Turbulence in the labour market means that companies are changing their graduate recruitment plans and many are being redrawn or scrapped.
The message from employers is mixed; three in ten (29.6 per cent) had to reduce their planned recruitment targets during the 2002/03 recruitment round compared to one in five during the year before. One in four (23.1 per cent) however, are able to increase their vacancy levels.
The new landscape means that is easier for recruiters to find suitable graduate candidates: just three in ten recruiters (31.7 per cent) encountered difficulties in finding suitable graduates during the most recent recruitment round, compared to almost half the year before.
IRS Employment Review and Recruitment and Retention editor, Neil Rankin commented: "The existence of an over-supply of new graduates alongside recruitment difficulties remains an enduring feature of the graduate recruitment scene. Some graduates will be lucky in the recruitment rounds of the next few months while others will still be looking for work and employers will still be searching for the right candidates."
