Bleak future ahead for many graduates in UK

Many graduates are facing a bleak future as employers cut down on their intake of university leavers because of the economic downturn, according to research published yesterday.

The Graduate Market in 2009, a study based on graduate vacancies and starting salaries at 100 top employers, found that the intake this year was to be cut by 17 per cent as posts were either cut or left vacant.

"These swingeing cuts in graduate recruitment at Britain's best-known and most sought-after employers is very bad news for anyone leaving university this summer," said Martin Birchall, managing director of the report's authors, High Fliers Research.

"There is understandable panic on campus that this is shaping up to be one of the worst years of the last two decades to be graduating from university."

The study reported that during two recruitment rounds last year and this year, employers had planned to take on 40,000 graduates.

However, 7,000 of these posts had now been axed. To make matters worse, the report said, employers had reduced the number of graduate jobs they had planned to offer last year, hiring about 18 per cent less than was originally planned.

Investment banking, retailing, accountancy and professional services, and the engineering and industrial sectors have been the hardest hit. Only the public sector and the armed forces have provided an increase in the number of graduate vacancies.

"For those who have yet to begin job-hunting, the chances of landing a last-minute place on a graduate programme now seem very slim," Mr Birchall said.

The grim picture has already got final year students worried. Only 13 per cent of more than 1,000 undergraduates quizzed last month were confident they would get the job they wanted, while half said they would have to take up any offer.

Around 300,000 undergraduates are expected to complete their studies this summer and unemployment is already growing fastest among 18 to 24-year-olds, with nearly 600,000 out of work in the three months to October, according to the latest official data.

On Saturday, the government said it was urging companies to give temporary jobs to thousands of students finishing their courses this year to counter the fall in graduate recruitment.

The Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills said high street bank Barclays and US software firm Microsoft had already agreed to offer up to three months' work to graduates, although planning for the intern scheme was at an early stage.

The proposal follows the announcement of £140 million of government funding for 35,000 extra apprenticeships next year.