Graduate job market

The Graduate Market

In recent years at least 350,000 graduates left University each year. Surprise, surprise - there aren't enough good graduate jobs to go round. Unfortunately it’s only getting tougher with more mature students and an influx of European graduates heading for the UK. But you have a 2:1 right? - yes, but so do at least a third of all graduates who sign up to use graduate-jobs.com. The estimates we have read from various sources are that there are 10,000 graduate jobs offered each year. Don't panic! There are lots of other suitable roles which form the majority of employment for most graduates. Obviously the market is stacked in the recruiters' favour. What differentiates one candidate with a 2.1 from another? Exactly… very little which is why in all saturated markets like this one it’s about quality and differentiation from your competitors. That's done by demonstration more that just a 2:2 or a 2:1 or even a 1st.

What do graduates want to do? The most popular sectors on graduate-jobs.com are as follows:

• Management
• Marketing
• Advertising / Public Relations
• Media
• Banking
• Human Resources
• Public Sector & Services
• Consultancy
• Retail
• Sales
• Accounting
• Science & Technology
• Customer Service
• Computing & IT
• Recruitment
• Finance
• Education & Teaching
• Internet
• Travel & Hospitality
• Secretarial & Business Administration

It might be useful to adapt your strategy accordingly. The stats we have at graduate-jobs.com show that most roles attract at least 100 applications. Many attract hundreds of applications.