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JANUARY 2018 | ISSUE 40 | FREE
BREXIT VOTE MAY CUT GRADUATE JOBS IN THE UK
BY LAVANYA SINGH Brexit uncertainties have caused several of UK’s leading employers to cut graduate jobs in the past year, a new survey has revealed. The cut in the recruitment of graduates has caused the number of graduate jobs in the UK to fall for the first time since the global financial crisis. A recent survey of the UK’s most prestigious companies— such as Goldman Sachs and BP—has revealed that private companies in the UK hired 10% fewer graduates in 2017 since the UK voted to the leave the EU. The downsizing has been attributed to uncertainties about a post-Brexit economy in Britain, which seems too unpredictable at the moment. High Fliers Research, which spearheaded the survey,
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reported that while companies across the UK were aiming to hire 22,000 graduates in 2017 before the referendum, only 19,000 found themselves with jobs as the economy dealt with post-referendum downsizing. Eight out of 13 private sectors in the UK revised their recruitment goals in the months following the Brexit vote. Martin Birchall, Managing Director of High Fliers, told The Guardian: “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.” The trend is in direct contrast to hiring patterns in the previous financial year
2015-16, which was claimed as a bumper year as organizations were unable to find enough graduates to hire.
GRADUATE JOBS IN THE UK FELL FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS IN 2017 The only sectors experiencing growth in graduate jobs in 2017 were public ones. The NHS and the civil service fast streams reported considerable growth in the number of new hires.
The ebb in the number of graduate jobs is also reported to have affected starting salaries for new recruits. Most graduates salaries remained at £30,000, a figure that hasn’t changed in the past four years. Law and accounting firms held their positions as the highest paying employers, with average starting salaries of £44,000 and £47,000. The findings of the report have once again sparked conversations about enormous student debts in the UK. Members of the Lords economic affairs committee met last week to discuss the value of a degree, along with whether young people in the UK strictly need to go into higher education at all. With the economy driving a growing number of graduates into jobs that they are overqualified for, or do
not relate to their university degree, the committee is also debating whether the UK is producing too many graduates, thus putting unprecedented pressure on the economy and the education system. In July 2017, the Institute of Fiscal Studies reported that following a revised interest rate of 6.1%, students in England were set to graduate with an average debt of £50,800. The number was reportedly £57,000 for poorer students, despite the availability of sundry options for financial aid. The higher interest also meant that students from disadvantaged backgrounds would have the highest debts, along with high-earners, who would pay approximately £40,000 in interest on top of the money borrowed, putting more strain on the postgraduate job hunt.
01/02/18 4:44 PM