Employers forecast rise in graduate recruitment

JOB prospects for graduates are improving for the first time in five years with the numbers being recruited from the class of 1993 far outstripping predictions, writes Judith Judd.

Employers are forecasting that the number of graduate recruits in autumn 1994 will be up 7 per cent on last year after five years of decline. Most expect graduate job prospects to stay the same or get better.

Figures covering the main organisations recruiting graduates show that numbers recruited in autumn 1993 were 3.5 per cent lower than the previous year but 17.5 per cent higher than employers had predicted.

The findings are revealed in the annual survey of the Association of Graduate Recruiters. Kate Orebi Gann, recruitment manager for Marks & Spencer and the association's chairman, said: 'This survey is very good news for graduates who have yet to secure employment and for those graduating in 1994. Once more organisations start to prepare for the recovery, this improvement in graduate recruitment should accelerate.'

The report shows that this year's recruitment decline was the same as last year's but both are an improvement on the 14 per cent decline recorded in the previous year.

Almost 40 per cent of organisations expect recruitment to rise over the next three years and 44 per cent expect it to stay the same.