The latest graduate employment forecast from the Association of Graduate Recruiters is released tomorrow and Carl Gilleard, AGR chief executive, expects it to offer one of the bleakest outlooks for new graduates in at least a decade.

Just five months ago, Gilleard tried to soften the blow of the first drop in graduate vacancies since 2003 — down 5.4% — with the observation that at least the picture wasn’t as gloomy as in 2003 after the dotcom crash.

But the latest survey of the hiring intentions of the UK’s top graduate recruiters will confirm this is now a worse slump. It comes a week after market research company High Fliers’ dismal prediction that 2009’s debt-laden graduates — at 300,000 the largest cohort ever to graduate in the UK — face a 20 per cent reduction in graduate vacancies. Just last summer AGR was predicting an 11% rise in graduate vacancies.

Gilleard doesn’t play down how tough it is out there but says students must remain optimistic. “It’s an accident of birth whether you graduate when the economy is depressed or buoyant,” he says. “You never forget graduating in a downturn but you do survive it.”

Perhaps when they look back in future years, this year’s graduates will be philosophical. But for the moment, the search for work is generally depressing.

“I made 40-50 job applications,” says Sophie Howse, 23, from Rickmansworth, who graduated last summer with a 2:1 in social policy from Birmingham University just as the recession started and whose only paid employment since has been as a waitress.

“What I’ve found really soul destroying is that I didn’t even get an acknowledgement of application from two-thirds of companies. I’ve found myself questioning the value of my degree. If I had started work three years before the recession, I would probably be doing much better now and I would be without £13,000 debt from university.”

Howse wanted to work in public relations but stints of unpaid work experience she expected to last two months stretched into ten. She has had to return home and rely on her parents for financial support. Howse says that at least this year’s graduates have had warning of how bad it is. “We had no idea it was going to be so hard,” she says.

But being forewarned isn’t proving enough. Kate Allum, 21, graduating this year from Birmingham with a BSc in sports science, started looking for a job in January. “I want to go into marketing but so does the rest of the world,” she says ruefully. She has applied unsuccessfully for 50 or so jobs and 95% of her applications have gone unacknowledged.

Allum, from Woking, now hopes to ride out the recession by taking an MSc in marketing and communications at Birmingham, funded, as she was in her first degree, by her parents. Thousands of other graduates are also taking refuge in further study.

Allum’s friend Susie Hemsted, 21, who has just graduated in psychology from Manchester University, is opting for another popular recession strategy. She is planning to see out the storm abroad. “I want to take a year out and travel,” says Hemsted, who is £20,000 in debt. “I want to work in management but this is just a very tough time to be looking for a career. Lots of friends are saying it’s best just to take a gap year and that when we come back things might have improved.”

almost a year of unpaid work, Sophie Howse has adapted in a way that Gilleard would surely admire. She has set up two PR companies — Essence-Promotions and Essence-Events — with a woman she did work experience with. As yet she remains unpaid but she is a shareholder in the new companies — and she is working.

graduates wondering which sectors are currently holding up best, Gilleard points to the public sector. However, when the private sector picks up after a downturn, public services are usually cut and this recession has left the public finances in ruins.

some argue that the expansion of higher education has exacerbated the graduate recruitment crisis, Gilleard insists that the country can never have too many graduates and that a degree will be valuable long after the recession is over.

The latest graduate employment forecast from the Association of Graduate Recruiters is released tomorrow and Carl Gilleard, AGR chief executive, expects it to offer one of the bleakest outlooks for new graduates in at least a decade.

Just five months ago, Gilleard tried to soften the blow of the first drop in graduate vacancies since 2003 — down 5.4% — with the observation that at least the picture wasn’t as gloomy as in 2003 after the dotcom crash.

But the latest survey of the hiring intentions of the UK’s top graduate recruiters will confirm this is now a worse slump. It comes a week after market research company High Fliers’ dismal prediction that 2009’s debt-laden graduates — at 300,000 the largest cohort ever to graduate in the UK — face a 20 per cent reduction in graduate vacancies. Just last summer AGR was predicting an 11% rise in graduate vacancies.

Gilleard doesn’t play down how tough it is out there but says students must remain optimistic. “It’s an accident of birth whether you graduate when the economy is depressed or buoyant,” he says. “You never forget graduating in a downturn but you do survive it.”

Perhaps when they look back in future years, this year’s graduates will be philosophical. But for the moment, the search for work is generally depressing.

“I made 40-50 job applications,” says Sophie Howse, 23, from Rickmansworth, who graduated last summer with a 2:1 in social policy from Birmingham University just as the recession started and whose only paid employment since has been as a waitress.

