40 To 1 Against

30th June 09 - 40 to 1 against

Martin Birchall, managing director of High Fliers, which specialises in graduate recruitment research, says that the recruitment situation is bleak. "The graduate population has doubled - but the number of graduate jobs certainly hasn’t. There are now 40 or 50 graduates chasing every job in the market." It is not surprising in this aftermath of the credit crisis that a big casualty is investment banking. According to High Fliers, investment banks have cut their recruitment by almost half, while high street banks and other financial organisations have also decreased their graduate numbers.

Cynics have always said that if you cannot do it yourself, then teach it. Now it seems that one can add: if the teaching job is there, grab it. Teaching is the top destination for the first time. Job security over high salaries. But what is the teaching for or perhaps better put as "of"? It is to be hoped it might be back to basics with a touch or morality thrown in for good measure. Before we move on, it has to be said though that there is obviously the silver lining of vulture work and re-structuring and insolvency. The UK’s two largest recruiters of graduates namely PricewaterhouseCoopers and Deloitte are holding their recruitment programme at last year’s level. Both are taking on 1,000 graduate trainees. Sonja Stockton, head of recruitment at PWC said "The market has certainly shifted . We’ve taken some of the best talent from investment banks."

The worry is twofold. First, it is the commercial organisations (let’s call them the wealth creators) that have lowered their graduate intake significantly and some have stopped altogether. Secondly, there is the affect upon a normal process of building a longer-term talent pool. Stephanie Bird, a board member of the European Association for People Management (EAPM) and director of HR capacity of the Chartered Institute for Personnel Development says "It’s short-term gain, in exchange for long-term pain."

Perhaps this is the second biggest casualty of the credit crunch crisis. First the experience and skills built up over many years is cast aside into the unemployed queue and then those that should be the next generation of technicians and managers are not set on. Big shame.

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