Accounting and professional services sectors see largest rise in graduate recruitment, finds survey
August 2023 - Professional Services
Accounting and professional services sectors see largest rise in graduate recruitment: A survey has revealed that graduate recruitment has seen an increase of 14.5% and is up 10% on pre-pandemic levels with the accounting and professional services sectors seeing the largest rise.
The latest research by High Fliers reveals that by the end of the graduate recruitment round for 2022, the UK’s top employers had recruited 3,500 more graduates than had been expected at the start of the 2021-2022 academic year; 14.5% higher than in 2021.
The research also found that graduate recruitment had grown in 11 out of 15 industries and business sectors, with the largest rise seen in accounting & professional services, up by 31.5% on 2021 figures, with 7,752 graduates recruited. Significant rises were also seen in technology (+40.4%), engineering and industrial (+ 30.5%) and banking and finance (+ 21.7%).
The research also found that in 2022, graduate recruitment returned to a more normal level, with employers receiving an average of 39 applications per graduate vacancy. This is at a similar level to that seen before the pandemic in 2018-19.
In accounting and professional services there were 29.5 average applications per graduate vacancy, with 30,200 average applications per employer.
Consumer goods saw the most oversubscribed graduate programmes with 6,800 applications per employer in 2021-22, with the average applications per vacancy standing at 357.1. Oil and Energy companies were also oversubscribed, with 124.8 graduates competing for each available role. Investment banking was the third most oversubscribed (90 applications per vacancy), followed by consulting (76 per vacancy), retail (67.3 per vacancy), chemicals and pharma (60.5 per vacancy ) and banking and finance (59.1%).
Accountancy & professional services firms were amongst the graduate employers with lowest application rates (29.5), alongside engineering & industrial companies (33.3), and public sector organisations (21.1)
Employers received an average of 12,300 applications for their programmes in 2021-2022.
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