www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/education/article4140583.ece
Britain’s class of 2014 can expect to choose from a near record number of graduate jobs, yet 39 young people will still compete for each post.
Graduate recruiters have increased their vacancies to a par with those available in 2007 on the eve of the financial crash, a survey shows. Top employers had 18,753 posts for new graduate recruits this year, up 11.6% on last year. A third of the leading companies expanded their graduate schemes within the past 6 months as Britain’s economic recovery gathered pace.
Average starting salaries for graduates have also edged upwards to £29,500, up by £500, after remaining static for 4 years.
But job seekers still face cut-throat competition on the schemes run by leading employers. There were 39 graduates vying for every place, down only slightly from last year, as the larger number of vacancies was offset in part by a 3% rise in applications.
The most sought-after roles were in consumer goods companies, which had 186 applications per post, followed by oil and energy companies, where 98 vied for each opening.
Media companies, banks, retailers and manufacturers all had more than 50 applicants per place. The armed forces were the least competitive with only 7.5 people applying for each job.
Employers are also becoming more demanding. The survey of employers including PWC, HSBC, BP, Jaguar Land Rover, Clifford Chance, Unilever & Goldman Sachs, carried out by High Fliers Research, found that 70% wnatde graduates with a 2:1 degree or higher.
Moreover, 27% said they wanted only candidates with A levels grades above a minimum threshold, typically in a range from AAB or above to BCC.
More than half the recruiters used telephone interviews to screen candidates or in the first round of their selection process. After further interviews or assessment of skills and strengths, most said they ask candidates to take part in group exercises or presentations to make their final decision. The big 5 accountancy and consultancy firms hired the largest number of graduates, with 4,400 graduate jobs between them, up almost 25% on last year.
Public sector employers also expanded graduate programs, although this was driven largely by the growth of Teach First, the charity that recruits top graduates to work in tough state schools, the governments communications headquarters (GCHQ), appointments to the Civil Service fast stream and the National Health Service.
Investment banks, which have scaled back their graduate programs by almost 40% since the crash, trimmed their recruitment by another 2.5% but still had 2,100 graduate entry posts.
The recovery in Britain’s manufacturing sector lead to a 15% surge in graduate recruitment by engineering and industrial companies, with 1,600 graduate jobs.
The most lucrative graduate jobs were in investment banks, where average starting salaries were £45,000. Next came law firms, offering median graduate salaries of £39,500, oil & energy companies with £31,500. The public sector offered graduates the lowest starting salaries , averaging £22,400 a year.
More than half of leading employers said they were likely to recruit similar numbers of graduates next year, while almost a quarter expected to hire even more
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