“What I’ve found really soul destroying is that I didn’t even get an acknowledgement of application from two-thirds of companies. I’ve found myself questioning the value of my degree. If I had started work three years before the recession, I would probably be doing much better now and I would be without £13,000 debt from university.”

Howse wanted to work in public relations but stints of unpaid work experience she expected to last two months stretched into ten. She has had to return home and rely on her parents for financial support. Howse says that at least this year’s graduates have had warning of how bad it is. “We had no idea it was going to be so hard,” she says.

But being forewarned isn’t proving enough. Kate Allum, 21, graduating this year from Birmingham with a BSc in sports science, started looking for a job in January. “I want to go into marketing but so does the rest of the world,” she says ruefully. She has applied unsuccessfully for 50 or so jobs and 95% of her applications have gone unacknowledged.

Allum, from Woking, now hopes to ride out the recession by taking an MSc in marketing and communications at Birmingham, funded, as she was in her first degree, by her parents. Thousands of other graduates are also taking refuge in further study.

Allum’s friend Susie Hemsted, 21, who has just graduated in psychology from Manchester University, is opting for another popular recession strategy. She is planning to see out the storm abroad. “I want to take a year out and travel,” says Hemsted, who is £20,000 in debt. “I want to work in management but this is just a very tough time to be looking for a career. Lots of friends are saying it’s best just to take a gap year and that when we come back things might have improved.”

almost a year of unpaid work, Sophie Howse has adapted in a way that Gilleard would surely admire. She has set up two PR companies — Essence-Promotions and Essence-Events — with a woman she did work experience with. As yet she remains unpaid but she is a shareholder in the new companies — and she is working.

graduates wondering which sectors are currently holding up best, Gilleard points to the public sector. However, when the private sector picks up after a downturn, public services are usually cut and this recession has left the public finances in ruins.

some argue that the expansion of higher education has exacerbated the graduate recruitment crisis, Gilleard insists that the country can never have too many graduates and that a degree will be valuable long after the recession is over. The latest graduate employment forecast from the Association of Graduate Recruiters is released tomorrow and Carl Gilleard, AGR chief executive, expects it to offer one of the bleakest outlooks for new graduates in at least a decade.

Just five months ago, Gilleard tried to soften the blow of the first drop in graduate vacancies since 2003 — down 5.4% — with the observation that at least the picture wasn’t as gloomy as in 2003 after the dotcom crash.

But the latest survey of the hiring intentions of the UK’s top graduate recruiters will confirm this is now a worse slump. It comes a week after market research company High Fliers’ dismal prediction that 2009’s debt-laden graduates — at 300,000 the largest cohort ever to graduate in the UK — face a 20 per cent reduction in graduate vacancies. Just last summer AGR was predicting an 11% rise in graduate vacancies.

Gilleard doesn’t play down how tough it is out there but says students must remain optimistic. “It’s an accident of birth whether you graduate when the economy is depressed or buoyant,” he says. “You never forget graduating in a downturn but you do survive it.”

Perhaps when they look back in future years, this year’s graduates will be philosophical. But for the moment, the search for work is generally depressing.

“I made 40-50 job applications,” says Sophie Howse, 23, from Rickmansworth, who graduated last summer with a 2:1 in social policy from Birmingham University just as the recession started and whose only paid employment since has been as a waitress.

“What I’ve found really soul destroying is that I didn’t even get an acknowledgement of application from two-thirds of companies. I’ve found myself questioning the value of my degree. If I had started work three years before the recession, I would probably be doing much better now and I would be without £13,000 debt from university.”

Howse wanted to work in public relations but stints of unpaid work experience she expected to last two months stretched into ten. She has had to return home and rely on her parents for financial support. Howse says that at least this year’s graduates have had warning of how bad it is. “We had no idea it was going to be so hard,” she says.

But being forewarned isn’t proving enough. Kate Allum, 21, graduating this year from Birmingham with a BSc in sports science, started looking for a job in January. “I want to go into marketing but so does the rest of the world,” she says ruefully. She has applied unsuccessfully for 50 or so jobs and 95% of her applications have gone unacknowledged.

Allum, from Woking, now hopes to ride out the recession by taking an MSc in marketing and communications at Birmingham, funded, as she was in her first degree, by her parents. Thousands of other graduates are also taking refuge in further study.

