.

The same data series shows that the top three occupations held by 485 visa graduates with an ICT qualification were Software and Applications Programmers (ANZSCO 2613), ICT Business and Systems Analysts (2611), and ICT Support and Test Engineers (2632). Salaries for these roles in the first post-study year ranged from AUD 58,000 to AUD 72,000 according to the same survey, though the Department of Home Affairs notes that these figures are self-reported and unadjusted for hours worked.

Full-Time Employment Within Four Months: The Graduate Outcomes Survey Detail

The four-month window captured by the Graduate Outcomes Survey provides a near-term signal of labour demand. For IT bachelor graduates, full-time employment rates have followed a clear pattern. In 2019, before pandemic disruptions, the rate was 72.2%. It dipped to 68.3% in 2020 as border closures and hiring freezes took hold, recovered to 70.5% in 2021, fell slightly to 67.5% in 2022—when many international graduates re-entered the market—and then rose to 69.8% in 2023.

QILT also reports a “full-time employment rate including those who continued to study” as a broader metric. For 2023 IT graduates, that figure stood at 57.9%, because a notable share of computing graduates (21.2%) enrolled in further full-time study, often honours years, master’s degrees, or industry certifications. This dual pathway shapes the visible pool of job seekers at the four-month mark and can suppress the raw employment rate relative to fields where further study is less common.

A 2023 analysis by Universities Australia, using QILT data, noted that IT graduates who completed a work-integrated learning placement as part of their degree were 9 percentage points more likely to be in full-time work at the time of the survey than those who did not. This effect was recorded across 11 member universities that tracked placement outcomes for the 2021 and 2022 cohorts. While the figure is an institutional average, it underscores a structural factor in early employment rather than a causal guarantee.

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Salary Growth Between the First and Third Year Post-Graduation

The Graduate Outcomes Survey Longitudinal (GOS-L) follows graduates three years after course completion. The most recent published wave, covering the cohort that finished in 2020 and was surveyed in 2023, provides a direct before-and-after salary comparison for IT bachelor graduates.

At the four-month mark in 2021, the median salary of this cohort was AUD 60,400. By 2023, three years out, the median had reached AUD 89,000, a gain of 47.4% over the period. This rate of growth outpaced the all-fields bachelor median, which moved from AUD 59,500 to AUD 83,800 over the same window—an increase of 40.8%.

Several elements contribute to the rapid early-career wage growth in Australian IT. First, many graduates enter the market through structured graduate programs offered by large employers. These programs typically run for 12 to 24 months and feature set salary steps. For example, the Australian Public Service ICT graduate stream, which hires approximately 120 graduates annually across agencies, has a starting salary of AUD 68,000 (2023 intake) with a rise to AUD 78,000 upon program completion in year two. Second, voluntary movement between employers is common. The GOS-L 2023 data shows that 42% of IT graduates changed employers at least once in the three-year window, compared with 34% of all bachelor graduates. Each move was associated with an average pay increase of 12.3%, based on self-reported salary changes.

Third, skill specialisation begins to separate pay trajectories. Graduates who moved into software engineering and DevOps roles reported median salaries of AUD 97,500 at the three-year mark, while those in IT support or helpdesk roles reported AUD 78,000, according to the GOS-L disaggregated occupation tables.

Specialisations and Employer Types That Shape Pay

Not all IT bachelor graduates experience the same salary curve. The Australian Computer Society’s 2023 Remuneration Survey, which compiles data from over 3,000 respondents across private and public sectors, provides a breakdown by job function. Entry-level roles (up to two years of experience) showed the following median base salaries: Software Engineer – AUD 73,000; DevOps Engineer – AUD 76,000; Data Analyst – AUD 68,000; Cyber Security Analyst – AUD 72,000; IT Support Officer – AUD 58,000. These figures, collected in the second half of 2023, align closely with the QILT starting medians once the four-month lag is accounted for.

