Graduate unemployment 'at a 17-year high'

doire_2

Graduate unemployment has risen to its highest level for 17 years, research suggests.
A study of the graduate class of 2009 found that 8.9% were out of work in January 2010, the Higher Education Careers Services Unit said.
The last time graduate unemployment hit this level was in 1993, it added.
The National Union of Students said the bleak prospects for graduates underlined how "unfair and illogical" the plans to raise tuition fees were.

The government will give its formal response to the Browne Review on higher education funding for England later this week and is expected to confirm that tuition fees will rise.
According to the Higher Education Careers Services Unit (Hecsu) survey, the graduate unemployment rate has risen by one percentage point since last year - to 8.9% - with just over 21,000 students known to have been out of work in January.
Peaked
The previous year, the graduate unemployment rate had shot up from 5.5% to 7.9%.
But Charlie Ball, from Hecsu, believes it might have peaked.
"Graduate unemployment hasn't risen as high as we feared and is some way off the levels of the last recession in 1992, when it reached 11.6%," he said.
"Prospects for graduates in the short-term look brighter, with unemployment, as a result of the downturn, likely to have peaked and next year we expect to see a decline.

"However, with the anticipated public sector job cuts, the future in the medium-term looks less clear."
The study also showed that graduates in some courses had far better fortune in finding work than those who had taken other subjects.
IT graduates had the bleakest prospects, with an unemployment rate of 16% among their number. Graduates who had studied engineering, media studies or architecture also had a jobless rate above 10%.
By contrast, geography and psychology graduates had a better than average chance of getting work.
The president of the National Union of Students, Aaron Porter, said the figures showed the government should reject the recommendations of Lord Browne's review.
"These latest figures show that students are graduating from university into the bleakest employment market for decades," he said.
"This is yet further proof that the radical proposals in Lord Browne's review to remove government funding for the majority of subjects, and simply transfer this cost to students, is unfair and illogical."
The University and College Union, which represents academics, warned that talented people would be put off going to university by the tough jobs market and the prospect of rising tuition fees.
The union's general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: "Graduates are facing an increasingly competitive job market and leaving university with record levels of debt.
"Graduates are an investment in our country's future and the fear is that an uncertain job market, coupled with the government's obsession over earnings, will turn talented people away from university, which is not what the UK needs if we are to become a high-skill high-wage economy

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UnderPressure

Terrible news especially for someone like me who as a mature student am about to start an IT degree!

I have just commented in another thread about this and my hunch is that a lot of graduates eventually will simply start to look to other countries for employment and opportunity, this is a course I will seriously look at once graduated especially if there is no change for the better in the housing and mortgage markets to make it easier for first time buyers to get onto the property ladder.

The whole thing is a shambles if we are not careful we are going to write off a whole generation, a generation that ARE the future of this country, time will of course tell but if a graduate is to commit 4-6 years of their life to study to only graduate and have no employment opportunity or at best manage to get a job then get taxed to death by the government and have next to no prospect of ever being able to buy their own property....................... Would you hang around??

gingerdad

i can't say too much on this one, but would supest that graduates are at an all time high.

and recently i interviewed a recent graduate in Marketing and he was unemployable, i instead gave the role to some one who left school at 16 and had some real world experience.

PasturesNew

Being more educated, at least those with jobs will understand the physics of why the burgers are cooking - and be able to calculate mathematically how many chips need to go on the shovel so they'll fit exactly in the little paper bag.

Generali

PasturesNew wrote: »

Being more educated, at least those with jobs will understand the physics of why the burgers are cooking - and be able to calculate mathematically how many chips need to go on the shovel so they'll fit exactly in the little paper bag.

Don't knock it, the bloke with the physics degree can at least go on to some jobs closed to non-grads.

I've been in (proper) interviews where the interviewer has clearly been bunged my CV and told to get on with it so they're going through the mental checklist in front of me. One of the ticks is 'Honours Degree, not from Neasden Poly'.

Lokolo

Well this is going to be interesting year for me...

worldtraveller

Maybe they should try my old university, the University of Surrey, whose graduates are the most employable in the UK again.

96.9% of those that got first degrees from full-time courses in 2008-09 were employed or in further study within 6 months.

Over the last 15 years they have had the lowest average unemployment rate in the country.

UnderPressure

gingerdad wrote: »

i can't say too much on this one, but would supest that graduates are at an all time high.

and recently i interviewed a recent graduate in Marketing and he was unemployable, i instead gave the role to some one who left school at 16 and had some real world experience.

Of course I understand completely where you are coming from just because somebody has a degree does not make them immediately more experienced for any kind of job, I also agree with you completely about the number of graduates increasing dramatically.

When you conducted your interviews of course you had to go with the candidate that you thought would be most suited to the job not only out of education but also out of real world experience this I would expect.

There does seem to be an element of graduates that think just because they have a degree they automatically should be able to sail into any job they wish when in the real world this is simply not true.

I think the whole lack of jobs and opportunity for everyone is more the problem maybe employers dont put as much importance on education as they used to who knows there has to be somekind of reward for these graduates though surely going to university and working dam hard for 4-6 years to then end up flipping burgers in McDonalds is a complete wast of everyones time and finances??

I have no clue as to what the answer is maybe a huge percentage of graduates were ending up 1 way or another working in the banking and finance sector? Who knows it may well be "natural wastage" due to the increased amount of people obtaining degrees, I can only hope and pray the future will be different when I eventually graduate if not then moving abroad would have to be an option, I am dedicating the next 4 years of my life to improve my life for my family not to stand still

michaels

Says it all really - perhaps making graduates pay the full cost of their degrees will concentrate minds on whether they really are cost effective in the first place.

gingerdad wrote: »

i can't say too much on this one, but would supest that graduates are at an all time high.

and recently i interviewed a recent graduate in Marketing and he was unemployable, i instead gave the role to some one who left school at 16 and had some real world experience.

UnderPressure

worldtraveller wrote: »

Maybe they should try my old university, the University of Surrey, whose graduates, yet again this year, are the most employable in the UK. 96.9% of Surrey students were found to be in employment six months after they graduated.

Over the last 15 years they have had the lowest average unemployment rate in the country.

Sorry I have to say that although I am quite sure your figures will be factually correct the whole concept of one Uni being better than another is simply a crock of 5hi*! Or at least should be, if an employer is comparing UK education to foreign education then fair enough but to compare a degree which is essentially the same no matter where you gain it, is quite frankly ridiculous, how can the standard of a degree be determined from the uni it has been gained when we all study and learn exactly the same thing and everything is marked and graded using exactly the same rules?

Total rubbish, as said I am not doubting your figures I am simply saying it is ridiculous this should happen in the first place!

worldtraveller

UnderPressure wrote: »

Sorry I have to say that although I am quite sure your figures will be factually correct the whole concept of one Uni being better than another is simply a crock of 5hi*! Or at least should be, if an employer is comparing UK education to foreign education then fair enough but to compare a degree which is essentially the same no matter where you gain it, is quite frankly ridiculous, how can the standard of a degree be determined from the uni it has been gained when we all study and learn exactly the same thing and everything is marked and graded using exactly the same rules?

Total rubbish, as said I am not doubting your figures I am simply saying it is ridiculous this should happen in the first place!

Firstly, who is comparing a particular degree, as you state? I'm talking about overall rates of employment of students.

Secondly, of course one University can be better than another, by, for example, having better teaching staff and facilities and therefore better educated students.

Another reason is that a large number of Surrey students work in industry for a year as part of their degree, thereby obtaining very valuable experience.