Graduates: Future looks brighter

We’ve all heard the stats about graduate recruitment over the last few months in the media with graduate unemployment hitting a 17-year high at the end of 2010. A study by the Higher Education Careers Services Unit showed that 21,000 students who graduated in 2009 were without work in January 2010.

On top of this came the dark cloud that was the Browne Review of higher education funding calling for the cap of £3290 on University fees to be scrapped.

So this begs the question, what do graduates actually have to look forward to?

Well you’d be forgiven for thinking not much if you believe all the negative press that’s been around. We all know bad news tends to sell but if you look at the stats in a more positive way, it means that 9 in 10 graduates who completed university in 2009 were employed in 2010.  That equates to hundreds and thousands of students that have already grabbed their first opportunities, even in a recession. They’ve stood out in their CV’s, dazzled in interviews and have the knowledge and skills that employers require.

Not only has the graduate job market arguably not been as bad as previously reported but looking at other evidence the future looks promising. The AGR not only reported an 8.9% increase in graduate recruitment for 2010, with a predicted 4% rise for 2011, but also found the number of graduate jobs rose for the first time since the recession began.

Even looking at stats from the recent CIPD employment report you can see the doom gloom surrounding graduate recruitment isn’t necessarily justified. Only 4% of companies closed their graduate schemes in 2010 but over 57% remained the same or have increased.   And that’s not all; according to the research, graduate schemes are expected to be on the up across all sectors this year.

So which sectors are seeing the most increases in graduate recruitment?

Well as per usual it depends what it is you want to do but according to High Fliers, the sectors that look to have the biggest increase in graduate recruitment in 2011 are IT & telecommunications (33.9%), Consumer Goods (33.1%), Banking & finance (24.8%), Consulting (21.2%) and Media (13.8%). These high figures suggest rising optimism among managers who are becoming more positive about taking on new staff in 2011, which is again, more positive news for graduates.

So with this increase in mind, how are you going to ensure you get that new graduate job? Well first things first, you need to start looking early, and when I say early I mean BEFORE graduating. I know it’s a daunting process and you may think it’s hard to fit the job hunting around your studies, but it’s well worth your time. As the job market fluctuates and competition increases, you’ll be in a much better position if you start the process early. According to GRB’s latest poll, 1 in 2 isn’t looking at all in their final year, so get in there before the rest of your peers!

So don’t believe all the hype about the lack of graduate jobs out there. The market is significantly stronger than it was at its worst in 2009. You can see from the research that not only are graduate jobs on the increase, but a large proportion of companies are maintaining or increasing their graduate intake, with some sectors taking on over a third more graduates than last year.

The job market still remains as competitive as ever but the jobs are out there so the key thing for you to do is plenty of research, put the time and effort in and persevere – doing a job is hard work, so why wouldn’t finding one be?