• Scouting for talent

The five largest recruiters in the coming year are expected to be: Enterprise Rent-a-Car; Deloitte and PricewaterhouseCoopers, each of which says it will hire about 1,000 graduates; the Army, which has vacancies for 900 officers; and the Teach First scheme, which is looking for more than 700 graduates to start work in some of the UK’s most challenging secondary schools next autumn.

Ninety-six of the The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers have confirmed that they will be hiring graduates next year and 40 employers plan to recruit more graduates than they did in 2009. Starting salaries are expected to remain at about £27,000.

• Sweet offer

Nestlé, the confectionary and food manufacturer, is stepping up its graduate recruitment this autumn with a scheme to help to fund and develop enterprising student societies at the UK’s top universities.

“This year we’re going to be on campus a lot more than we have been in previous years,” Claire Adams, graduate recruitment specialist at Nestlé, said.

“Because we’re looking for future leaders for our business, we’re inviting the presidents of some of the top entrepreneurial, management and debating societies to pitch for a Nestlé partnership fund . . . we’ll give presidents access to some of our senior managers to help to build links between them and their members and Nestlé.”

www.nestlecareers.co.uk.

• Bleak times

Things may slowly be starting to improve for new graduates, but spare a thought for those who graduated in 2005.

The latest research from the Higher Education Statistics Agency reveals that 3½ years after graduation only 61 per cent of university-leavers had managed to find graduate-level employment and one-in-five were still doing jobs that did not require a degree or were working part-time. On a more encouraging note, pay had improved from an average of £17,000 six months after graduation to £24,000.

• Banking on Barclays

You may be fed up of juggling debts and student loans, but could you manage someone else’s money? Barclays Wealth, the private bank, said that it expected applications for the 120 available places on its graduate scheme to double this year. The number of candidates applying for a place on the three-year programme has increased fivefold since it was launched in 2006.• www.barclayswealthgraduates.co.uk

London needs you

Transport for London launches its 2010 graduate scheme next week, with 60 places across 20 disciplines. It is keen to recruit engineers and transport planners to work on billion-pound programmes, including upgrading the London Underground, building the Crossrail line and preparing for the 2012 Olympic Games.

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