Average earnings for recent law graduates continue to languish below those of their peers, official statistics show.

While the mean graduate salary for students completing a course in 2014-15 was £22,500, those who studied law earned £21,000, according to a survey by the Higher Education Statistics Agency quango.

Law graduates’ earnings were £3,000 lower than the salaries for graduates who took 'social studies' and £8,500 less than for graduates in medicine and dentistry, who have the highest salaries on average.

However the figures show an increase on last year, which showed an average salary of £20,000 for law graduates in 2013-14 and average earnings of £21,500 across all disciplines.

Some 90% of students who studied law as their first degree were in employment or further study six months after graduating – unchanged on the previous year. The figure matched the proportion across all disciplines for graduates in employment, with just 10% listed as unemployed.

The highest employment rate was among medicine and dentistry graduates, where 99% were either working or pursuing further studies six months on.

Of the 5,255 law graduates who went into employment, 62% went into a professional occupation, while 33% went into non-professional occupations such as administrative or secretarial roles, or sales and consumer services.

This compares to 71% of all graduates who were in a professional role six months after graduating. Over 80% of students who studied subjects including computer science, engineering and technology were in professional roles.

However, law graduates were more likely to be in a professional role than those who studied creative arts and design, or historical & philosophical studies, where 42% and 47% were in non-professional occupations respectively.