December 9, 2021, by Leah Sharpe

Graduating in 2022? Get to know the job market.

By Paul Charman, Careers and Employability Service Deputy Director

You might have seen the recent headlines highlighting 91 applications for each graduate job vacancy. The numbers come from the annual Institute of Student Employers (ISE) Student Recruitment Survey. Widely reported in the media this month the survey contains useful insights to support your career planning beyond the dramatic headline. In this blog post I want to get behind the headline, give an insight into the findings and give some top tips on how to act on what you’ve read.

The figures

Good news! According to last year’s ISE survey, student hires had risen by 12% and this year’s expect a further 19% increase, showing a continued improvement following the early pandemic impacts on the graduate job market. This reflects our own experience with 1861 internship, placement and graduate vacancies covering 677 different employers published between the start of term and the end of November.

Whilst employers are recruiting well, the organisations report difficulty in recruiting to IT, engineering and technical roles. Salaries have risen, though do check the sector variance as the range is £15,000 – £60,000, with median salary for graduates increasing from £29,667 in 2020 to £30, 500 this year.

Recruitment processes continue to be delivered online, 94% of employers are running all their selection processes online. Interviews, assessment centres and application forms are, perhaps unsurprisingly, the most used. The report does give a good list of the range of psychometric tests and assessments being used so make sure you are clued up on the processes you are facing and the resources we have to help you best prepare.

Where will I work?

This will vary from employer to employer, depending on the role, service and approach taken. The survey does report that 24% of employers believe their hires will be home based and most employers offering internships (69%) and placements (76%) will be doing this in an online or hybrid form. The report highlights that while a greater degree of home working is more common in certain sectors, such as digital and IT, employers anticipate more changes to working practices in time.

To summarise

The graduate jobs market continues to grow and has increased year on year. Whilst the number of applications for roles has increased, doing your research, knowing the employer and sector and preparing for recruitment processes will always pay dividends. Finally, the way in which your role will work, in-person, online or a mixture of both is something to consider in your decision-making.

What to do next

1. Get in touch to explore your ideas with us.

2. Research sectors and companies of interest – speak to us about how to get the best information to support your applications and target employers.

3. Check out our vacancy listings – we list thousands of graduate and work experience opportunities each year.

4. Once you have identified opportunities to apply to, research the recruitment process and how to prepare for it.

5. Engage with magpie, our personalised learning engine to develop key careers skills, particularly those needed to thrive in the online workplace.

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