Graduates looking for the best pay should apply to larger organisations or private sector companies.

Personnel Today reports XpertHR's annual graduate recruitment survey reveals starting salaries offered to graduates in 2009 were six percent lower than the previous year.

However, graduates who got jobs with bigger firms or in the private sector were more likely to receive higher wages.

Half of the 190 employers surveyed offered graduate starting salaries of £20,000 to £26,000, but while the lowest paid graduate earned £12,000, the highest received £42,500.

Rachel Suff, author of the report, told Personnel Today: "The main contextual difference between this year's graduate salary freeze and the 2009/10 one is that last year's took place within a negative inflation environment - this is no longer the case and pay awards are slowly creeping up as the proportion of pay freezes drops.

"It will be interesting to see if the stalling of increases to graduate salaries persists in the future, particularly in the context of increased student tuition fees."