Milkround News, 14 January 2009
Graduates are facing up to the prospect of the toughest job hunt "for 20 years" after 7,000 graduate jobs were cut in the last year.

A survey of The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers and around 1,000 final year student job hunters by High Fliers reveals graduates will face the toughest competition for jobs in the last two decades, with many likely to struggle to find work when they complete their studies.

The research found that of the 40,000 graduates the employers planned to recruit in 2008 and 2009, almost 7,000 vacancies have been cut or left unfilled.

The worst hit sector is the City where there has been a reduction in graduate entry levels by nearly half. Just the public sector and Armed Forces stepped up their graduate vacancies in the same period and only employers in the accountancy sector plan to recruit more graduates than these in 2009.

The news confirms 2008 was a dismal year for graduate recruitment when a predicted rise in graduate jobs of 11.8 percent turned into a fall of 6.7 percent and brought increasing competition for places. This year’s graduates will face an even tougher time as a 17 percent drop in recruitment is predicted.

Martin Birchall of High Fliers said: "Not only have vacancies been reduced substantially for those finishing university in 2009, but it is now clear that many of last year's entry-level jobs did not materialise either, leaving many graduates from the class of 2008 out of work too.

"This is causing a surge in applications from students desperate to secure a position. Two thirds of finalists have made it a top priority to pin down a job. Also half of graduates believe that they will have to take any job that they are offered."

He added: "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."

Half of finalists questioned have little confidence they will find a graduate position after leaving university and a third admit that they should have begun looking for work earlier. Three-quarters are concerned new graduates risk losing their jobs within the first 12 months of starting work.

As previously reported, companies seem to be taking on quality students, reducing their targets to the top 15-20 universities and offering those candidates higher wages. However, as a result, the average graduate starting wage will rise 5.4 percent from £25,500 to £27,000 in 2009.