It is now a decade since the original edition of The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers league table was produced in 1997. One of the biggest changes in that time has been the sharp decline of Britain’s major industrial employers. Ten years ago, more than half the top 20 recruiters were manufacturing companies. This year, just four of the organisations in the top 20 actually make anything — the list is dominated instead by accounting and professional services firms, banks and public sector employers.

During the decade, only four organisations made it to No 1 in the Top 100. Marks & Spencer led the way in 1997 before Accenture (formerly Andersen Consulting) stormed to the top in 1998 and stayed there for five years. This reign heralded a surge in popularity for careers in consulting and at its peak in 2001 almost one university graduate in six applied for jobs in the sector.

In 2003, after a slump in graduate vacancies as a result of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the Civil Service was named Britain’s leading graduate employer. A year later it was displaced by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) — the accounting and professional services firm. PwC has remained at the top ever since, increasing its share of the graduate vote from 5 per cent in 2004 to more than 10 per cent this year.

Since the inception of the Top 100, 174 organisations have appeared in the list. Just 24 of these have been ranked every year since 1997. The most consistent performers are Accenture and the Civil Service — neither has been lower than eighth in the table. Procter & Gamble also has a formidable record, appearing in every top ten until 2007.

Not all employers have been as successful. British Airways fell more than 80 places between 1999 and 2004 and Boots, the chemist, has fallen from sixth in 1998 to 75th this year. Ford, once as high as 11th, fell out of the list last year after cancelling its graduate recruitment in 2004. And the Ministry of Defence, up to 35th for its engineering and science graduate scheme in 2003, has since taken such a low-key approach to campus marketing that it is unranked this year.

Twenty-eight employers, including Nokia, Philips, the Home Office, Abbey and Coca-Cola, have been ranked in the Top 100 only once during the decade, before disappearing without trace. Marconi at 36th had the unusual distinction of being one of the highest new entries in 2001 only to vanish from the list the following year.

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