Search Share Prices
Brexit uncertainty moves employers to reduce graduate jobs
Britain's top employers downgraded their hiring plans during 2017, resulting in the first drop in graduate recruitment since the financial crisis, a High Fliers survey finds.
A survey of the leading 100 graduate recruiters has found that many of the UK's most prestigious employers cut their recruitment of graduates due to the uncertainty around Brexit.
The largest drop in the number of graduate recruits was seen among accounting & professional services firms, banking & finance and the City's investment banks.
In total, across the private sector, recruitment fell by an average of 10.3% in 2017.
The predictions for 2018 are slightly more positive and the number of work placements available for graduates is expected to increase by 0.8%.
Managing director of High Fliers Research, Martin Birchall has said that it's clear that the uncertainty that Brexit has caused has hit the graduate job market.
"Instead of expanding their graduate vacancies in 2017 as planned, the country's best-known accounting and professional service firms, financial services companies and investment banks scaled back their recruitment targets by 17% following the Brexit vote," he said.
"The country's best-known employers hired almost 3,000 fewer graduates than expected in 2017 and recorded the biggest annual fall in graduate recruitment since the recession in 2008 and 2009. [...] The outlook of many recruiters remains cautious for the year ahead," said Birchall.