Graduates who want to be top earners should work in finance or IT.

At the top of the earning scale, graduate starting salaries are highest in consultancies and IT firms with finance and IT roles paying £23,487 and £23,167 a year respectively. Public sector organisations offer the lowest pay.

The findings come as part of a report by Personnel Today revealing graduate salaries have fallen behind inflation.

Research by Employment Review claims the median starting salary of £20,100 this year is just three percent higher than 2006 and less than the average earnings of the whole workforce which rose by 3.5 percent. Salaries have stood still at one in four of the organisations.

Employers stated starting salaries are normally fixed with just one in four happy to discuss them. A total of 58 percent operate a single starting salary for all graduates within the organisation.

As part of the research, it was also found the majority of graduate recruitment is now done online with nearly three-quarters of companies setting up online application systems.