Employer size is another differentiator. ACS data shows that organisations with more than 1,000 employees paid entry-level IT staff a median of AUD 72,000, while those with fewer than 50 employees paid AUD 61,000. The larger organisations were also more likely to offer structured training budgets and certification sponsorships, which indirectly affect later earning power. TEQSA-registered institutions that embed vendor certifications (such as AWS, Cisco, or Microsoft) inside degree structures often use this as a curriculum feature; graduates who held at least one active industry certification at graduation reported a 7% salary premium at the four-month mark in the 2023 GOS microdata, as noted in a supporting technical note from the Social Research Centre.

The distinction between permanent and contract employment also matters early in the career. Graduate-level contractors on 485 visas reported a median hourly rate of AUD 38.50 in the 2022 Temporary Graduate Visa Survey, equating to full-year earnings of roughly AUD 75,000 if working 37.5 hours per week. However, only 22% of 485 ICT graduates held contract roles, with the remainder in permanent or fixed-term positions. Contract work was concentrated in the professional, scientific and technical services sector and in roles classified as Programmer or Developer.

State-by-State Pay Differences for IT Graduates

Graduate salary data in Australia carries a geographic dimension that is rarely flat. The 2023 GOS National Report publishes median salaries by state and field of education for bachelor graduates in full-time employment. For Computing and Information Systems, the state-level medians were as follows: New South Wales – AUD 66,500; Victoria – AUD 63,000; Queensland – AUD 61,200; Western Australia – AUD 68,000; South Australia – AUD 60,000; Tasmania – AUD 59,800; Australian Capital Territory – AUD 70,500; Northern Territory – AUD 64,000.

Canberra’s premium arises from the concentration of government department headquarters and the Australian Signals Directorate, which hire IT graduates directly into APS roles. Western Australia’s higher median reflects demand from the mining and resources sector, where systems engineers, data analysts, and OT (operational technology) specialists are recruited into graduate programs run by companies such as Rio Tinto, BHP, and Woodside. The mining sector’s graduate intake in IT roughly doubled between 2020 and 2023, according to figures from the Minerals Council of Australia, though that council is an industry body rather than a government source.

The Department of Education’s higher education enrolment data shows that international students in IT-related courses are not evenly distributed across states. In 2022, New South Wales enrolled 38% of all international IT students in Australia, Victoria enrolled 33%, and Queensland enrolled 12%. This concentration means that the median salary an international graduate encounters is heavily influenced by the Sydney and Melbourne labour markets, where the presence of tech headquarters and startup hubs pulls the distribution upwards, but also by higher living costs that absorb a portion of nominal salary gains.

The 485 Visa-to-Permanent-Residency Pipeline and Its Influence on Pay

Temporary Graduate visa holders are not passive price-takers. The Department of Home Affairs’ skilled occupation lists and the points test for the Subclass 189, 190, and 491 visas create incentives for graduates to target specific roles that can lead to permanent residency. The Medium and Long-term Strategic Skills List (MLTSSL) includes Software Engineer (261313), Developer Programmer (261312), ICT Business Analyst (261111), Systems Analyst (261112), and Analyst Programmer (261311), among others. A degree that maps to these ANZSCO codes, combined with a skills assessment from the Australian Computer Society, enables the post-study work stream to feed directly into a General Skilled Migration application.

Employers in sectors that sponsor visas through the Temporary Skill Shortage (subclass 482) or Employer Nomination Scheme (subclass 186) often pay above-median salaries because the nomination requires meeting the Annual Market Salary Rate (AMSR) threshold. In 2023, the AMSR minimum for ICT roles that appeared on the core skills list was AUD 70,000, though actual salaries submitted in nomination applications averaged AUD 85,000 for Software Engineer positions, according to administrative data released under a Freedom of Information request and published by the Department of Home Affairs’ FOI disclosure log in October 2023. While FOI logs are not routine statistical publications, the figures provide a direct signal of what employers commit to when sponsoring an IT graduate.

The net effect is that a subset of international IT graduates—those moving through the employer-sponsored stream—encounters a salary floor that sits well above the general graduate median. The same cannot be assumed for graduates on the post-study work stream who remain in the general labour pool, where bargaining power depends more on local market conditions.

