UK / 58 per cent for students leaving university in 2012 out of a job or in low-skilled employment

It is feared that the graduate jobs market will barely improve in 2013.

The conclusions – in a study by the website CareerMatters.co.uk – comes just days after a separate report found that employers were receiving 56 applications for each graduate job, a seven per cent rise on the previous year.

Researchers said that a slight fall in the number of students graduating from university in 2013 would ease the pressure on competition for highly-skills jobs.

But the study added: “Without either a sustained upturn in economic activity or immediate government inspired action to stimulate employer demand for new and recent graduates, the imbalance between graduate job vacancies and the supply of university graduates is so great that problems will persist.”

The website tracked trends in official figures – along with forecasts on economic growth – to estimate the health of the graduate jobs market over the coming year.

Some 19 per cent of students who graduated in 2011 were out of a job and a further 36 per cent were in low-skilled employment – a total of 55 per cent.

But the study warned that this number had grown to 58 per cent for students leaving university in 2012. Although official figures covering 2012 are yet to be published, researchers claimed that unemployment could reach 20 per cent and the proportion of graduates in low-skilled jobs could top 38 per cent.

Choosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor from

via Slump in graduate jobs market hits six-in-10 ex-students – Telegraph.