Life Can Be Tough In The Graduate Jobs Market

Today we have a sponsored post from Total Jobs.

There has been a lot in the news recently about the troubles facing the young generation. Recent unemployment figures, for instance, put youth unemployment at around 20%. Similar trouble is afflicting many graduates, with a lot of people leaving university finding it hard to find suitable work and many working in unpaid internships in order to gain valuable work experience that could help them to land a paid job. But is it all bad news, or are some graduates bucking the trend and coming out of the tough economic and job climate better than others?

Recently, Total Jobs conducted a graduate jobs survey to find out about the sort of graduate jobs people go for and other trends associated with graduates. One interesting statistic to emerge from the survey was that 80% – a huge majority – of graduates thought things were harder for them now than they were 10, 5 or even 2 years ago. This perhaps reflects the growing number of graduates going after each job, as well as the lingering after-effects of the recent recession on the graduate jobs market.

Also, a significant minority of students – 47% – believe that university is now just ‘education for education’s sake’. This might sound worrying and as though the value of a university education is not as great as it once was, but there is still much cause for hope. That same statistic shows that a majority of students still think there is more to university than just education for its own sake. Many say that they would repeat their university experience simply because they enjoyed it, suggesting that it is about more than simply getting a good job at the end of it.

Another thing to consider is that 87% of graduates questioned felt as though their education gave them the skills they need to succeed in an entry-level graduate job, which arguably suggests that a lot of the issues lie within the job market itself rather than what students are learning on their degrees.

Many universities also now have a greater focus on recruitment and the majority of graduates said they felt their degree makes them more employable. Also, more graduates seem to be turning to alternative options to make the most of their skills in a challenging environment; 53% have considered setting up their own business as an alternative to getting a job. All of this suggests that while times aren’t ideal in the job market, the value of university is still high and savvy graduates can definitely still turn things around to their advantage.