UK cities where graduates start careers
The Library of Birmingham. Photograph: Alex Liivet, Wikimedia Commons, CC0, cropped
London holds by far the most Skilled Worker licences, and the highest rents. Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, Bristol, Edinburgh and Leeds each trade fewer licences for lower costs.
Most international graduates look first at London, and the register shows why. But a first UK job can start in several cities, each trading some of London’s scale for lower costs.
This story in Places sets seven cities side by side on three dated measures: Home Office licences, ONS median pay and ONS rent.
London holds 35,584 Skilled Worker licences; the next eight cities hold far fewer each
View as a tableHide the table
| City | Skilled Worker licences |
|---|---|
| London | 35,584 |
| Birmingham | 2,984 |
| Manchester | 2,785 |
| Leicester | 1,384 |
| Glasgow | 1,297 |
| Bristol | 1,242 |
| Edinburgh | 1,117 |
| Leeds | 1,046 |
| Nottingham | 1,009 |
Beyond these nine cities, there are sponsor licences counted town by town (opens visavi.uk).
A licence count measures how many organisations in a city hold a Skilled Worker licence, not how many jobs they advertise. It shows where employers have already set up to sponsor, which is a different question from where your sector hires.
| City | Skilled Worker licences, 5 October 2026 | Median full-time pay, all employees, 2025 | Average monthly rent, August 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| London | 35,584 | £49,692 | £2,332 |
| Birmingham | 2,984 | Not in this table | Not in this table |
| Manchester | 2,785 | £40,479 | £1,373 |
| Glasgow | 1,297 | Scotland: £39,719 | Scotland: £1,013 |
| Bristol | 1,242 | Not in this table | Not in this table |
| Edinburgh | 1,117 | £43,715 | Lothian: £1,415 |
Pay is the ONS median for all full-time employees by place of work, not graduate pay. Rent is the ONS average private rent for a whole home.
More on the three measuresLess on the three measures
The pay figures are the ONS median gross annual pay for full-time employee jobs by place of work, for the tax year to April 2025, and they are provisional.
They cover every full-time employee, so a graduate starting salary will usually sit below them. The rent figures are the ONS average private rent for August 2026.
In Scotland the ONS publishes rents by rental market area, and Lothian is the area that includes Edinburgh.
Birmingham and Bristol have no pay or rent row here because this edition has not read those ONS rows, and it leaves the cells empty rather than estimating them.
£39,039 median full-time pay and £1,400 average monthly rent, for the UK as a whole
Read each city against those two UK figures, and against each other, rather than as a verdict.
More on Leeds, the seventh cityLess on Leeds, the seventh city
Leeds holds 1,046 Skilled Worker licences on the register of 5 October 2026. Its pay and rent figures are not in this table, which keeps to the areas whose ONS rows this edition has read. Its chapter is the last below.
London: the most licences, the highest costs
London is in a different league on every measure. It holds 35,584 Skilled Worker licences, more than the other eight cities on the map together, and the ONS median for full-time employees working there is £49,692.
£2,332 a month, London’s average rent, the highest of any region
If your sector’s employers are mostly in the capital, the question is less whether to apply there than how to live on a first salary. London on a graduate salary works that through, month by month.
More on London's pay and travelLess on London's pay and travel
London’s median pay sits well above the UK figure of £39,039, but it is a median for every full-time employee in the capital, from first jobbers to partners, so it says more about the city’s mix of work than about a starting salary.
Travel adds to the bill: a Zones 1 to 2 Travelcard costs £171.70 a month at TfL’s 2026 fares. Price the commute from the place you would actually live, not from the office.
Manchester: pay above the UK median, rent below
Manchester holds 2,785 Skilled Worker licences, third among the nine cities. The ONS median for full-time employees working there is £40,479, above the UK figure.
£1,373 a month, Manchester’s average rent, below the UK’s £1,400
Pay above the national median with rent below the national average is a useful pairing. The three-city comparison sets Manchester against London and Edinburgh head to head.
More on Spinningfields and the money left overLess on Spinningfields and the money left over
For a graduate whose salary sits near a visa threshold, the money left at the end of a month matters as much as the salary itself, and that is where Manchester’s pairing earns its place.
Spinningfields, the business district off Deansgate, gathers many of the city’s professional offices in a few streets, and it has its own Address Book after these chapters.
Birmingham: second on the register
Birmingham holds 2,984 Skilled Worker licences, the second-highest count among the nine cities and more than Manchester. A count reflects how many organisations are registered in the city, across every sector, so it rewards a large and varied local economy.
More on how the count worksLess on how the count works
One detail of the method matters: an organisation registered in two towns is counted in each, so a firm with offices in Birmingham and London appears in both counts.
This edition has no ONS pay or rent figure for Birmingham in its tables, so the comparison above leaves those cells empty rather than estimating them.
