Britain"s economic recovery failing to boost graduate job prospects

For any individual who came out of university this summer time, the jobs market place is fierce. Photograph: Thomas Barwick/Getty Photos

One of the a lot of things George Osborne is probably to hail in his autumn statement on Thursday is the lengthy-awaited recovery in Britain’s jobs market.

Unemployment is falling and companies enjoying resurgent demand are creating jobs that, in some locations at least, will fill the gap left by swingeing public sector cuts. But all that is probably to come as tiny relief to the swelling ranks of university leavers who have failed to safe a graduate level occupation. Nearly half of recent graduates are in non-graduate roles such as receptionist or sales assistant. A third are doing work in a minimal-skilled occupation and almost a tenth are unemployed, according to the most current official statistics.

For college students spending an average £8,000 a yr in tuition fees, the prospect of ending up in bar function or on a factory floor is a grim 1 – but by no indicates remote. The rise in these failing to get a graduate role, to 47% this yr from 37% in 2001, displays a regular enhance in the number of graduates more than the past ten years and a drop in the quantity of jobs obtainable typically during and because the recession.

A degree nonetheless brings increased chances of employment and, sooner or later, larger earnings. But for any person who came out of university this summer time, the jobs market is fierce. One particular of the troubles dealing with this most current cohort of university leavers is that they are competing for jobs with graduates from earlier years who failed to discover function throughout the downturn.

“Simply because all vacancies have been challenging to come by … there is pent-up demand [from graduates] in the marketplace,” says Stephen Isherwood, chief executive of the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR).

Companies say the difficulties faced by graduates do not merely stem from a lack of vacancies. Numerous argue that universities are not turning out the employees they want and they are calling on Osborne to address the abilities gaps.

Richard Halstead is regional director for manufacturers’ organisation EEF in the Midlands, exactly where he says the sector is enjoying a renaissance but needs more experienced workers.

Some graduates are plainly a lot more “highly rewarded” than other folks. The official information shows a huge divergence in earnings. Medication graduates earn most with regular gross salaries of £46,000, even though engineering graduates comply with with £42,000. Bottom of the table are media and details research graduates on £21,000 a year.

Subject decision also appears to have a large bearing on employability. Here media and information research graduates get a far better deal, 2nd on the employment fee league table behind medication. Languages, arts and humanities are bottom.

With this kind of divergences in salary and employment rates and tuition fees very likely to rise, specialists predict college students will grow to be shrewder about their selection of degree and university.

For individuals who have previously completed, 1 trend that is emerging is entrepreneurship. The variety of graduates beginning their very own firms has risen by a lot more than a third in excess of the past yr, in accordance to the web site Freelancer.co.uk.

The chancellor’s message for this most current generation of graduates will no doubt be that faster growth indicates much more jobs – and he could supply a improve to prospects by ditching or lowering employers’ nationwide insurance coverage contributions for youthful staff. But they need to keep their optimism in check out, warns John Philpott, director of The Jobs Economist consultancy.

“The employment outlook for graduates must enhance in the following 12 months offered indicators that the hiring rate is returning to pre-economic downturn ranges. However, it could consider several many years prior to demand for graduates is robust enough to trigger important development in graduate pay,” he says.

Britain"s economic recovery failing to boost graduate job prospects