Good news for graduates on the job front
Good news for residents at Salford student accommodation provider Portergate’s Riverside House – a new poll of graduate employers has revealed the number of vacancies for university leavers is expected to rise by more than 10 per cent.
The figure shows the economy moving in the right direction and points the way to improved job prospects for graduates.
Some industries are improving dramatically – with the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) predicting job openings in IT and telecoms rising by 40 per cent.
The public sector is also looking up – a rise of 20 per cent on last year is on the cards – and banking and financial services are predicted to increase by 15.7 per cent.
But it is not all good news. There are expected to be falls in the numbers of jobs available for university leavers in law and investment banking.
AGR chief executive Stephen Isherwood told the Guardian newspaper: “Given the upturn in the economy, and the slight increase in graduate vacancies recorded last year, we would expect employer predictions to be fairly buoyant for the year ahead, so an expected rise of more than 10% is welcome news.”
But he did strike a note of caution – saying graduates must be focused if they want to be successful in their search for a career.
He told the newspaper: “Even through the darkest days of the recession our members reported unfilled vacancies because they couldn’t find graduates with the right mix of skills and attributes.
“Graduates need to think carefully about their applications and ensure they understand what a potential employer is looking for.”
Commenting on the report, Universities minister David Willetts said: “A degree is still one of the best routes to a good job and a rewarding career.”
He told the BBC the “substantial rise” showed that “confidence in the UK economy is growing and businesses really value the skills the UK’s first-rate graduates can bring to their companies”.
And he added: “The increased number of graduates has been met by increased demand from employers which is why we have made the historic commitment to remove the cap on the number of people who could go to university by 2015-16.”
The AGR surveyed 202 of its members in the UK across 19 sectors, and found they expected to provide over 23,000 graduate vacancies in 2014.
