Pessimistic Outlook for Graduates in 2010
A new report on graduate recruitment has found that final-year university students are very pessimistic about being able to find a graduate job this year, although many leading employers are planning to increase recruitment.
Pessimistic Outlook
According to High Fliers Research, more than a third of final-year students are concerned that job opportunities will be cut even further in 2010, due to the fact that as of November 2009, over 100,000 graduates under the age of 25 from the 'Class of 2009' were still out of work.
The 'Class of 2010' are even more discouraged about their job prospects after university than the final year students who were interviewed last year. Less than one in 13 jobseekers felt “very confident” about their job prospects after university compared to one in 8 in 2009. The number of students who didn't feel confident in finding a job has increased by 8% over the last year.
"There was an article in The Times last week which said that it's going to take two years for the job market to fully recover and all new graduates will be up against graduates from previous years, as well as each other. It worries me that I could end up in the same situation.”
one student told Graduate Coach
Readjusting Expectations
Nearly half of respondents feel that they’ll have to take any graduate job they’re offered and that they will have to make do with a lower salary than they had hoped. Researchers also found that a quarter have applied to employers they’re not really interested in, in order to try and secure a graduate position.
In addition, over 50 percent of final-year students have had to change their post-university plans because of the bad economic climate. A fifth of the respondents were originally hoping to take time off for a gap year or to pursue further study and are now looking for work instead, while at least a third of final-years are now strongly considering starting a postgraduate course, rather than compete for a graduate job.
Graduate Entry-Level Positions in 2010 & 2011
Researchers found that jobs in investment banking, retail, property and accountancy are now less appealing to new graduates. Final-year students are more attracted to working in the public sector, the Armed Forces, engineering and consultancy, because they feel that there is likely to be more job security in these sectors.
Almost half of employers now expect to be able to recruit more graduates in 2010, but a quarter warn that they will be making further cuts to their entry-level recruitment this year.
Britain's leading graduate employers are much more optimistic about recruitment in 2011, according to the report. 40 percent of recruiters expect to be able to take on new recruits next year, while another 40 percent are sure they will be able to maintain employment rates at 2010 levels. Only 8% of employers fear they will have to make further recruitment target cuts in 2011.
Recruiters from investment and high-street banks have said that they will now be able to hire a third more graduates than in 2009. Banks had previously halved their recruitment in the sector over the last 2 years.
High Fliers says the largest graduate recruiters in 2010 will be PricewaterhouseCoopers (1,039 vacancies), Deloitte (1,000 vacancies), the Army (735 vacancies), Teach First (650 vacancies), KPMG (650 vacancies) and the RAF (600 vacancies).
While graduate job opportunities are expected to rise this year, jobseekers should note that a quarter of this year's entry-level positions have already been filled by graduates with deferred job offers from last year, or by jobseekers who previously did work experience with employers – and therefore are not open to students from the ‘Class of 2010’.
