UK graduate job vacancies hit record low as market struggles

Graduate job vacancies in the UK have sunk to their lowest level since they started being tracked a decade ago, according to a recruiting website.

Just 8,383 jobs for people leaving university were advertised in July, Adzuna reported on Monday, down 45% compared with the same point last year and the lowest since the company started gathering the data in 2016.

The number comes as 262,820 people prepare to go to university in September, a record high that underlines the tough conditions facing graduates entering the job market as entry-level roles are threatened by AI.

About 1 million young people in the UK were not in education, employment or training, otherwise known as Neets, in the first quarter of this year, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Adzuna said sectors including healthcare, nursing, hospitality and logistics posted fewer vacancies, adding that the figures suggested that a recovery reported during the spring had gone into reverse.

Andrew Hunter, a co-founder of Adzuna, said: “July’s numbers are a step backwards, not a blip. The annual vacancy decline got worse for the first time since January, and (the number of) jobseekers per vacancy are now higher than they were a year ago.

“The graduate job market also keeps setting new lows, which tells us employers still haven’t found a reason to open up hiring at that level.”

The figures point to a sharp worsening in the graduate market compared with a decade ago. In 2017, there were more than 55,000 graduate positions.

More recently, employers have also reined in their hiring in the face of increases in national insurance contributions and the minimum wage announced by the former chancellor Rachel Reeves in her last two budgets.

The extra labour cost for businesses also comes as some companies are prioritising investment in automation and artificial intelligence tools rather than hiring.

The trend has left some young people increasingly demoralised. One report, from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), said this summer that 16- to 21-year-olds were less confident about being successful than a decade ago and that some were “losing faith in their futures”.

In July, Andy Burnham said he would try to boost youth employment with more backing for technical education and apprenticeships.

The only sectors showing increases in jobs for university leavers were travel, teaching and construction, Adzuna said.

Hunter added: “It isn’t all bad news. Teaching, travel, and trade and construction are still adding roles, and manufacturing is now doing the same, too. But that’s a short list, and everyone outside of these sectors is having a harder time than they were three months ago.”