From graduate school to flipping burgers

Graduates in the United Kingdom are facing the most intense scramble in a decade to get a job this summer, as a poll of employers reveals the number of applications for each vacancy has surged to nearly 70 while the number of available positions is predicted to fall by nearly 7 per cent. The Class of 2010 has been told to consider flipping burgers or stacking shelves when they leave university as leading firms in investment banking, law and IT are due to cut graduate jobs this year.

Competition in the jobs market is fiercer now than for the first “post-crunch” generation of students in comparison to last year, when there were 48 applications for each vacancy. The number of applicants for each job is so high that nearly 78 per cent of employers are insisting on a second-upper degree, rendering a second-lower degree marginal and effectively ruling out graduates with third-class honours, according to the survey published yesterday.

The Association of Graduate Recruiters polled over 200 firms including Cadbury, Marks and Spencer, JP Morgan and Vodafone and found the applications per vacancy had risen to 68.8 this year, the highest figure recorded.

In the most hotly contested sector – makers of fast-moving consumer goods such as food, confectionery and cosmetics – there were 205 applications for each job. Graduate salaries are frozen at an average of £25,000 ($52,690), the first time in the survey’s history that starting salaries have remained stagnant for two consecutive years. But there is some positive news; the survey noted a revival in banking, the insurance sector and accountancy where vacancies were predicted to rise this year. Apprenticeships might provide an alternative career path for some students, the survey noted. Mr Gilleard acknowledged there was snobbery about apprenticeships, but said the children of the middle classes should not assume they have to get a degree to succeed. “Too many young people go (to university) because it’s expected of them, and they don’t think it through from a personal perspective – what will it be like, apart from having a good time.”

In response to the survey, the minister for universities, Mr David Willetts, said: “The job market remains challenging for new graduates, as it does for others.”
“But a degree is still a good investment in the long term, and graduates have a key role to play in helping Britain out of the recession.”

TG

Tags: Britain, Cadbury, flipping burgers, graduate, jobs market, JP Morgan, Marks and Spencer, uk, Vodafone