Research by graduate recruitment website WikiJob suggests the current downturn in the world economy could affect graduate recruitment in the UK as companies cut back on excess expenditure.
This week employees at city firms were left unsatisfied by negligible end of year bonuses which fell short of last year's expectations. As economic conditions deteriorate around the world major firms will continue to slow down on unnecessary spending, such as funds spent recruiting new staff.
Major global firms such as PricewaterhouseCoopers and Deloitte generally hire over a thousand graduate applicants each year, but this figure could fall dramatically in 2008 as companies prepare for worldwide financial crisis.
Rather than making redundancies or cutting back on investment large firms may choose to cut out graduate recruitment altogether as a quick, surefire solution to save money during potential periods of recession. The costs of advertising jobs, hiring and training lowest level recruits is high compared to the costs of current employees and is consequently likely to be something most major firms chose to cut back on in the current unstable economic climate.
