The government's new mega department of Home Affairs has recorded one of the biggest jumps in graduate numbers in 2018, while other major departments have cut their intakes back to levels last seen under the Abbott government's budget cuts.
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Sixty-eight fresh-faced grads will walk through the doors of the Home Affairs department in 2018, twice as many as the 34 taken on by the department's predecessor Immigration and Border Protection in 2017.
In a survey of the ten biggest employers across the public service, previously surveyed in 2016, Fairfax Media has found mixed results, with some departments recording significantly lower intakes than previous years, and little change in others.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, often touted as one of the most prestigious graduate programs is welcoming just 35 new recruits through its program this year, compared to 63 in 2017. The 2018 intake is smaller than both 2015 and 2016.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics, which is set to cut 150 jobs in 2018 hired just 32 graduates, down from 46 in 2017 and 121 in 2016, which was a census year. The Department of Industry and Science also recorded a drop to just 20 graduates, fewer than were employed in 2015. While taking on the second largest number of graduates, the tax office also recorded a drop in its graduate intake, with 227 graduates starting in 2018, down from 360 in 2017.
Human Services, Social Services and Health recorded steady numbers, while Defence and Treasury will have more graduates this year than in the previous three years.
Reflecting a trend across the public service, half of the departments surveyed reported more women than men among their graduate cohorts, with the ATO, Defence, the ABS and Home Affairs hiring more men than women. Treasury did not confirm how many men or women were employed among its 43 graduates.
The figures also reveal just how educated the graduates are, with 26 per cent of the incoming employees boasting more than one piece of paper from a university. DFAT and the Department of Industry and Science had the highest rates of post graduate qualified grads, with 42 per cent and 40 per cent respectively.
The Department of Human Services reported that just 33 of its 90 graduates have a single undergraduate degree. Of the remaining 57, there are 24 with dual bachelors degrees, 13 had completed their degree with honours and three have PhDs.
Demand for places in the graduate programs is high, with most department reporting applications in the thousands. Almost 6000 applied for the ATO graduate program and more than 4000 applied for Defence.