Allum’s friend Susie Hemsted, 21, who has just graduated in psychology from Manchester University, is opting for another popular recession strategy. She is planning to see out the storm abroad. “I want to take a year out and travel,” says Hemsted, who is £20,000 in debt. “I want to work in management but this is just a very tough time to be looking for a career. Lots of friends are saying it’s best just to take a gap year and that when we come back things might have improved.”

almost a year of unpaid work, Sophie Howse has adapted in a way that Gilleard would surely admire. She has set up two PR companies — Essence-Promotions and Essence-Events — with a woman she did work experience with. As yet she remains unpaid but she is a shareholder in the new companies — and she is working.

graduates wondering which sectors are currently holding up best, Gilleard points to the public sector. However, when the private sector picks up after a downturn, public services are usually cut and this recession has left the public finances in ruins.

some argue that the expansion of higher education has exacerbated the graduate recruitment crisis, Gilleard insists that the country can never have too many graduates and that a degree will be valuable long after the recession is over. The latest graduate employment forecast from the Association of Graduate Recruiters is released tomorrow and Carl Gilleard, AGR chief executive, expects it to offer one of the bleakest outlooks for new graduates in at least a decade.

Just five months ago, Gilleard tried to soften the blow of the first drop in graduate vacancies since 2003 — down 5.4% — with the observation that at least the picture wasn’t as gloomy as in 2003 after the dotcom crash.

But the latest survey of the hiring intentions of the UK’s top graduate recruiters will confirm this is now a worse slump. It comes a week after market research company High Fliers’ dismal prediction that 2009’s debt-laden graduates — at 300,000 the largest cohort ever to graduate in the UK — face a 20 per cent reduction in graduate vacancies. Just last summer AGR was predicting an 11% rise in graduate vacancies.

Gilleard doesn’t play down how tough it is out there but says students must remain optimistic. “It’s an accident of birth whether you graduate when the economy is depressed or buoyant,” he says. “You never forget graduating in a downturn but you do survive it.”

Perhaps when they look back in future years, this year’s graduates will be philosophical. But for the moment, the search for work is generally depressing.

“I made 40-50 job applications,” says Sophie Howse, 23, from Rickmansworth, who graduated last summer with a 2:1 in social policy from Birmingham University just as the recession started and whose only paid employment since has been as a waitress.

“What I’ve found really soul destroying is that I didn’t even get an acknowledgement of application from two-thirds of companies. I’ve found myself questioning the value of my degree. If I had started work three years before the recession, I would probably be doing much better now and I would be without £13,000 debt from university.”

Howse wanted to work in public relations but stints of unpaid work experience she expected to last two months stretched into ten. She has had to return home and rely on her parents for financial support. Howse says that at least this year’s graduates have had warning of how bad it is. “We had no idea it was going to be so hard,” she says.

But being forewarned isn’t proving enough. Kate Allum, 21, graduating this year from Birmingham with a BSc in sports science, started looking for a job in January. “I want to go into marketing but so does the rest of the world,” she says ruefully. She has applied unsuccessfully for 50 or so jobs and 95% of her applications have gone unacknowledged.

Allum, from Woking, now hopes to ride out the recession by taking an MSc in marketing and communications at Birmingham, funded, as she was in her first degree, by her parents. Thousands of other graduates are also taking refuge in further study.

Allum’s friend Susie Hemsted, 21, who has just graduated in psychology from Manchester University, is opting for another popular recession strategy. She is planning to see out the storm abroad. “I want to take a year out and travel,” says Hemsted, who is £20,000 in debt. “I want to work in management but this is just a very tough time to be looking for a career. Lots of friends are saying it’s best just to take a gap year and that when we come back things might have improved.”

almost a year of unpaid work, Sophie Howse has adapted in a way that Gilleard would surely admire. She has set up two PR companies — Essence-Promotions and Essence-Events — with a woman she did work experience with. As yet she remains unpaid but she is a shareholder in the new companies — and she is working.

graduates wondering which sectors are currently holding up best, Gilleard points to the public sector. However, when the private sector picks up after a downturn, public services are usually cut and this recession has left the public finances in ruins.

some argue that the expansion of higher education has exacerbated the graduate recruitment crisis, Gilleard insists that the country can never have too many graduates and that a degree will be valuable long after the recession is over. The latest graduate employment forecast from the Association of Graduate Recruiters is released tomorrow and Carl Gilleard, AGR chief executive, expects it to offer one of the bleakest outlooks for new graduates in at least a decade.

Just five months ago, Gilleard tried to soften the blow of the first drop in graduate vacancies since 2003 — down 5.4% — with the observation that at least the picture wasn’t as gloomy as in 2003 after the dotcom crash.

But the latest survey of the hiring intentions of the UK’s top graduate recruiters will confirm this is now a worse slump. It comes a week after market research company High Fliers’ dismal prediction that 2009’s debt-laden graduates — at 300,000 the largest cohort ever to graduate in the UK — face a 20 per cent reduction in graduate vacancies. Just last summer AGR was predicting an 11% rise in graduate vacancies.

