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Lowest Number of Graduate Jobs Ever Recorded
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8,383 graduate roles were advertised in July in the same month 262,820 accepted university places
Graduate job vacancies have fallen 45% in a year to the lowest level ever recorded, according to figures from recruitment platform Adzuna. Just 8,383 roles for university leavers were advertised in July.
That is the lowest figure since Adzuna began compiling the data in 2016. From a peak of more than 55,000 graduate posts in 2017, vacancies have fallen 85%.
The collapse comes in the same month a record 262,820 18-year-olds accepted university places after A-level results, up around 3% on last year.
A degree that pays the same as the minimum wage
The average advertised graduate salary in July was £25,813. That is roughly what a full-time worker earns on the minimum wage of £12.71 an hour, which came into force in April.
Employers are cutting entry-level hiring after Labour raised employer National Insurance contributions and increased the minimum wage. Bank of England chief economist Huw Pill told MPs in February that the combined changes had a 'particular effect on young people'. His comments were made in official evidence to Parliament.
When the government makes every junior hire more expensive, businesses respond by cutting hours, automating, or by stopping hiring for entry-level roles altogether. Industry reporting also points to large employers using AI software to do paperwork that once went to junior staff.
Shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith said: 'This is precisely what Labour was warned about when introducing hundreds of pages more employment red tape and hiking National Insurance. The first thing firms cut back on is hiring and this year's graduates are paying the price.'
More than a million young people not earning or learning
Youth unemployment rose to 16.2% between April and June, up from 14.3% a year earlier. Around 739,000 16 to 24-year-olds are out of work.
More than 1 million young people are now classed as not in education, employment or training, according to the Office for National Statistics. That is 13.5% of the age group and the highest level in more than a decade.
A government-commissioned review by former health secretary Alan Milburn found one in seven of them holds a university degree.
A £2.5bn fix offered to the employers the government squeezed
The government has announced a £2.5bn youth employment package over three years. It includes a £3,000 grant for each eligible young hire and around 300,000 work experience and training placements.
A step backwards, not a blip.
A government spokesman said: 'We are determined to go further to restore opportunity for young people through our £2.5bn youth employment package which will deliver almost one million opportunities to earn or learn.'
The announcement did not say where the £2.5bn comes from. It comes from tax or borrowing, which means workers and businesses pay for it. The employers now being offered £3,000 to take on a young worker are the same employers whose hiring costs the government raised in April.
The graduate slump is part of a wider slowdown. Total advertised vacancies fell to 791,490 in July, the first monthly decline in five months. Competition rose to 2.14 jobseekers per vacancy, up from 1.93 a year ago, and healthcare and nursing ads fell by around a third over the year.
Adzuna co-founder Andrew Hunter warned the figures were 'a step backwards, not a blip'. Chancellor John Healey will face the numbers head-on at his first Budget in October.
