At the beginning of this year, the prominent Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) performed a survey of the needs of graduate recruiters in the increasingly competitive job market. One of the most striking facts found by AGR's 2006 survey is that the number of vacancies for 2006 and beyond were going to increase by 15 percent over the past two years. When pressed for further details, graduate recruiters have outlined a few particular fields in which job vacancies were particularly high. Information technology positions, the vanguard of the new global economy, were becoming more prevalent in the United Kingdom throughout 2005 and 2006. As well, sales positions in the pharmaceutical and medical sales field were abundant for graduates in related fields. Finally, engineering firms were beginning to experience more vacancies over the last two years.



However, while many vacancies were open throughout the United Kingdom, graduate recruiters and companies were experiencing troubles finding qualified graduates for these positions. For a variety of reasons, graduates from the growing class of university trained employees were failing to meet the needs of employers throughout the United Kingdom. Hiring managers and executives have had to raise the expectations and minimum requirements for their graduate positions in order to maintain a competitive edge in their industries. As well, the rise in advanced university degrees among young professionals has meant that the competition for every position in the United Kingdom has gone up exponentially over the last few years. Finally, the globalization of the United Kingdom job market has meant that British graduates have to compete with European and international workers for positions with international firms.

The AGR survey revealed a number of other factors that will influence the United Kingdom job market over the next few years. Graduate recruiters state that nearly one quarter of the open positions in 2006-2007 will have been in accounting and professional positions, including banking and financial management. With this in mind, graduates in these fields should focus on finding the right jobs for them instead of settling on the first job they are offered. As well, graduates need to realize that their salaries, benefits, and bonuses have gone up over the past few years. The media starting salary for graduates in the United Kingdom is 23,000 pounds, up three percent over 2005. As well, hiring bonuses, company provided benefits, and other job incentives had stayed steady or gone up over the past year.