Students graduating this year will face the toughest employment market in two decades, new figures reveal.

Due to the economic downturn, leading graduate employers in the UK have been forced to reduce their recruitment targets by 17%. The initial and more optimistic figures were calculated in September last year, at a time when firms were already seeing they would not hit the predicted 11.8% growth for 2008. Martin Birchall, managing director of High Fliers Research, who compiled the report, warned that there would be “swingeing cuts” across the sector.

“There is understandable panic on campus that this is shaping up to be one of the worst years of the last two decades to be graduating from university. Many top employers have already received a record number of applications for their 2009 graduate vacancies and most have either filled their remaining places or have closed off the application process,” Birchall warned.

Source: Student Times
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