IBT carries a story about the UK’s top employers looking to hire the most graduates for over 10 years.
A paper by High Fliers Research says that graduate employment is set to rise by 8.7% in 2015 following a gain of 7.9% in 2014 and that recruitment has risen above pre-crisis levels. 9 out of 13 major employment area will be making an increase.
Salaries will also be rising for graduates with 2014 figures rising for the first time in 4 years.
On the face of it it sounds like good news but what of the graduate (and indeed any school/college) leavers in the years during the crisis. Over 25% of graduate places were cut around 2008/2009 and that left many young people leaving education without prospects of employment. While firms may be looking for 2014 & 2015’s youngest and brightest, where does that leave those from 5-6 years ago on the ladder?
The problem may not be as bad in the UK with continued increasing employment, although many young people, particularly of graduate status, may have had to revise down their employment expectations, but over in Europe where youth unemployment is horrifically high, someone who left education at 17/18 in say 2007-2009 is now 24/25 years old and faces having to compete with the next batch of school leavers.
We’re nearly 8 years from the start of the crisis and there really is a whole generation who are going to, and will continue to, miss out on opportunities now and in the future, and that’s not going to be fixed with a bout of European QE.
The full article from IBT is here
