Despite some rather grim economic news (hello, recession) here is some good news for university students and graduates. Your education still pays off on the job market.

According to a new report out today from the Council of Ontario Universities, six months after finishing school, the average employment rate for graduates of university undergraduate programs was 87.6%.

Two years after graduation, this rose to an average of nearly 94%, with the employment rates for many programs reaching over 95%.

Of course not all degrees pay off the same on the job market. Some fields of study actually have full employment for grads almost as soon as they earn their degrees. These are the disciplines that came out on top for finding work.

Six university degrees with 100% employment six months after graduating

The graduates also report that in most cases the skills they learned in school are related to those that they use on the job. Six months after leaving school, 72.5% of graduates employed full-time said that their job is either closely or somewhat related to what they studied in school. By the two-year mark, that number had climbed even higher to 78% of respondents said that their work “closely” or “somewhat” related to what they had studied in school.

Six months after finishing school, the average salary for graduates of undergraduate degree programs was $ $42,301 a year. After just 18 more months on the workforce, this average salary had climbed by 15% to $ 49,001 a year. The average Canadian salary is also roughly $49,000 right now.

Unsurprisingly, those degrees that have full employment have a high-demand for workers, so graduates in these fields also earn considerably more than the average pay rate soon after entering the job market.

The highest earning university graduates, six months after leaving school

According to this survey, many more university degree programs have an over 90% employment rate two years after graduation – and those workers earn above well above average salaries.

Read the full report from the COU: Graduate Survey.

Workopolis conducted a similar study last year of the fields of study that got Canadians hired the fastest with jobs in their field – along with those that led to the highest paying jobs.

These fields came out on top in our research:

View the complete list here: The university degrees that earn the highest starting salaries

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Peter Harris
– Peter Harris on Twitter