Graduate Employment
28 May 2010- With limited graduate employment opportunities, the final-year undergraduates for 2010 are fearful about their prospects- as shown by High Fliers Research Report in UK. The survey about graduate employment was conducted among 16,000-plus students in which only a third expected to find a graduate job after university. 14% of them said, they had not decided what they will do next. The graduate recruitment opportunities surveyed showed loweesr employment confidence in the last 15 years. One-third of the undergraduates surveyed feared that many entry-level vacancies will be filled by 2009 graduates. Many of these students said that they would have decided against university if they had realized the limited graduate recruitment opportunities.
Graduate Salary Expectations
Not only has the graduate employment confidence has lowered, the salary expectations have also fallen. Final-year graduate students expect to earn an average of £22,000 for their first job (3.1% less than in 2008). Students with the highest salary expectations were law students who expected to earn an average starting salary of £24,800. Computing and IT students expected an average starting salary of £24,300. Engineering students expected to get £24,300 and business and finance students £23,200.
The research also highlighted that undergraduate students from arts and humanities streams and those who have little or no work experience during their university period, are the least confident about their employment prospects and expect to earn almost £50,000 less than graduates with business, finance or law degrees during their first five years of employment.
Future Strategy of Graduate Students for Employment
The survey report stated that at 30 leading universities, just 36% undergraduate students expected to start or look for a graduate-level job after leaving university. Twenty six percent of under graduate students plan further study, 16% plan to travel and 14% are yet undecided about their future career strategy. About 8% students wish to take up temporary or voluntary work.
Top Career Choices for Graduate Employment 2010
The survey report also talks about top career choices of the graduate students. The media, teaching and marketing were the top three graduate career choices for students graduating in 2010 (similar to that of 2009). Preference for jobs in information technology (IT) and engineering were down 5% and 11% respectively as compared to last year.
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