Gilleard doesn’t play down how tough it is out there but says students must remain optimistic. “It’s an accident of birth whether you graduate when the economy is depressed or buoyant,” he says. “You never forget graduating in a downturn but you do survive it.”

Perhaps when they look back in future years, this year’s graduates will be philosophical. But for the moment, the search for work is generally depressing.

“I made 40-50 job applications,” says Sophie Howse, 23, from Rickmansworth, who graduated last summer with a 2:1 in social policy from Birmingham University just as the recession started and whose only paid employment since has been as a waitress.

“What I’ve found really soul destroying is that I didn’t even get an acknowledgement of application from two-thirds of companies. I’ve found myself questioning the value of my degree. If I had started work three years before the recession, I would probably be doing much better now and I would be without £13,000 debt from university.”

Howse wanted to work in public relations but stints of unpaid work experience she expected to last two months stretched into ten. She has had to return home and rely on her parents for financial support. Howse says that at least this year’s graduates have had warning of how bad it is. “We had no idea it was going to be so hard,” she says.

But being forewarned isn’t proving enough. Kate Allum, 21, graduating this year from Birmingham with a BSc in sports science, started looking for a job in January. “I want to go into marketing but so does the rest of the world,” she says ruefully. She has applied unsuccessfully for 50 or so jobs and 95% of her applications have gone unacknowledged.

Allum, from Woking, now hopes to ride out the recession by taking an MSc in marketing and communications at Birmingham, funded, as she was in her first degree, by her parents. Thousands of other graduates are also taking refuge in further study.

Allum’s friend Susie Hemsted, 21, who has just graduated in psychology from Manchester University, is opting for another popular recession strategy. She is planning to see out the storm abroad. “I want to take a year out and travel,” says Hemsted, who is £20,000 in debt. “I want to work in management but this is just a very tough time to be looking for a career. Lots of friends are saying it’s best just to take a gap year and that when we come back things might have improved.”

almost a year of unpaid work, Sophie Howse has adapted in a way that Gilleard would surely admire. She has set up two PR companies — Essence-Promotions and Essence-Events — with a woman she did work experience with. As yet she remains unpaid but she is a shareholder in the new companies — and she is working.

graduates wondering which sectors are currently holding up best, Gilleard points to the public sector. However, when the private sector picks up after a downturn, public services are usually cut and this recession has left the public finances in ruins.

some argue that the expansion of higher education has exacerbated the graduate recruitment crisis, Gilleard insists that the country can never have too many graduates and that a degree will be valuable long after the recession is over. The latest graduate employment forecast from the Association of Graduate Recruiters is released tomorrow and Carl Gilleard, AGR chief executive, expects it to offer one of the bleakest outlooks for new graduates in at least a decade.

Just five months ago, Gilleard tried to soften the blow of the first drop in graduate vacancies since 2003 — down 5.4% — with the observation that at least the picture wasn’t as gloomy as in 2003 after the dotcom crash.

But the latest survey of the hiring intentions of the UK’s top graduate recruiters will confirm this is now a worse slump. It comes a week after market research company High Fliers’ dismal prediction that 2009’s debt-laden graduates — at 300,000 the largest cohort ever to graduate in the UK — face a 20 per cent reduction in graduate vacancies. Just last summer AGR was predicting an 11% rise in graduate vacancies.

Gilleard doesn’t play down how tough it is out there but says students must remain optimistic. “It’s an accident of birth whether you graduate when the economy is depressed or buoyant,” he says. “You never forget graduating in a downturn but you do survive it.”

Perhaps when they look back in future years, this year’s graduates will be philosophical. But for the moment, the search for work is generally depressing.

“I made 40-50 job applications,” says Sophie Howse, 23, from Rickmansworth, who graduated last summer with a 2:1 in social policy from Birmingham University just as the recession started and whose only paid employment since has been as a waitress.

“What I’ve found really soul destroying is that I didn’t even get an acknowledgement of application from two-thirds of companies. I’ve found myself questioning the value of my degree. If I had started work three years before the recession, I would probably be doing much better now and I would be without £13,000 debt from university.”

Howse wanted to work in public relations but stints of unpaid work experience she expected to last two months stretched into ten. She has had to return home and rely on her parents for financial support. Howse says that at least this year’s graduates have had warning of how bad it is. “We had no idea it was going to be so hard,” she says.

But being forewarned isn’t proving enough. Kate Allum, 21, graduating this year from Birmingham with a BSc in sports science, started looking for a job in January. “I want to go into marketing but so does the rest of the world,” she says ruefully. She has applied unsuccessfully for 50 or so jobs and 95% of her applications have gone unacknowledged.

