UK Graduate Vacancies Halve to 8,383, Hitting Lowest Level Since 2016
Updated
Updated · bbc.co.uk · Aug 24
UK Graduate Vacancies Halve to 8,383, Hitting Lowest Level Since 2016
3 articles · Updated · bbc.co.uk · Aug 24
Summary
Adzuna counted 8,383 graduate vacancies in July, down from 15,397 a year earlier and the lowest level since it began tracking the market in 2016.
Employers are cutting entry-level hiring as AI takes on junior tasks and higher national insurance and minimum wage costs make recruitment more expensive.
Competition is tightening across the market, with 2.14 job seekers per vacancy in July versus 1.93 a year earlier, while youth unemployment for 16-to-24-year-olds stood at 16.2% in the three months to March.
More than 1 million young people are now not in education, employment or training, underscoring a wider youth jobs squeeze that a review led by former minister Alan Milburn is examining.
As youth unemployment costs Britain £125 billion, will the mass exodus of desperate graduates overseas trigger an irreversible generational skills crisis?
With AI secretly binning millions of CVs, are UK graduates fighting a losing battle against biased algorithms rather than actual human recruiters?
If even minimum-wage roles now demand prior experience, how can a million sidelined young people ever take their first step on the career ladder?