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Graduate Careers Australia
Graduate Grapevine - Number 10, Autumn 2008
Employment Outlook – Competition for Grads is Not Just in Australia
As we all know, the competition for graduates with the right qualifications is fierce right across Australia. However, judging by the summary of the Association of Graduate Recruiters Winter Review 2008 and NACE’s latest Salary Survey (outlined below), our friends in the UK and US are feeling it too.
Australia
Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics for March 2008 indicate that:
- Employment increased by 14,800 to 10,681,600. Full-time employment increased by 5300 to 7,637,900 and part-time employment decreased by 9500 to 3,043,800.
- Unemployment increased by 13,800 to 453,200. The number of persons looking for full-time work increased by 19,900 to 312,900 and the number of persons looking for part-time work decreased by 6100 to 140,200.
- Unemployment rate increased by 0.1 percentage point to 4.1 per cent. The male unemployment rate increased by 0.3 percentage points to 3.9 per cent, and the female unemployment rate decreased by 0.2 percentage points to 4.2 per cent.
- Participation rate remained steady at 65.2 per cent.
(Source: Labour Force, Australia, March 2008 – www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs%40.nsf/mf/6202.0
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UK
- According to the UK Association of Graduate Recruiters Winter Review 2008 graduate vacancies are on the increase for the fifth year running.
- In 2008, graduate vacancies are expected to grow by 16.4 per cent.
- 17.2 per cent of employers have reduced their intake targets, 13.3 per cent do not expect any change while the remaining 69.5 per cent have more vacancies than last year.
- 24.9 per cent of the respondents actively market their vacancies overseas, 70.6 per cent do not restrict their marketing to Europe.
- In 2007 43.5 per cent of employers experienced a shortfall in filling their vacancies.
- 67.1 per cent expected recruiting challenges in 2008. Reasons include:
o 55.9 per cent: graduate perceptions of business sector and not enough candidates with the right skills
o 52.4 per cent: challenges in certain geographical areas
o 43.4 per cent: not enough applicants with the right qualifications.
- Proportion of females recruited in 2007 fell by 3.5 per cent to 39.1 per cent.
- Proportion of graduates recruited from ethnic minorities rose from 15.1 per cent in 2006 to 26.7 per cent in 2007.
- In 2007 graduate starting salaries in graduate level jobs rose by 2.4 per cent. In 2008 salaries are expected to rise by 2.1 per cent. The median starting salary in 2008 in a graduate level job is expected to be £24,000.
- Starting salaries ranged from 7.6 per cent paying starting salaries of less than £20,000 to 14.1 per cent paying over £35,000.
- 33 per cent of employers pay graduates lump-sum payments at the start of their career (down from 35.4 per cent in 2006) and in 2008 this is predicted to be a median of £2000.
(Source: Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) – www.agr.org.uk/news/agr_in_the_news/id.71.html
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USA
- The NACE Salary Survey states that the job market for new college graduates continues to thrive despite the economic slowdown in the US.
- According to the Job Outlook 2008 survey graduate employers expect to increase college hiring by 16 per cent.
- Signing bonuses are up by an average of 25 per cent.
- Eight out of 10 employers that were surveyed plan to increase salaries for bachelor degree graduates.
- The average increase was 4.6 per cent, median four per cent.
- Most disciplines saw increases in starting salary offers to the Class of 2008: All Business majors – 2.6 per cent; Accounting – 1.9 per cent; Business Administration/ Management – less than one per cent; Finance – 1.9 per cent; Computer Science – 7.9 per cent; Engineering (overall) – 5.7 per cent (Chemical 6.2 per cent, Civil 4.8 per cent, Electrical 3.5 per cent, Mechanical 3.4 per cent); Information Sciences – 5.9 per cent; Liberal Arts – nine per cent; Marketing – 5.2 per cent.
(Source: NACE Salary Survey A study of 2007-2008 beginning offers Winter 2008 Vol 47 Issue 1)
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