The job market is failing graduates.
The number of job vacancies in the UK reached above 1 million in July 2021. Despite the vast employment growth, generally, the UK has seen employment rates decrease and unemployment rates increase. However, the Office for National Statistics has estimated an overall projected recovery of the labour market in light of the government’s recent relaxation of coronavirus restrictions.
So why is the labour market today one of the most volatile markets to be graduating into?
Well, a report by the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS), forebodingly named ‘A Bad Time to Graduate’, suggested that the Class of 2020 will continue to struggle in the labour market of today. The report reached this conclusion by analysing the effects of the 2008-9 recession, which depressed the wages of graduates by 20 per cent. They saw that salaries only began to recover by 2016 and the long-term effects meant that graduates who had started in ‘non-graduate roles’ (for example, customer service) often remained in these jobs. Additionally, it should be a surprise to nobody that the median earnings of women were affected far worse, never reaching over 30,000 per annum after the recession. In comparison, male counterparts earned between 35,000 to over 40,000 per annum. (2019 annual prices.)
The report went on to suggest, similarly, ‘… those graduating this year can expect to find it harder to find employment and, especially, harder to find well-paid employment than did their immediate predecessors. Especially if the economy takes a long time to return to trend, they can expect to earn less than they might have expected for a considerable period of time.’
Others have predicted that the long-term impact on the job market will affect not only the Class of 2020 but also those graduating this year, in 2022 and in 2023. This is because most vacancies were reduced because of the coronavirus.
Given the boom of the labour market, one might start to presume that the lockdown-induced reduction in entry-level roles would return to normal. However, as the IFS predicted, it is currently: (1) harder to find employment, (2) harder to find well-paid employment, and (3) harder to find long-term employment. According to research by the Institute of Student Employers (ISE), 15% of employers had already expected to slash graduate hiring in 2021. Of course, this is not unexpected; it’s simply a continuation of the recruitment trend which started in 2020.
Currently, roles for graduates tend to be short-term or part-time, demonstrating how unstable it is for university leavers. Not to mention, there’s still the preference for ‘experienced workers’ over graduates. The frustration of entry-level jobs not being entry-level is not a new phenomenon. It’s almost standard to see ‘3-5 years of relevant experience’ or ‘1 year working in a similar environment’ obnoxiously written at the bottom of a role specification.
It’s not better to see that some companies have reduced this to ‘a minimum of 6 months’ or ‘highly skilled graduate with proven work experience’ (with no time described) this year. In particular, when one-third of UK employers have stated its ‘not very likely’ or ‘not at all likely’ a graduate without significant experience would be successful at within an application process.
This issue is multi-national. In 2016, Professor Matthew Bidwell from the University of Pennsylvania evaluated three million jobs and his key findings illustrated that jobs with higher education (bachelor’s degree) specifications increased the chances of requiring work experience, even though most graduates did not fulfil this requirement. Typically, this led to graduates becoming unemployed, working part-time or in non-professional roles following the completion of college (university).
Of course, the struggle of today’s graduates does not end with these adverts. Some adverts are free of ominous ‘experience needed’ taglines. However, you can have the perfect CV, covering letter and interview and still receive the emailed response following the request for feedback: ‘We have no feedback for your interview, you came across very well. But an applicant with a lot more experience has been accepted into the post’. I’ve gone up against candidates with teaching qualifications and 5+ years of experience for roles that weren’t even national living wage and received this kind of response.
Whilst it was a bad hiring system before, it’s unethical today. The preference for experience over education seems particularly redundant in a day and age when internships and graduate schemes were cancelled due to the pandemic, entry-level roles were slashed, and not all students could realise their Year in Industry Placements (YIP). (I’ll be the first to tell you, getting all my YIP applications turned down under ‘uncertain hiring guidelines’ or the ‘inability to take on anyone new’, following March 2020, really pulled the rug out from under my feet. I’d been planning to go to a university which allowed YIP on a BA (Hons) History course since Year 12.)
According to the ISE, the only sector to increase entry-level hiring was health and pharmaceuticals. Whilst this is understandable, it feeds into the old age frustration of STEM graduate preference; suggesting that humanities students are a worthless investment in today’s society.
So, how are graduates expected to fulfil specification requirements?
Well, it seems impossible. Even with the advent of virtual internships and the return of face-to-face internships/ graduate schemes, functions such as LinkedIn’s Easy Apply mean that hundreds of applicants can apply within the first few hours of a job advert being live. Even worse, some graduates probably don’t care about the job or don’t fit the job specification, but are desperate to gain work experience to start working.
Additionally, after speaking to some of my friends about job-hunting and comparing their experiences to mine, something shocking became clear. Experience is often valued during the selection process for internships in the same way it is for entry-level work. We are in a day and age when internships are not seen as work experience rather viewed with the same rigour as an actual entry level job. In terms of getting hired, research for 2020-21 trends has shown that 56% of companies still offer interns full-time positions upon completion and internships increase job offers by 16% (in the US). This goes to show that while internships once stood as ‘work experience’ this is far from the case now.
Thus, to be rejected from an internship because someone else has ‘more experience’ or because you ‘didn’t have enough experience’ is, simply put, unethical. How can we enter the cycle of work experience to start working when you need work experience to access the work experience? Well, students can’t fix this problem, but employers can.
As far as I can see, the preference for professional/ technical experience over education or all other competencies narrows down to an employer’s convenience. In terms of cost reduction, it takes less time to train someone with previous experience. In turn, the chosen candidate will start turning over profit and meeting company targets faster.
It’s capitalism; it’s stupid. Employers shouldn’t be happy with this employment-economic landscape. When they hire an experienced worker over someone mouldable and fresh out of university, they risk the chance of losing a valuable company component when a better-paid role comes along. In comparison, a graduate who’s been invested in by a company is more likely to stay.
So, if you’ve been job hunting as a graduate recently then you know like I do: the process is exhausting and endlessly frustrating.
Career websites will tell you to apply for roles whether you comply with the complete specification or not. Given the lack of roles, the competition regarding internships and graduate schemes, and the burnout I’m experiencing, personally, I’d rather not waste my time.
Contributor to The London Financial
We combine research produced by students and early professionals into a single website, breaking down the barriers to entry individuals face in a number of industries.
Contributor opinions are their own and do not necessarily reflect the stance of the LF.