Supply and Demand

The graduate job market is like all other commercial markets, it is driven by the factors of supply and demand. This section will explain what influences effect the supply and demand of graduates in Merseyside.

Supply

In order to gain a grasp on the graduate job market you must first understand some of the factors that influence the supply of graduates from Universities. Here are some current facts on graduate supply:

By the start of 2001 there were three times as many new graduates entering the job market as there were in the 1970s. Levels of participation, nationally, are currently running at 34 per cent but the Government’s target is for eventually 50 per cent of all young people to enter higher education.
As the Times Higher Education Supplement has argued, change on such a scale has put a spotlight on the extent to which the knowledge gained on degree programmes, and the skills developed while at university or college are utilised in the job market.
Despite the increase in supply, levels of employment among graduates have continued to rise, while at the unemployment has been consistently falling. In 1993 according to What Do Graduates Do? 53.4 per cent of UK graduates secured work shortly after graduating. By 2001 this figure had risen to 67.7 per cent. During the same period unemployment fell from 11.7 per cent to 6.3 per cent.

Demand

Of course supply is no use without a demand. Despite the rapid increase in the supply of graduates in recent years, there is little evidence to suggest that the labour market is over-supplied or that the growth of graduate-level employment has started to slow down. Here are some facts on graduate demand:

Analysis of changes in the UK job market over the past 25 years suggests that most employment growth has been in new graduate occupations, particularly administrative, technical and caring jobs. More than 1.2 million jobs were created in these fields between 1975 and 2000.
According to the Association of Graduate Recruiters, the number of graduate-level vacancies has increased by 7.9 per cent this year (2003) compared with the same time last year, while starting salaries have risen by 2.5 per cent overall.
Median salaries for new graduates are £20,000 according to AGR. This compares favourably with the UK average national salary of £17,000.
The biggest area of growth in graduate recruitment in 2003 is in telecommunications (up 61 per cent), IT (up 59 per cent), consulting and business services (up 36 per cent), and banking (up 36 per cent). The largest downturns are in media (down 42 per cent) and motor manufacturing (down 19 per cent).