Use the count as a prompt, not a conclusion. If your sector has offices in Birmingham, check the employers’ own careers pages for roles based there.
More on applying to a named officeLess on applying to a named office
Applications are often made to a named office rather than to a firm in general.
Deloitte, for example, holds its graduate final stage at the office linked to your application, so the city you choose on the form is the city you are assessed in, and usually the one you start in.
Glasgow: Scotland's largest count, Scottish tax
Glasgow holds 1,297 Skilled Worker licences, more than Edinburgh and the largest count in Scotland among the nine cities. Scotland’s average rent is £1,013 a month, well below the UK average.
More on Scottish pay and rentLess on Scottish pay and rent
Neither the rent figure nor the ONS median for full-time employees in Scotland, £39,719, is a Glasgow figure, so read them as the country’s level, not the city’s.
Glasgow is also a university city: if you are already studying there, your careers service will know the local graduate employers better than any national list.
One difference is easy to miss. Scotland sets its own Income Tax bands, so the same salary leaves a different take-home in Glasgow than in London or Manchester. Gov.uk explains the bands on its Scottish Income Tax page (opens gov.uk).
Bristol: a smaller market that hires all year
Bristol holds 1,242 Skilled Worker licences, close to Glasgow’s count and above Edinburgh’s. A smaller market changes how you hunt: smaller organisations tend to hire through the year rather than in the autumn scheme window.
Graduate jobs outside the schemes tend to be advertised throughout the year
So check a short list of employers’ pages monthly, and apply when a role appears rather than waiting for the autumn.
More on job boards and Bristol's numbersLess on job boards and Bristol's numbers
LSE Careers’ recruitment calendar makes the same point about smaller organisations in the public and private sector.
University careers services run their own job boards too, as LSE’s CareerHub does for its students; if you studied in or near Bristol, check your own service’s board alongside the national job sites.
As with Birmingham, this edition has no ONS pay or rent figure for Bristol in its tables, so read the licence count as the one firm measure here.
Edinburgh: high pay for Scotland, Lothian rents
Edinburgh holds 1,117 Skilled Worker licences, fewer than Glasgow. It pays more: the ONS median for full-time employees working in the City of Edinburgh is £43,715, above both Scotland’s and the UK’s.
More on Lothian rents and Scottish taxLess on Lothian rents and Scottish tax
Rents follow pay. The ONS publishes Scottish rents by rental market area, and Lothian, which includes Edinburgh, averages £1,415 a month, close to the UK average and well above Scotland’s.
Scottish Income Tax applies here as in Glasgow, so work out take-home pay with the Scottish bands before you compare an Edinburgh offer with one in England.
For a direct comparison of Edinburgh with London and Manchester, licence by licence and rent by rent, read London, Manchester or Edinburgh.
Leeds: where the big firms assess in the north
1,046 Skilled Worker licences in Leeds, the smallest count of the seven cities here
That count understates its place in graduate recruitment: large firms recruit and assess graduates in offices outside London.
More on final stages in LeedsLess on final stages in Leeds
KPMG’s published final-stage dates for its graduate programmes end with a Launch Pad at Leeds New Dock Hall on 5 May 2027. Deloitte holds its graduate final stage in person at the office linked to your application.
Leeds’s count sits just above Nottingham’s, which is a reminder that a register count and a city’s weight in graduate hiring are different measures.
If London’s costs worry you, check whether a firm runs the same programme in Leeds, Manchester or Birmingham. The tech guide covers consultancies and scale-ups that hire graduates through the year.
Spinningfields gets the Address Book because it gathers many of Manchester’s professional offices in a few streets. Each entry carries its own register check date.
Who hires graduates in Spinningfields
-
PwC Graduates in audit, tax, consulting and strategy Skilled Worker licence on the Home Office register, checked -
NatWest Graduates in commercial banking, data and engineering Skilled Worker licence on the Home Office register, checked -
Squire Patton Boggs Trainee solicitors chosen from its vacation scheme Skilled Worker licence on the Home Office register, checked -
DWF Trainee solicitors and business services graduates Skilled Worker licence on the Home Office register, checked - Shoosmiths Trainee solicitors on a two-year contract Skilled Worker licence on the Home Office register, checked
-
CMS Trainee solicitors and graduate solicitor apprentices Skilled Worker licence on the Home Office register, checked
Logos identify each employer. A listing here is a fact about the employer, not an endorsement, and implies no affiliation. DWF logo: Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Seven cities, three measures, one register date. To turn them into a decision, take three steps in order.
| Step | Do this | Why it comes here |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Choose the sector, then list the cities its employers recruit graduates to | A cheaper city helps only if your sector hires there |
| 2 | Compare those cities’ licence counts, with the register date beside them | A count shows where employers have set up to sponsor |
| 3 | Weigh pay against rent last, using take-home pay rather than salary | Tax bands and rent change what a salary is worth |
For a London budget worked through at three salaries, read London on a graduate salary.
