As the UK edges towards leaving the European Union, many graduate employers remain uncertain about the volume of graduate vacancies in the future.
After the UK's referendum decision to leave the European Union in 2016, many graduate employers are rumoured to take a cautious approach to graduate recruitment in 2018. High Fliers Research, a leading university research organisation, have surveyed the top 100 graduate employers in the UK and expect the volume of graduates recruited to fall.
High Fliers Research have linked the economic uncertainty which surrounds Brexit and a lack of commitment to graduate employment. Martin Birchall, Director at High Fliers Research believes the impact of Brexit is already apparent.
"It's clear from our latest research that the uncertainty caused by Brexit has already hit the graduate job market," he says.
"Although employers in a number of key industries and business sectors are hoping to increase their graduate recruitment again in 2018, the outlook of many recruiters remains cautious for the year ahead."
High Fliers Research points out graduate recruiters have already started rolling back graduate employment and points to eight out of thirteen sectors had been hesitant with their recruitment during 2016-2017.
The study finds the majority of the scaling back will occur in the private sector, while many public sector graduate employers, such as the Civil Service Fast Stream and GCHQ, will continue to at least maintain recruitment levels. Birchall says some of the biggest names in graduate recruitment have made some difficult decisions.
"Instead of expanding their graduate vacancies in 2017 as planned, the country's best-known accounting and professional service firms, financial services companies and investment banks scaled back their recruitment targets by 17% following the Brexit vote."
It is not all bad news, another sector which promises to continue to increase its recruitment is the Engineering sector.