The charts show the proportion of full time employees with a university diploma and their average salaries between 2004 and 2012. In general, although the percentage of university graduates in the workforce increased within the timeframe, by the end of the span, it steadily declined to initial figures. Their pay rate, meanwhile, rose consistently over the years, with maths graduates outearning others from 2008 onwards.
Workers with a university degree – maths and all graduates – experienced similar changes during the period. The share of employees with a maths diploma grew initially to record high of nine-tenths of the total in 2006, up from 80% in 2004, before a gradual 6-year decrease to its 2004 figure. A similar pattern could be seen in the total proportion of graduates; it experienced a 20-percent rise to its highest 80% in the first four years, after which this figure bounced back to 65% at the end.
Salary numbers, however, showed consistent increases. To be specific, workers who graduated from maths faculties received as much as others – 41,000 and 43,000 dollars in 2004 and 2006, respectively – but in the last three years, the salary levels of the former surpassed that of the latter by a notable margin; in 2008, maths alumni were paid 50,000 dollars, a figure that further went up by ten thousand dollars in 2012, whereas that for all alumni had reached its peak of 51,000 by the end. This year also marked the largest wage gap between the two categories.