Record levels of jobless graduates

The well known mantra “education is the way forward” that becomes the doctrine of every student’s life is now under fire more than ever before. Recent studies by the Higher Education Careers Services Unit (HECSU) have revealed that graduate unemployment has increased by 44% to reach its highest point in over 12 years, leaving students who are set to graduate over the next year in a worrying situation.

The recession has seen graduate employment take a back seat for top companies across all industries as they find themselves struggling to survive in today’s economic climate. Graduate recruitment agency Real World have said graduates who wish to enter the banking and finance industry have been affected the most, with banks in the city either not recruiting at all or taking on fewer graduates, making competition even fiercer than usual.

Many of these graduates who have been hit hard by the recession have borrowed thousands of pounds a year through student loans, resulting in as much as or in excess of £30,000 worth of debt upon graduation, according to findings by the National Union of Students. Graduates are finding that as students they live in a false economy, borrowing money and collecting debts under the assumption that as a graduate they will walk into a well paid job, and have no issues in paying the annual nine percent of their earnings until they have cleared their loans. According to Fiona Kent, a careers advisor at Warwick University, compared to last year’s graduates, a greater number of students are dealing with unemployment issues, by going straight into postgraduate studies earlier than they had initially planned.

According to the Times, many graduates are finding they have had to move back home with their parents, as the best option of saving money as they embark on the job hunt, whilst others are scraping together whatever money they can save or get their hands on for travelling, as a way of perhaps delaying the inevitable mission of finding employment in today’s environment.