Supermarket giant Tesco has reported a 61% rise in applications from graduates this year.

The company annually offers UK graduates over 100 places on 15 different schemes, from legal services to property and engineering.

The deadline for applications to join most of this year's graduate schemes closed at the end of last year, but the chain also continuously recruits for some graduate placements in its commercial division - including buying and merchandising - with some places still available.

Hayley Tatum, UK operations personnel director at Tesco, said: "At Tesco we are very aware the recent economic climate is having a detrimental effect upon today's graduates and the talent of the future.

"We have always identified the skills and opportunities graduates bring and for this reason we have remained committed to our graduate recruitment process."

She encouraged graduates to consider all options when leaving university after pointing to research by Tesco which highlighted the earning potential for a career in retail.