Graduate employment market looking a bit rosier

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Employers are positive about their future graduate recruitment intentions according to the latest XpertHR survey of graduate recruitment despite the fact that they are still finding it hard to attract high-quality recruits. This follows a survey from the Association of Graduate Recruiters showing the first predicted rise in graduate pay for 3 years.

According to XpertHR, three-quarters of the employers they asked are currently trying to recruit graduates and 88% forecast that they will do so in the future. Rachel Snuff, author of the report said: ‘Before the onset of the recession in the UK in 2008, there was generally a healthy balance between the supply of, and demand for, graduates in the labour market. Since 2008, that balance has been skewed heavily in favour of supply, with employer demand for graduate recruits having weakened across most sectors of the economy’.

Starting salaries for graduate recruits will be based on a median of £24,500 in 2011-12. The average amount will be marginally higher at £24,583. These starting salary levels are significantly higher than those recorded in 2010’s survey, which showed a median starting salary of £22,550 and an average starting salary of £23,174. Starting salaries are pitched at a considerably lower rate in the public sector - a median of £20,000 compared with £24,000 in manufacturing and production and £25,000 in private sector services.

Graduate recruiters rely on a mixture of candidate-attraction tools. The two most popular methods reflect the modern and more traditional approaches: using an internet site run by or for the organisation and notifying vacancies to university careers services. Assessment centres are widely seen as the best approach for selecting new graduate recruits.