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London continues to offer the most jobs for graduates, but other cities are starting to make up ground on the capital 18/04/2013

According to a report by the Higher Education Careers Service Unit (HECSU ), the highest number of graduate roles created in the UK over the past year were located in London.

Although the capital has consistently been the most common first employment destination for new graduates, it suffered in the lead up to the recession, providing fewer graduate roles than before while graduate employment in other regions improved.

However, the number of graduates employed in the capital has been increasing again since 2009/10 - and more rapidly than other UK regions.

Despite this growth, the research also showed the number of graduate jobs available in other regions, such as the North West, West Midlands and the East, has remained stable or continued to increase in recent years.

Commenting on the findings, deputy director of research at HECSU, Charlie Ball said, 'There are a lot of good jobs outside the capital, but London is the only place where you can get a job in pretty much anything available to graduates. Although the jobs market in places like Manchester and Edinburgh is diverse, the range and volume of roles is much smaller.'

He went on to offer advice for students who have their heart set on working in a specific city or region, suggesting they need to work with well-connected local careers services and do plenty of extra research to ensure they don't have unrealistic expectations of the work that is available in that area and actually find a job they want.

'Lots of graduates struggle to find work because they limit themselves by looking for a particular kind of job in a certain part of the country. As the jobs market doesn't always work like that, graduates should not only be certain on the job they wish to do, but they should know where those jobs are. This reduces the chance of aiming for something that simply isn't there,' Mr Ball added.

The full analysis can be read in the spring edition of Graduate Market Trends (GMT), which can be found on HECSU's website.