Graduate employment prospects ‘best since 2008’

Graduate recruitment has risen to its highest level since 2008, meaning today’s graduates have the best employment prospects since the financial crisis began, according to a recent survey by High Fliers Research. The Graduate Market in 2013 concluded that there has been a 4.6 per cent increase in graduate hiring, year-on-year, from 100 leading employers in the UK – including MI5, Marks & Spencer and Apple.

The data is based on the responses from the 100 organisations identified by a poll of 18,000 final year students at 30 universities. Over one-third of graduate employers have stepped up their recruitment in the last six months and have hired more graduates than expected in 2013, with the public sector in particular expanding graduate intake by 18.6 per cent.

Despite the increases, graduate intake remains below the pre-recession levels seen in 2007 and earlier. Competition for places is also fierce, with an average of 46 applications per graduate vacancy.

“It’s great news for the ‘Class of 2013’ leaving university this summer that graduate recruitment at Britain’s top employers is now at its highest level for five years and that many of the country’s best-known organisations are set to expand their graduate vacancies even further in 2014,” said Martin Birchall, managing director of High Fliers Research.