The sound of champagne corks popping across university campuses is likely to be muted this year. While graduation ceremonies are in full swing, the Class of 2009 has little to celebrate.

Research published today suggests that this could be the worst year in two decades to find a job and that up to 80,000 graduates will be unemployed this autumn.

The Graduate Market in 2009, by High Fliers, a research company, based on research with The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers, finds that recruitment targets for 2009 have been cut by 28 per cent since October.

Of the 20,000 graduate vacancies originally advertised for this academic year, at least 5,500 have been cancelled or left unfilled, with the worst losses in investment banking, IT and telecoms and pharmaceuticals, where entry-level vacancies have halved.

While accounting and professional services firms remain among Britain’s largest recruiters — PricewaterhouseCoopers and Deloitte have maintained their annual intake of 1,000 graduates — across the sector one training place in five has been cut. Graduates thinking of going into public service may have a better chance of success.

Two hundred additional officers are being recruited for the Army, the Royal Navy and the RAF, which, having long struggled to recruit, are taking advantage of the fall in opportunities in other sectors. Retailers are set to hire 5 per cent more graduates and the public sector expects to increase recruitment by 4 per cent.

The NHS management scheme plans to recruit 100 more graduates. The average number of applicants per place jumped from 35 in 2008 to 45 this year with investment banking, retail and oil and gas most oversubscribed, receiving 80 applications for each role. Accountancy and professional services firms attract only 15 applications per vacancy.

This was always going to be a tough year to graduate — the number of students leaving university has increased by almost 50,000 in the past three years and the Class of 2009 is the first to have paid tuition fees of nearly £10,000 — but the recession means that much of the growth in the graduate job market between 2004 and 2007 has been lost. Almost two thirds of employers have reduced their graduate places for 2009.

• Martin Birchall is the managing director of High Fliers Research.

www.highfliers.co.uk

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