By Jack Mendel
London reigns as the top destination for finance grads, which won’t come as a shock for many readers.
But one part of the country is hot on the capital’s heels.
It might not come as a surprise that London is the best place for finance graduates in the UK, with both the highest median wage at £46,500, and the highest number of finance job listings, at 39 per 100,000 residents.
A fresh study by InvestinGoal found London also had the highest amount of total job listings, at 3,433, over seven times the number in the next-highest area, Yorkshire.
Wages in the finance sector in London are one of the few areas where wage growth has matched rent growth – both have risen by around 30 per cent since 2020.
However, Scottish counties took three out of the five top spots.
Aberdeenshire, Stirling and Lothian (which includes Edinburgh) all had median wages over 10 per cent higher than the national average.
The median wage in Aberdeenshire was over 30 per cent higher than the national average, at £42,000 per year.
“The study highlights diverse prospects for finance graduates across various counties in the UK. It uncovers distinctive patterns and dynamics, providing valuable insights into the varied economic landscapes and professional environments present in different areas,” a spokesperson for InvestinGoal said.
Scotland’s finance sector, which contributes more than £14 billion to the nation’s economy, accounted for 9 per cent of employment in Scotland in 2022, versus 6.7 per cent in England, according to a Scottish Government report.
A recent PwC report also found that Scotland has the UK’s highest proportion of green financial job openings, with 5.6 per cent of job openings classed as ‘green’.
Four out of ten of the top counties were Scottish, five English and one Northern Irish. Bristol came sixth, followed by Armagh county in Northern Ireland, Dorset, Lanarkshire and Wiltshire.
“The findings serve as a comprehensive guide for recent finance graduates, offering a broad understanding of the opportunities and nuances prevalent within the financial sector across the country,” the spokeperson added.
Across all counties, the median wage for a new finance graduate was £31,956 per year, with Greater London having the highest wage and Worcestershire the lowest, at £24,500 per year.
