There were thousands of empty spaces on grad schemes last year

Usually we’re being told there are no grad scheme places left and that we’re not good enough to get a place at KPMG, Goldman, Aldi or whatever other companies come to the job fair. But now a report from High Fliers research claims that we’re turning down £40,000 a year job offers, rather than being desperate after all. Somehow 1,074 places were left empty in 2015, compared to 700 the year before. Putting this in perspective there were less than 100 vacancies in 2010. Martin Birchall from High Fliers Research thinks this is because grads are becoming “increasingly choosy” about who they worked for.

“Last year record numbers turned down employers’ job offers or changed their mind about an offer they had accepted during their final months at the university. As a result, more than 1,000 graduate positions at some of the country’s most sought-after employers were left unfulfilled.”

Unfortunately not everything is what it seems. Those lucky enough to be able to reject  a £40,000 are just a select few, the kind of person who already has a job lined up in second year. Not everyone can turn down a place on an investment banking grad scheme to become a yoga teacher, because they haven’t got through the interviews in the first place. Martin from High Fliers continued:

“At the top end, employers have told us that the most sought after graduates are holding four or five job offers. Overall we probably have twice as many graduates as there are jobs, but at the top end graduates are becoming increasingly choosy.”

It makes a change from the ‘desperate graduates hunting for jobs’ story

So employers are just as picky as ever about wanting the top candidates. The top candidates just happen to have clocked this and are playing hard to get too. While the report didn’t name any specific names, they did give out who pays the biggest salaries. Aldi are the most generous this year, paying £42,000 – with law firms Allen & Overy, Baker&  McKenzie and Linklisters all matching it. Finance grad schemes tend to differ because they rely so heavily on bonuses to pay their junior staff.