A study of jobs with 100 top employers has indicated that graduate vacancies in the UK are going to ‘increase significantly’ after 2 years of cuts.  Apparently recruitment targets have increased by 12% in 2010 which equates to 1,600 jobs, however, it is thought that more than 400 of these places have been filled by students who graduated in 2009.

However, this is a positive step – indeed half the top employers who participated in the survey indicated that they are likely to recruit more this year compared with last year.

• Investment banks have indicated that they will be increasing their graduate intake by one third more than 2009.
• Retailers, high street banks, accountancy and other professional services are also expected to follow suit.
• Largest recruiters of graduates in 2010 will be PricewaterhouseCoopers with 1039 vacancies and Deloitte with 1000 vacancies.
• The army currently have 735 places
• Teach first have 650 available places
• KMPG have 650
• RAF have a total of 600

Even though there will be a rise in graduate places available, starting salaries are not expected to rise at this time, remaining at the 2009 level of £27,000. Even so, its a highly positive step in the right direction!

Lord Browne, the Chair of the review into university fees in England recently stated that graduates can expect to earn £100k (after taxation) more throughout their working careers than those whose highest qualification is two or more A levels. In 2003 this figure was estimated to be £400k. However, in 2007 a study commissioned by PricewaterhouseCoopers for UK universities stated that the average figure was likely to be £160k over the period of an individuals career, however this was slightly higher for medical graduates (£340k) and less for arts graduates (£34k).

The drop from the huge figures as detailed in 2003 is probably due to the larger volumes of students currently at university and increased competition for those currently seeking graduate placements with companies.