New XpertHR research shows tentative signs that the graduate recruitment market is stabilising following the previous drop in employer demand prompted by the UK recession.
Our findings from our annual survey, now in its 23rd year, show that seven employers in 10 (70.5%) are currently trying to recruit graduates and more than eight in 10 (86.4%) predict they will do so in the future. In 2009, when the UK was firmly positioned in an economic downturn, we reported that just six in 10 employers (63.8%) were actively recruiting graduates.
An increased level of optimism in employers’ recruitment intentions is also evident in the number of graduates that employers are looking to take on.
In 2012, the XpertHR findings show that more than seven employers in 10 (72.2%) are taking on the same number of graduate recruits as before while just one in 10 (11.4%) want to hire fewer than before.
This compares to our findings in 2009, which found that six employers in 10 (61%) were aiming to hire roughly the same number of graduates as before while a quarter (24%) wanted to recruit fewer than before.
Our findings indicate that the emerging confidence in graduate recruiters’ hiring intentions is not yet matched by a rise in graduate starting salaries. Starting salaries for graduates have been frozen for the fourth consecutive year, according to the 2012 XpertHR survey – the typical median (or midpoint) increase between 2011/12 and 2012/13 was nil.
The lack of any salary increase for entry-level graduates means that graduate incomes will fall behind inflationary rises in the UK cost of living. Combined with the increase in tuition fees to £9,000 a year for the majority of students from September 2012, it seems inevitable that many graduates will start to incur increasing levels of debt from now on.
This 2012 survey is based on feedback from 132 employers about their experience of graduate recruitment and starting salaries.
