The Graduate Market in 2015
Expected Graduate Vacancies in 2015 After the significant increase in graduate vacancies in 2014, it is particularly encouraging that the organisations featured in The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers are now aiming to expand their graduate recruitment programmes even further in 2015. Overall, graduate vacancies are expected to increase by 8.1% this year as more than half the leading employers are planning to recruit more graduates, with four organisations confident that they’ll be hiring at least a hundred extra graduates during 2015. A third of employers plan to recruit similar numbers of graduates to their 2014 intake, whilst a fifth have fewer entry-level vacancies this year. The median number of vacancies for at the top employers in 2015 is 100 graduates but seven of the largest employers are preparing to hire more than 500 university-leavers in the coming months (see Chart 2.6 ). The largest recruiters of graduates in 2015 are expected to be the accounting & professional services firms, public sector employers, investment banks and engineering & industrial firms, who have combined recruitment targets of over 10,000 graduate positions (see Chart 2.5 ). When compared with the final recruitment figures for 2014, vacancies for graduates are set to increase in nine of the thirteen main employment areas (see Table 2.7 ). The biggest growth is at public sector organisations, accounting & professional services firms, banking & finance employers, high street retailers and the Armed Forces, which together expect to have over 1,200 extra graduate roles in 2015. Vacancy numbers are unchanged in the IT & telecommunications sector but are likely to be lower this year at media organisations, oil & energy companies and consulting firms. Whilst this data confirms there will be another welcome increase in the number of new graduate jobs available at the UK’s top employers in 2015, recruiters warn that 31% of all vacancies are expected to be filled by undergraduates who have had previous work experience with their organisations, such as paid internships or industrial placements.
Chart 2.5 Industries or Business Sectors with the most Graduate Vacancies in 2015
4,624 vacancies
Accounting & professional services
3,771 vacancies
Public sector
1,820 vacancies
Investment banking
1,708 vacancies
Engineering & industrial
1,319 vacancies
Banking & finance
1,314 vacancies
Retail
1,246 vacancies
Armed Forces
3,000
4,000
5,000
0
1,000
2,000
Number of vacancies at top graduate employers
Source - The Graduate Market in 2015
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