Also from NZ with a daughter who recently finished a 3 year 2x STEM degree. She's now in UK and says the tech job market is lousy there. One of our other kids moved to Oz (after covid) for his 1st professional job and says the (tech) job market there is "easy" (having already switched jobs for a promotion).

I agree with you about the grade inflation that has occurred in Uni over the past 30 years. Our daughter suspects it has probably been worse in the UK. She tells us almost all grads she has met finish 3 year degrees with 2:1 or 1st honours and reckons she gets screened out of a lot of applications because she didn't do honours. Also most of her 'successful' applications have been followed by pretty simple on-line aptitude tests before an online interview with a recruiter.