What will this years graduates do?

With the level of UK unemployment to reach 3.2 million next year (or slightly more than 10% of the workforce), I’ve been waiting to see what happens when the more than 300,000 students due to graduate this year hit the job market and what ideas the British Government have to help them out.

Before I left for sunnier climes graduate (or any form of entry-level jobs) were a bit like hens teeth and it was a situation that everyone knew was going to get much worse before it got any better. A survey by High Fliers Research of 100 firms found recruitment targets had been cut by 17% for this year. The economic downturn had rather predictably hit financial sector recruitment, with 47% fewer graduate entry-level jobs.

3 month long internships were suggested as a way to improve the skill sets of recent graduates and make them more employable. Governments don’t have the best track records with job creation however, “fancy a job comrade?” You can’t magic something out of thin air.

Now the Government is encouraging students to try looking for opportunities abroad. It kinda sounds strangely familiar but coming from Universities Minister David Lammy MP it does smack of trying to offload the problem to someone else.

New Zealand is currently trying to fight a “brain drain” which sees many young people each year move to Australia. Roughly one in four tertiary-qualified New Zealanders leave the country to live overseas, more than any other country in the developed world. What New Zealand’s PM is trying to do is get them back.