What's happening in graduate employment?

Some of you may have 'enjoyed' the experience of seeing me do my roadshow at some point this summer, where I talk on a range of subjects, including the current and future state of the graduate employment market.

This seems to go down quite well and so I'll lay out some of the key messages we've been putting out over the last few months as a result of the work we've been doing

The labour market, including the labour market for graduates, is still difficult even though the recession has formally ended

The graph in this post shows why; in general unemployment continues to rise after recessions have ended and usually peaks some time later. As I've discussed before, the unemployment rate for graduates is probably going to remain high in historic terms for a little while yet

However, things may have passed the worst for the time being for graduates

There are a range of reasons; one is economic recovery, the other is simple demographics. The number of 18-year olds in the UK is going to steadily fall until 2020. The pool of home-domiciled potential university students is reducing, and so the rapid increase in university student numbers that has been a mark of the previous decade could be at an end.

Most graduates get work, and most who work get graduate jobs. There are, will still be, jobs for graduates

Even last year, at about the worst it's likely to get for this recession, the unemployment rate was 9% - well below historic highs of graduate unemployment. 62% of UK-employed working graduates were in 'graduate-level' employment six months after graduation. 147,250 graduates from 2008/9 were known to be working in the UK six months after graduation. Graduates will always be employable no matter the state of the economy.

Reductions in public sector employment may disproportionately affect graduates, and young graduates outside London in particular.

That's covered here. But we'll have to wait until October 20th to get a clearer picture

Little of this will be unfamiliar to many of you, but some of the stats might be useful. Obviously, I tend to say a bit more than just this, but we try to put across these key themes.

But we want to draw up a clearer picture of what's going on around the country, and so we'll be putting out a short survey soon to try to gauge what's happening and then pooling it as a resource for everyone.