This year’s AGR Conference has sprung no early surprises, as the results of the Association of Graduate Recruiters annual employer survey broke on the BBC late last night. The headline news focused on competition for vacancies, as the number of graduates applying for each available job this year sky rocketed to 48 up from around 30 last year. Not surprisingly, the number of graduate vacancies across the UK is also down - by a staggering 25% - while average salaries are frozen at £25,000.
Banking and IT have been the worst hit sectors. However, even the engineering sector, long protected by huge levels of demand for so-called STEM students, has experienced vacancy cuts of over 40%. The only sector to buck the trend is energy and utilities, with a 7.1% rise in vacancies.
So what do we think this all means? Well, according to AGR chief executive Carl Gilleard, the picture is pretty “gloomy”:
“I wish we had better news to announce today but we cannot hide from the fact that dramatic vacancy cuts will make the job search very tough for graduates both this year and probably next year too… I would also like to reassure graduates that though things will be harder, their degree is a valuable asset and that there are still opportunities out there for those who do their research and focus on quality rather than quantity of applications.”
While Gilleard’s analysis (despite assurances over the “value” of a degree) remains relatively bleak, there are a few other points worth bearing in mind. The bi-annual survey is made up of 226 recruiters across 15 employment sectors, which is by no means conclusive - there are over two million employers across the UK. What’s more, the majority of these recruiters are mass graduate employers who have traditionally run schemes for tens or even hundreds of graduates. Yes, those schemes have inevitably been hard hit by the recession, But anecdotally, our graduate team here at FreshMinds Talent has seen far greater demand for ad hoc or one-off roles across a broader spectrum of clients than ever.
We’ll keep you updated throughout the day with the latest news from the AGR Conference. In the meantime, while the message from the AGR survey is rightly one of caution, at FreshMinds Talent we’re confident that the market for graduates this year is actually far bigger than reported here, and that the opportunities out there are more interesting, more responsible and more challenging than ever before.
Read more here
on Jul 6th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
[...] findings. Despite an overall drop in the number of graduate vacancies in the UK this year, as reported on this blog earlier, one in five employers reported a 20% rise in the number of graduate vacancies they have filled or [...]
on Jul 6th, 2009 at 4:24 pm
Hear, Hear Charlie. We are seeing a healthy crop if singular ‘grad’ roles that may not belong to a structured 2 year rotational scheme (where you know where you’ll be on Tuesday at 9am in 5.5 months time) but that do offer graduates a fantastic chance to get entrenched in a business at super speed. There green shoots all around – I’ve seen more marketing roles and business development roles up for grabs then ever and I anticipate the momentum behind the upward trend will slowly but surely pick up pace.
on Jul 6th, 2009 at 4:27 pm
[...] good angle is over at the Freshminds blog. They have been experiencing the same thing as I have with an increased demand from companies [...]