First degrees : Types of work

In November 2008 The Daily Telegraph reported that graduates were turning away from the salaries offered by organisations in the banking and finance sector to apply for roles within the public sector with increases in applications across the different services as they searched for job security. It appears that in 2010 there has been a reversal as there are fewer graduates in 2009/10 entering employment in the public sector and an increase in those entering the banking and finance sector. The 2010 edition of ‘What do Graduates do?’ reported a decline in the number of graduate entrants to the business and financial services sector six months after graduating, with a fall of 1% between 2008 and 2009. The new edition shows that the number of graduates in employment in the business and financial services sector has recovered to 7.5%, the same as that recorded in 2008. The number of graduates securing employment as financial analysts increased by 45.9% compared to 2008/09 levels.

Within the business and financial professionals and associate professionals classification, financial analyst wasn’t the only occupation that showed an increase in the number of graduates securing employment compared to those graduating in 2008/09. The number of personnel and recruitment consultants/advisers increased by 81.8%. This makes it the occupation with the largest gain in numbers on last year‘s figures.

More graduates went into...

Marketing, sales and advertising was the occupational group that saw the largest percentage jump in graduates in 2010. 31% more graduates entered these roles in 2010 compared to the previous year, fuelled by an upturn in graduate recruitment in advertising and digital media. There is evidence that it’s not just the graduates who studied marketing and advertising related degrees securing these roles. It appears that the upturn in the marketing, sales and advertising occupations is also providing more opportunities for employment to languages graduates.

Fewer graduates went into...

Science graduates have not fared as well this year in the graduate labour market, with fewer opportunities for employment. Unemployment has risen for chemistry and biology graduates as fewer graduates found employment as biochemists and biologists, a year-on-year decrease of 19% and 18% respectively. The number of graduates working as scientific researchers saw a decrease of 29.8% which according to Research Councils UK, may be due to the decline in spending in R&D in the UK and to cuts in public sector technical services. In addition, the number of graduates securing occupations as scientific research, analysis and development professionals decreased by 12.1% year-on-year.

The cuts in public spending are already having an impact on the number of graduates securing employment within the public sector. There is no major decline in the numbers of graduates working as nurses, doctors, and primary and secondary school teachers from the 2009/10 cohort but the clerical and secretarial posts in local government and the public administration and defence sector have been affected this year. Graduates working as local government clerical officers and assistants dropped from 530 in 2008/09 to 220 in 2009/10. There are also some graduate level public sector job roles that have employed fewer graduates, including social workers (2100 down to 1860 in 2009/10) and physiotherapists (1175 down to 895 in 2009/10).