The Graduate Market in 2020: Annual review of graduate vacancies & starting salaries at the UK’s leading employers

The Graduate Market in 2020 is a study of the latest graduate vacancies and starting salaries at The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers conducted by High Fliers Research during December 2019.

There is a health warning that we always give with this report – it is looking at 100 large graduate recruiters and is therefore not representative of the graduate jobs market. That said, there are always a few gems in there that makes reporting it useful. Here are our gems:

-        The ‘100’ recruited more graduates – up 6.2% - the largest increase for 5 years; and plan a 3.3% increase for 2020.

-        Public Sector organisations were the largest employers of new graduates in 2019.

-        When compared to the 2007 pre-recession peak in recruitment, graduate vacancies grew by just 7% in twelve years. Over the same period, the number of graduates leaving university in the UK jumped by more than 37%.

-        Graduate starting salaries at the UK’s leading graduate employers are expected to remain unchanged for the sixth consecutive year in 2020, at a median starting salary of £30,000. This is significantly higher than average starting salaries across all graduate roles.

-        More than four-fifths of the country’s top graduate employers are offering paid work experience programmes for students. Many are also offering introductory courses, open days and other taster experiences.

In summary, the graduate recruitment market is growing at the Top 100, but not as fast as the number of graduates. Salaries are static. Public sector growth is outstripping private sector growth. Employers are taking their responsibilities to provide work experience seriously.

References

https://www.highfliers.co.uk/download/2020/graduate_market/GM20Report.pdf