The Graduate Market in 2015
Foreword
Executive Summary
The Graduate Market in 2015 is a study of the latest graduate vacancies and starting salaries at the UK’s one hundred best-known and most successful employers, conducted by High Fliers Research during December 2014 : • The number of graduates hired by organisations featured in The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers rose by 7.9% in 2014, compared with recruitment in 2013, the largest annual rise in graduate recruitment for four years. • Last-minute increases in employers’ recruitment targets and a sharp rise in the number of graduates turning down or reneging on job offers meant that more than 700 graduate positions were left unfilled last year. • The UK’s leading employers plan to expand their graduate recruitment even further in 2015 with 8.1% more entry-level vacancies than last year, the third consecutive year that graduate vacancies have increased. • This substantial increase in graduate vacancies for 2015 takes graduate recruitment beyond the pre-recession peak in the graduate job market in 2007 and means that there will be more opportunities for this summer’s university-leavers than at any time in the last decade . • Employers in nine out of thirteen key industries and employment areas are expecting to take on more new graduates than in 2014. • The largest growth in vacancies is expected in the public sector , accounting & professional services firms , banking & finance employers , retailers and the Armed Forces , which together intend to recruit over 1,200 extra graduates in 2015. • The largest recruiters of graduates in 2015 will be Teach First (2,060 vacancies) , PwC (1,570 vacancies) and Deloitte (1,100 vacancies) . • Recruiters have confirmed that 31% of this year’s entry-level positions are expected to be filled by graduates who have already worked for their organisations , either through paid internships, industrial placements or vacation work. • Graduate starting salaries at the UK’s leading graduate employers are expected to increase for the second year running in 2015, reaching a median of £30,000 for the first time. • More than a quarter of top graduate programmes will pay new recruits more than £35,000 when they start work and four organisations are offering salaries in excess of £45,000 to this year’s graduates. • The most generous salaries in 2015 are those on offer from investment banks (median of £45,000) , law firms (median of £40,000) , banking & finance firms (median of £36,500) and oil & energy companies (median of £32,500) .
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