Graduate recruitment proves resilient

When you take into account the gloomy economic outlook, you may be surprised to hear about one industry that is defying general economic trends. But thatís exactly what the graduate recruitment industry is doing right now.

At a recent event hosted by TARGETjobs, Carl Gilleard of the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) revealed the results of a poll he had conducted of AGR members. In that poll he had asked graduate recruiters a very direct question: how does your 2008/2009 graduate intake compare with your 2007/2008 graduate intake? And the answers he got back were very interesting indeed.

He found that, despite the economic downturn, 33% of graduate recruiters expect to recruit the same number of grads this year as they did last year, 29% expect to recruit slightly less and 26% expect to recruit slightly more. The rest of the numbers were divided evenly between ëmany moreí and ëmany lessí, and, perhaps most telling of all, not one AGR member said that they were stopping graduate recruitment altogether.

Carlís numbers were then backed up by the latest High Fliers report in which a quarter of employers said they plan to take on more graduate recruits next year than they have this year, half said they expect to take on the same number of graduates and nearly every employer said they were determined to continue recruiting at least some graduates.

These numbers are hardly surprising. For starters, by continuing to recruit graduates during a recession, employers can ensure that they have an uninterrupted supply of future management talent. Furthermore, it means that employers can maintain their brand presence in the marketplace and avoid the costly mistakes of employers in past recessions who cut graduate recruitment completely.

Of course, the health of graduate recruitment depends just as much on students as it does on recruiters. And, according to the following figures, student interest is as strong as ever. On the UKís leading graduate jobsite, targetjobs.co.uk, student traffic has skyrocketed since last year. Student visits to their sector pages, for instance, have shot up 182% from this time last year, while other sections of the website have enjoyed similar increases.

Then thereís the huge student turnout for the TARGETjobs National Graduate Recruitment Awards 2009. As Chris Phillips, the UK & Ireland Publishing Director of GTI Media, said, ëThe fact that we received around 90,000 student votes – more than double last yearís total – speaks volumes. It says that despite the deluge of bad news, students are just as engaged in the job-hunting process as they ever were.í

And considering how resilient the graduate recruitment market is, they should be.