New analysis from the UK’s leading independent job board, CV-Library, reveals the best UK cities for graduates to live and work in, based on a number of circumstances regarding pay, living costs and future prospects.
The findings reveal the following:
- If you want a high starting salary: Glasgow and London command the highest graduate salaries (£26,195 and £25,909 per year) – the lowest salaries were for jobs in Birmingham (£21,823) and Newcastle (£20,757)
- If you want a substantial pay rise in the future: While Birmingham has the second lowest starting salaries for graduates (£21,823), you can expect this to rise by 53.9% in the future. London and Newcastle also offer great prospects, with average pay in these cities being 52.8% and 50.2% higher than graduate salaries
- If you want cheap rent: Sheffield and Newcastle are the cheapest cities for graduates to live in, with rent costing professionals £368 and £375 per month respectively. Unsurprisingly, London is the most expensive city to rent in (£698 per month), with Cardiff coming in second (£593)
- If you want to buy a house in five years’ time: You only need to save 17.9% of your monthly salary if you live in Glasgow, which equates to £201.67 a month. In comparison, Londoners have to save 80.5% of their pay packet each month (£799.66!)
- If you want more disposable income: After bills and rent, you can expect to have £1,158.37 leftover to spend each month if you live and work in Sheffield! That’s followed by Glasgow (£1,129.51) and Southampton £1,095.41). Professionals in Bristol have some of the lowest amounts of disposable income (£986.74)