THE number of Australian employers recruiting international graduates increased substantially in 2011 from the rate at the peak of the global financial crisis.

Some 30.8 per cent of employers with graduate programs took on international students, compared to 20.5 per cent in 2009, a survey of graduate employment outcomes has found.

The Graduate Careers Australia (GCA) report noted this was almost a return to the pre-global financial crisis proportion of businesses taking on international graduates.

"This is encouraging for international students studying within Australia," GCA executive director Noel Edge said in a statement.

"There appears to be more employment opportunities for international graduates and we hope to see this grow into the future."

The report noted a large increase in the proportion of communication, technology and utilities companies recruiting international graduates.

It suggests a strong increase in demand for information technology recruits might have influenced the employment rate of international graduates in these areas.

It also found large companies were twice as likely to hire international graduates as those with fewer than 500 employees.

Overall, the demand for graduates has not quite returned to the levels seen before 2009.

This is not expected to improve in the next year since employers indicated they were unlikely to take on more graduates in 2012 than 2011.

There was a substantial increase in the amount of companies using social media to recruit people into their graduate programs - although a company's website was still the most popular way to attract recruits.

Employers said Facebook was the most effective social media tool, partly because of its strong "word of mouth" style.

If a student became a "fan" on Facebook of a company's graduate program, their friends would be told and might become interested in the program themselves.

"A graduate becoming a fan of an employer is also a personal endorsement to their peers," the report said.