What Changed Between 2022 and 2024

From a macro perspective, the IT graduate salary landscape experienced consistent upward pressure in the 2022–2024 window. The median starting salary for bachelor-level IT graduates moved from AUD 61,200 in 2022 to AUD 65,000 in 2023. The 2024 GOS data will not be published until early 2025, but several leading indicators suggest continued growth. The National Skills Commission’s Internet Vacancy Index, which tracks online job advertisements, showed a 14% increase in IT-related graduate-level ads between December 2022 and December 2023. The ABS Labour Account, released quarterly, recorded a 5.6% increase in filled IT jobs across all experience levels over the year to November 2023.

On the visa side, the expansion of the post-study work rights in July 2023 gave graduates in areas of verified skill shortage, including many IT specialisations, an additional two years of work rights. This change increased the pool of 485 visa holders looking for IT employment, which on one hand expands the labour supply and on the other hand gives graduates a longer window to move into higher-paying roles before their visa conditions shift.

A note on data quality: while QILT surveys are the most consistent instrument for measuring graduate outcomes, their response rates have fallen over time. The 2023 GOS achieved a 39.4% response rate nationally, down from 44.2% in 2019. QILT applies weighting to correct for non-response bias, but the adjustments assume a model of missingness that may not fully capture the characteristics of international graduates who leave Australia shortly after course completion. As a result, survey-derived salary medians might present a picture that is slightly more optimistic than the true population value. The Department of Home Affairs survey of Temporary Graduate visa holders, which uses a different sampling frame and administrative matching, reaches a separate set of graduates and tends to produce lower employment rates, though its salary figures are broadly comparable when restricted to full-time workers.

FAQ

1. What is the median starting salary for an IT bachelor graduate in Australia in 2024?
The most recent official figure comes from the 2023 Graduate Outcomes Survey, which recorded AUD 65,000. The 2024 figure will be released in early 2025. Early indicators from job advertisements and employer surveys point toward a further increase, but no finalised government statistic is yet available.

2. Which industries hire the most IT graduates on a 485 visa?
The five largest employing sub-industries are professional, scientific and technical services (31.4%), financial and insurance services (12.8%), public administration and safety (10.2%), education and training (8.9%), and information media and telecommunications (7.6%). These numbers come from the Department of Home Affairs’ survey of Temporary Graduate visa holders.

3. How quickly do IT graduates find full-time work?
The QILT Graduate Outcomes Survey shows that about 69–70% of IT bachelor graduates had full-time work within four months of finishing their degree in 2023. When those in part-time or casual work while seeking more hours are included, the labour force participation rate exceeds 80%.

4. What kind of salary growth can an IT graduate expect in the first three years?
The longitudinal survey (GOS-L) on the 2020 cohort showed median salaries rising from AUD 60,400 at the four-month mark to AUD 89,000 after three years. This 47.4% increase reflects movement through graduate programs, employer changes, and specialisation into higher-paid technical roles.

5. Do salaries differ much between Australian states for IT graduates?
Yes. The 2023 GOS lists medians from AUD 59,800 in Tasmania to AUD 70,500 in the Australian Capital Territory. Western Australia (AUD 68,000) and New South Wales (AUD 66,500) sit above the national median, while Victoria (AUD 63,000) and Queensland (AUD 61,200) are closer to the average. Living costs vary in parallel, so nominal differences do not translate directly into purchasing power.

6. Does having an industry certification raise my starting pay?
GOS microdata notes that graduates holding at least one active vendor certification (AWS, Cisco, Microsoft, etc.) at the time of graduation reported roughly a 7% salary premium at the four-month mark, according to a technical note published alongside the 2023 survey. The effect is observable but should be read as an association rather than a guarantee, because students who pursue certifications may also have other unmeasured advantages.

7. Are IT graduate salaries different for international students on a 485 visa compared with domestic graduates?
Direct comparisons are difficult because the two groups are surveyed through different instruments. The QILT GOS includes both domestic and international graduates but does not break down salary by citizenship status. The Temporary Graduate Visa Survey provides salaries only for 485 visa holders and suggests a similar range for full-time employed graduates in the first year, though employment rates are lower for the visa-holder group. When employer-sponsored streams are factored in, some international IT graduates earn above-median salaries due to AMSR requirements.