Gradcracker, the specialist recruitment website for engineering students, reports that many engineering employers are still actively pursuing engineering graduates.

Although some employers have either frozen or postponed graduate recruitment, Gradcracker says that the number of long-term bookings they have received seems to indicate that a good proportion are thinking beyond this recession and remaining true to their succession planning strategies.

Gradcracker Director, Sean O'Connor, said "We have to admit that we are pleasantly surprised at the number of bookings received for the next academic year. They have certainly far exceeded the somewhat pessimistic expectations we had at the beginning of 2009."

"Employers are certainly more price sensitive now, but that's a good thing from Gradcracker's point of view as we are a niche site offering highly targeted advertising. The scattergun approach to recruiting graduates is over."

Gradcracker also points out that not all engineering sectors are buoyant. Nuclear, Transport and Defence are still actively recruiting but there has been a sharp decline in demand from the Automotive industry. The Oil and Gas, Consultancy and Construction sectors have also reduced their graduate requirements but a substantial number of companies are still keen to take the best engineering graduates.

A sign of the times is the record visitor numbers on gradcracker.com. Engineering students are clearly aware that they need to be actively job seeking and the site's visitor numbers continue to rise dramatically month-by-month during 2009.