This week
- Pick two cities beyond London and note their licence counts
- Search your target employers for regional offices in those cities
- Price a month in each city from the rent figures here
- Read London on a graduate salary before you rule London in or out
Sources
- Home Office: Register of licensed sponsors: workers, counted by town Each count is the number of Skilled Worker entries on the Home Office register whose town is that city. An organisation registered in two towns is counted in each. Read
- Office for National Statistics: Earnings and hours worked, place of work by local authority: ASHE Table 7, 2025 provisional (Table 7.7a, Annual pay, Gross, Full-Time) Table 7.7a Annual pay, Gross (£), for full-time employee jobs: United Kingdom, 2025. Description: London; Code: E12000007; Median: 49692; Annual percentage change: 4.7Table 7.7a Annual pay, Gross (£), for full-time employee jobs: United Kingdom, 2025. Description: Manchester; Code: E08000003; Median: 40479; Annual percentage change: 9.1Table 7.7a Annual pay, Gross (£), for full-time employee jobs: United Kingdom, 2025. Description: Scotland; Code: S92000003; Median: 39719; Annual percentage change: 3.7Table 7.7a Annual pay, Gross (£), for full-time employee jobs: United Kingdom, 2025. Description: City of Edinburgh; Code: S12000036; Median: 43715; Annual percentage change: 5.3Table 7.7a Annual pay, Gross (£), for full-time employee jobs: United Kingdom, 2025. Description: United Kingdom; Code: K02000001; Median: 39039; Annual percentage change: 4.3 Read
- Office for National Statistics: Private rent and house prices, UK: September 2026 (released 16 September 2026) Average rent was highest in London (£2,332) and lowest in the North East (£788) in August 2026.Average monthly rent for Scotland was £1,013 in August 2026, up by 1.1% (£11) from a year earlier.The average monthly private rent in the UK was £1,400 in August 2026. Read
- Office for National Statistics: Price Index of Private Rents, UK: monthly price statistics, Table 1 (16 September 2026 edition) Time period: August 2026; Area code: E08000003; Area name: Manchester; Region or country name: North West; Rental price: 1373; Rental price one bed: 1003; Rental price two bed: 1233Time period: August 2026; Area code: S33000011; Area name: Lothian; Region or country name: Scotland; Rental price: 1415; Rental price one bed: 1035; Rental price two bed: 1324 Read
- Transport for London: Adult rate prices 2026 (Transport for London fares table, PDF, last modified 1 March 2026) Zones 1 to 2: Pay as you go caps: Daily peak £8.90; Daily off-peak £8.90; Monday to Sunday £44.70. Travelcards: Day anytime £16.60; Day off-peak £16.60; 7 Day £44.70; Monthly £171.70; Annual £1,788 Read
- LSE Careers, London School of Economics: The graduate job market (LSE Careers) You will also find there is more flexibility on when to apply for graduate jobs; opportunities will tend to be advertised throughout the year, recruitment will often take place closer to the time of hire so you might find the overall process less pressured and appreciate more time to prepare. Read
- LSE Careers blog: 15 ways to get the most out of LSE Careers (2019) CareerHub is the place to access nearly all of LSE Careers resources. You can log in using your LSE username and password. ... We also have an exclusive jobs board with hundreds of opportunities, but more on these later. Read
- LSE Careers: Looking ahead: careers and professional development (offer holder presentation, 4 June 2025) Recruitment Timeframes August to January Graduate schemes open, some fixed date, some rolling Formal internship schemes open including parliamentary internships October to April Assessments & offers Traineeship applications June to September Internships, grad schemes begin Smaller organisations in public and private sector hire throughout the year Read
- Deloitte UK: Early Careers Assessment If you're applying for a Graduate, Entry Level Apprentice, Industrial Placement or BrightStart Apprentice role, your final stage assessment will take place in person at the Deloitte office linked to your application. ... The Final Stage Assessment is split into two exercises*: A discussion about your topic preparation with one of our assessors. ... A skills and motivation interview where we’ll ask some questions to learn more about your alignment with the capabilities we look for at Deloitte. Read
- KPMG UK: Application process (graduate) The dates of our Launch Pad events can be found below: Tuesday 17th November 2026: London Oval ... Wednesday 5th May 2027: Leeds New Dock Hall ... If successful you will have your job offer within 2 working days! Read
Read next
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Pictures on this page
- Tower Bridge at dawn, January Photograph: Colin, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped
- Painted houses on Lancaster Road, Notting Hill Photograph: Bex Walton, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0, cropped
- The old gas holders at King's Cross, now flats Photograph: Alex Liivet, Wikimedia Commons, CC0, cropped
- Queen Square, Bristol, plane trees in spring sun Photograph: Colin Park, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped
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