Graduates who take a job at Aldi can expect a starting salary similar to those who head to the world’s top law firms, a report has found.

The £44,000 pay package of the budget supermarket’s graduate scheme, which also includes a company Audi, is on par with similar programmes at international law firms Baker McKenzie and Allen & Overy, which both offer £45,000, the study showed.

Investment banks offer the most lucrative graduate schemes, with average first year salaries of £47,000, according to the report, The Graduate Market In 2019.

It also discovered a 9.1% year-on-year increase in graduate vacancies for 2019 but predicted the average starting salary to remain unchanged since 2015, at £30,000.

Martin Birchall, managing director of High Flyers Research, which carried out the study, said: “Our latest research shows that, despite all the continuing uncertainty over Brexit, the UK’s top employers are planning to recruit a record number of new graduates in 2019.”

The number of graduate roles is rising again after it fell for the first time in five years over uncertainty around Brexit, he said.

In 2019, a sixth of the top 100 schemes will pay more than £40,000, according to the research.

Other top-paying companies include law firm Linklaters, which offers £47,000, and software firm TPP, which supplies the NHS and offers graduates £45,000.

Mr Birchall added: “The graduate job market dipped two years ago in the aftermath of the vote to leave the EU but recovered well in 2018.

“The growth in graduate vacancies for 2019 is the highest for nine years and there are more opportunities than ever before for university undergraduates to do paid work experience with the country’s leading employers.”

Public sector employers, accounting and professional services firms, and engineering and industrial companies are expected to create the most roles, recruiting an additional 1,500 graduates this year, according to the research.