These will be the best-paying jobs for graduates in 2018
Ah, Christmas: the time of year when our thoughts naturally turn to how far our salaries will stretch over the festive period.
The good news is that new research has found City employers are still the best payers when it comes to graduate roles, although tech companies are creeping up the list.
The study, by salary benchmarking site Emolument, found graduates starting out in quantitative analysis (buy side) start out on a salary of £65,000, with a potential bonus of £20,000.
Meanwhile, graduate bankers working in structuring can expect to earn a base salary of £54,000, with a £6,500 bonus, while bankers in institutional sales will start out on £50,000, with an £8,000 bonus.
Read more: Ranked: UK universities with the most employable graduates
Top-paying graduate jobs
| Job | Base salary | Bonus | Total |
| Quantitative Analysis (Buy side) | £65,000 | £20,000 | £85,000 |
| Structuring (Bank) | £54,000 | £6,500 | £60,500 |
| Institutional Sales (Bank) | £50,000 | £8,000 | £58,000 |
| M&A & Leveraged Finance (Bank) | £51,000 | £6,500 | £57,500 |
| Trading (Bank) | £51,000 | £1,300 | £52,300 |
Outside the finance sector, the top-paying graduate role was data science, where grads start at £40,000, although they won't receive a bonus.
Graduates working in legal jobs make a base salary of £37,000, with a bonus of £1,500, while product managers start on £36,000, with a £1,500 bonus.
Read more: Listen up, nerds: These are the UK's best paying tech jobs
… and those outside of finance
| Job | Base salary | Bonus | Total |
| Data Science | £40,000 | £0 | £40,000 |
| Legal Jobs | £37,000 | £1,500 | £38,500 |
| Product Management | £36,000 | £1,500 | £37,500 |
| Strategy Consulting | £35,000 | £0 | £35,000 |
| Compliance | £34,000 | £0 | £34,000 |
Education is the key: of the best-paid graduate roles, almost all of them required a masters degree, with economics, maths, accounting and finance popular choices among hiring managers.
"We are in the midst of a structural change in the pay landscape, especially for graduates," said Alice Leguay, co-founder of Emolument.
"With huge growth in demand for digital and data skills by employers across all industries, new jobs are now emerging, competing with traditional finance graduate programme. And we cannot see a reason why this trend should stop."