Australian nursing graduates were among the top five areas of study for students securing full-time employment last year.

The Graduate Careers Australia report, which surveyed about 100,000 university graduates, was good news for the health and engineering sectors but bad news for social sciences and some arts.

The report found the employment prospects for new higher education graduates fell for the second year running but among those bucking the trend were health and some allied health sectors.

Pharmacy graduates recorded the highest figures, with 97.7 percent finding full-time work, while nursing, medicine, dentistry and surveying were among the top study areas with full-time employment rates.

Report research manager Bruce Guthrie said the global financial crisis had initially affected employment figures and continuing labour market uncertainty had resulted in conservative intakes among graduate recruiters.

The 2010 results, which showed that 76.2 percent of graduates found a full-time position within four months of completing their course, was down about 10 percent from a high of 85.2 percent in 2008 and was the lowest figure since 1994, which stood at 74.6 percent.

Overall, the report showed 91.3 percent of graduates were in some form of employment within four months of graduating.

While nursing and some allied health sectors topped the list, the worst performers included psychology, social sciences, and visual and performing arts.
Mr Guthrie said while it appeared the market was improving he advised this year’s final year students to begin searching for employment now with competition for jobs next year expected to be strong.