Home > Job News > Graduates > Top Recruiters Hiring Fewer Graduates < Job News and Info

New figures released by High Fliers Research reveal that some of the UK’s top graduate recruiters are hiring fewer graduates than they previously predicted.

The research, which looked at data from 100 of the UK’s top employers including PwC, Google and Aldi, found that organisations within the private sector had recruited 10 per cent fewer graduates than expected at the end of last year.

It is the first time the number of new graduate vacancies has dropped since the 2008 financial crisis and some experts are putting the blame on the uncertainty swirling around Brexit.

Last year, the top 100 graduate recruiters offered graduate jobs to 19,000 university leavers, down from the 22,000 that they forecast they would recruit before the Brexit referendum vote.

Commenting on the figures, Managing director of High Fliers Research, Martin Birchall, said: “Instead of expanding their graduate vacancies in 2017 as planned, the country’s best-known accounting and professional service firms, financial services companies and investment banks scaled back their recruitment targets by 17% following the Brexit vote.”

“It’s clear from our latest research that the uncertainty caused by Brexit has already hit the graduate job market. Although employers in a number of key industries and business sectors are hoping to increase their graduate recruitment again in 2018, the outlook of many recruiters remains cautious for the year ahead,” added Mr Birchall.

The public sector, however, was still strong in the graduate market, with organisations such as the NHS still hiring more graduates in 2017 than they did in 2016.

Overall starting wages for graduates have held steady since 2013, with the median starting salary across all sectors with the top 100 recruiters hovering at around £30,000.

If you are looking to snap up one of the best graduate vacancies in 2018 then maybe we are advertising some great opportunities in your town or city right now. No matter which sector you are interested in, we should hopefully have a few ideas to get you started today. Take a look at what is available by doing a vacancy search in our graduate job section.