Smash hit

The recession appears to have dented graduates’ financial expectations, too — the average expected starting salary for the Class of 2009 is £22,300. This is £400 lower than rates anticipated in 2008 and the first time that expectations have gone down rather than up since the survey was first conducted in 1995. Despite this, one in seven finalists still hopes to earn £100,000 or more by the age of 30.

Although overall only a third of this year’s new graduates expect to find work after university, more than 90 per cent believe that their time at university has been worthwhile and that they would recommend the experience to others. Only a very small minority said that they would not have come to university if they had known how tough the graduate job market was going to be.

Key findings

- The number of finalists in the Class of 2009 who have secured a job offer has dropped by one third, compared with 2008

- Only 36 per cent of current final-year students believe that they will start a job or be looking for one this summer

- Students’ confidence is at an all-time low, with 52 per cent of university-leavers describing their prospects as very limited

- About 42 per cent of student job seekers fear that job offers may be cancelled by employers before they begin work; 48 per cent are worried that they will be made redundant in their first year

- Graduates from the Class of 2009 expect to owe an average of £15,700, up by more than one third on the 2008 average of £11,600, largely thanks to the introduction of higher tuition fees in 2006

- The volume of job applications has increased significantly and students are applying earlier

- One third of finalists looking for work said the economic climate meant that they would have to accept any job they were offered

- One sixth said that the scarcity of graduate jobs had led them to apply to employers they were not really interested in

- More finalists applied for accountancy positions than any other career in the early months of the graduate recruitment season

- Teaching was the most popular career destination among university-leavers, for the first time, followed by media and marketing

- Applications for jobs in engineering and the public sector increased by a fifth on 2008

- Investment banking, the second most popular career destination for graduates in 2008, has seen applications drop by a third

- There was also less interest in other parts of the finance sector, while applications for jobs in property also dropped sharply

- Expected starting salaries have dropped to an average of £22,300 — the first year that expectations have not increased since the survey was first conducted in 1995

- One in four students plans to take a postgraduate course while 8 per cent intend to take on temporary or voluntary work

- Seventeen per cent of finalists are preparing to take time out or go travelling; 12 per cent have no idea what to do next

Martin Birchall is managing director of High Fliers Research and editor of The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers

www.highfliers.co.uk

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