Tuesday 15 November 2011

Graduate unemployment drops for the first time since the start of the recession


For most UK graduates employment is steadily increasing, unemployment is slowly decreasing and those in graduate level jobs has reached a record high, according to research published this week by the Higher Education Careers Services Unit (HECSU).

HECSU’s annual, What Do Graduates Do? reports the destinations of full and part-time first degree graduates, six months after leaving university in 2010:

• 284,160 students graduated in 2010 with a first degree – a 3.6% increase on last year

• 69.7% (163,090 graduates) were in employment – a 7.9% increase on 2009 graduates

• Unemployment has gone down from 8.9% to 8.5% (19,785 graduates)

• Record number (100,265 or 63.4%) secured graduate level jobs – a 9.2% increase

The figures show recovery in business and financial services with 7.5% of graduates working in these occupations, the same as that recorded in 2008. Marketing, sales and advertising was the occupational group that saw the largest percentage jump in graduates in 2010. 31% more graduates entered these roles in 2010 compared to the previous year, fuelled by an upturn in graduate recruitment in advertising and digital media.

After reporting poor employment prospects for architecture and building management graduates in the 2009 and 2010 editions of What Do Graduates Do?, the 2011 edition reports an improvement with 73.2% in employment and a decrease in unemployment - from 10.9% in 2010 to 9.5%. (More architecture and building management graduates found work this year as quantity surveyors, building surveyors, architectural technicians and assistants and town planners

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