Accountancy graduates fare best
Accountancy graduates have the highest graduate employment rate, faring better than IT and business and management graduates, according to new research.
A new report which tracked the career destinations of 2000 first degree and HND graduates revealed that two thirds of employed accountancy graduates were in professional jobs within six months of graduating.
Of the employed accountancy graduates, 42.8% found jobs in business and finance according to the report by CSU, the higher education careers services unit, AGCAS, the Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services and UCAS, the Universities and College Admissions Service.
And despite unemployment among graduates having levelled at 5.5% – down from 9.2% five years ago – Mike Hill, chief executive of CSU, warned students not to be complacent.
‘Current predictions suggest that graduate employment has now peaked and students should beware of complacency – this time next year a graduate job will not be a foregone conclusion.’
Accountancy positions have not be exempt from the current economic slowdown. In September PricewaterhouseCoopers, one of the UK’s largest graduate recruiters and the world’s largest accountancy firm withdrew job offers of 78 of the 180 graduates due to join the firm’s trainee scheme in its management consultancy arm. They were offered around Pounds 7,000 in compensation.
Management consultancy firm Accenture also told 400 UK graduates due to start with the company in September that there was no work for them, although they have received their signing on bonuses and are on half-pay.
Links
Graduate job jitters hit as ICAEW loses to ScotsL
