IT graduate starting salaries have dropped by £3,000 over the past 18 months, according to research from the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR).

The AGR’s Graduate Recruitment Survey 2008 Summer Review found that the median starting salary for IT roles is currently £25,000, placing it at fifth on the list of graduate salaries by career area. However, this represents a decrease of 11 percent since February 2007. According to the AGR’s 2007 Winter Review, the median salary for IT graduate roles was £28,000 at the start of last year.

This downward trend in pay is not reflected across other sectors. The current median starting salary for graduates is £24,500, up from £22,953 last February.

John Gillard, graduate programme manager for Technology Services at Capgemini, said that one explanation for the salary reduction could be that many traditional IT entrant roles are now being “successfully and efficiently” delivered from offshore.

“This means that businesses can afford to hire graduates from a non-IT background, who will also be able to carry out the consultancy-based parts of the job," he added.

Alex Thomson, IT director at Travelodge, said that despite the prospect of more competition to recruit technical graduates – the AGR research revealed that almost a quarter of firms were concerned about IT skills shortages – he did not expect to see hefty rises in starting salaries for technology roles, due to the tightening economic conditions.