At the same time the number of people applying for each position had fallen from an average of 38 in 2004 to 33 this year.
"This has got to be good news for all those graduates entering the job market," said Carl Gilleard, chief executive of AGR.
"We had a really good year last year and the situation has improved again ... a 12% increase in vacancies and a 5% increase in starting salaries is difficult to argue with," he said.
The statistics are based on a study of 224 leading companies which offer specific graduate programmes. It found the biggest growth areas were accounting, information technology and investment banking.
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