Allum, from Woking, now hopes to ride out the recession by taking an MSc in marketing and communications at Birmingham, funded, as she was in her first degree, by her parents. Thousands of other graduates are also taking refuge in further study.

Allum’s friend Susie Hemsted, 21, who has just graduated in psychology from Manchester University, is opting for another popular recession strategy. She is planning to see out the storm abroad. “I want to take a year out and travel,” says Hemsted, who is £20,000 in debt. “I want to work in management but this is just a very tough time to be looking for a career. Lots of friends are saying it’s best just to take a gap year and that when we come back things might have improved.”

almost a year of unpaid work, Sophie Howse has adapted in a way that Gilleard would surely admire. She has set up two PR companies — Essence-Promotions and Essence-Events — with a woman she did work experience with. As yet she remains unpaid but she is a shareholder in the new companies — and she is working.

graduates wondering which sectors are currently holding up best, Gilleard points to the public sector. However, when the private sector picks up after a downturn, public services are usually cut and this recession has left the public finances in ruins.

some argue that the expansion of higher education has exacerbated the graduate recruitment crisis, Gilleard insists that the country can never have too many graduates and that a degree will be valuable long after the recession is over. The latest graduate employment forecast from the Association of Graduate Recruiters is released tomorrow and Carl Gilleard, AGR chief executive, expects it to offer one of the bleakest outlooks for new graduates in at least a decade.

Just five months ago, Gilleard tried to soften the blow of the first drop in graduate vacancies since 2003 — down 5.4% — with the observation that at least the picture wasn’t as gloomy as in 2003 after the dotcom crash.

But the latest survey of the hiring intentions of the UK’s top graduate recruiters will confirm this is now a worse slump. It comes a week after market research company High Fliers’ dismal prediction that 2009’s debt-laden graduates — at 300,000 the largest cohort ever to graduate in the UK — face a 20 per cent reduction in graduate vacancies. Just last summer AGR was predicting an 11% rise in graduate vacancies.

Gilleard doesn’t play down how tough it is out there but says students must remain optimistic. “It’s an accident of birth whether you graduate when the economy is depressed or buoyant,” he says. “You never forget graduating in a downturn but you do survive it.”

Perhaps when they look back in future years, this year’s graduates will be philosophical. But for the moment, the search for work is generally depressing.

“I made 40-50 job applications,” says Sophie Howse, 23, from Rickmansworth, who graduated last summer with a 2:1 in social policy from Birmingham University just as the recession started and whose only paid employment since has been as a waitress.

“What I’ve found really soul destroying is that I didn’t even get an acknowledgement of application from two-thirds of companies. I’ve found myself questioning the value of my degree. If I had started work three years before the recession, I would probably be doing much better now and I would be without £13,000 debt from university.”

Howse wanted to work in public relations but stints of unpaid work experience she expected to last two months stretched into ten. She has had to return home and rely on her parents for financial support. Howse says that at least this year’s graduates have had warning of how bad it is. “We had no idea it was going to be so hard,” she says.

But being forewarned isn’t proving enough. Kate Allum, 21, graduating this year from Birmingham with a BSc in sports science, started looking for a job in January. “I want to go into marketing but so does the rest of the world,” she says ruefully. She has applied unsuccessfully for 50 or so jobs and 95% of her applications have gone unacknowledged.

Allum, from Woking, now hopes to ride out the recession by taking an MSc in marketing and communications at Birmingham, funded, as she was in her first degree, by her parents. Thousands of other graduates are also taking refuge in further study.

Allum’s friend Susie Hemsted, 21, who has just graduated in psychology from Manchester University, is opting for another popular recession strategy. She is planning to see out the storm abroad. “I want to take a year out and travel,” says Hemsted, who is £20,000 in debt. “I want to work in management but this is just a very tough time to be looking for a career. Lots of friends are saying it’s best just to take a gap year and that when we come back things might have improved.”

After almost a year of unpaid work, Sophie Howse has adapted in a way that Gilleard would surely admire. She has set up two PR companies — Essence-Promotions and Essence-Events — with a woman she did work experience with. As yet she remains unpaid but she is a shareholder in the new companies — and she is working.

For graduates wondering which sectors are currently holding up best, Gilleard points to the public sector. However, when the private sector picks up after a downturn, public services are usually cut and this recession has left the public finances in ruins.

While some argue that the expansion of higher education has exacerbated the graduate recruitment crisis, Gilleard insists that the country can never have too many graduates and that a degree will be valuable long after the recession is over.

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