Job Market Statistics from SharpCV Career Management Agency
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With unemployment in excess of 2 million and the country officially in recession the number of available positions has dropped dramatically whilst the number of people chasing each position has risen exponentially. With 400,000 fresh graduates set to hit the job market in the summer of 2009 the competition is set to get even tighter.
The consultants at SharpCV have seen the ups and downs of previous recessions and the Dot.com bust of 2000 but nothing quite like what we are seeing in 2009. During 2008 Broadbean's AdCourier saw some astonishing response figures to some positions it advertised on behalf of employers and recruitment agents. To give you an idea of the level of competition out there we are publishing the top 20 most applied for roles in 2008:
The Top 20 most applied for roles in the UK in 2008 as recorded by Broadbean's Adcourier:
| Rank | Role (Job Title) | Response (Individual Applications) |
| 1 | Opportunities for recent graduates | 3399 |
| 2 | Recruiter | 1883 |
| 3 | Trainee Advertising | 1849 |
| 4 | Sales Associate £8.00 p/h | 1767 |
| 5 | Exp customer service representative | 1553 |
| 6 | Part time sales advisor | 1532 |
| 7 | Java 5 developer | 1459 |
| 8 | Language speakers | 1347 |
| 9 | Administrator assistant | 1286 |
| 10 | Receptionist | 1143 |
| 11 | Admin support officer | 1129 |
| 12 | Westfield sales assistants | 1035 |
| 13 | Functional tester | 962 |
| 14 | Junior software tester | 933 |
| 15 | Administrator | 930 |
| 16 | Executive assistant | 920 |
| 17 | Receptionist for funky media company | 915 |
| 18 | Helpdesk analyst | 908 |
| 19 | Charity administrator (maternity) | 898 |
| 20 | Office administrator | 893 |
1 in 3 Graduates earning less than £15,000 a year with £20,000 of debt -
Yet the "average" Graduate Salary is £24,500 a year...
In October 2008 in response to a parliamentary question, government ministers were forced to admit that a third of students who started university since fees were introduced in 1998 are earning too little to make repayments on their loans.
Nearly 400,000 graduates have not made repayments on their loans up to seven years after they graduated because they are not yet earning above the £15,000 threshold. Of the 1,237,300 students who still had money outstanding on loans taken out since fees were introduced, 384,300 had not begun repaying the loans at all.
The extremely low (sub £15,000) graduate salaries fly in the face of the "average" graduate salary of £24,500 publicised by government-funded agency prospects.ac.uk. Why the discrepancy between salaries? There are many reasons; individual motivation plays a big factor and socio-economic factors have some influence, yet actual job hunting skills and performance at the point of application will have the final say on whether a graduate will start their career in a professional graduate level role and salary, in a non-graduate role with a low salary, or worse - struggling to find a position at all and become unemployed after graduating.
How do you stand out with 400,000 extra Graduates joining the market in 2009?
With 400,000 graduates set to join the labour market in summer 2009 at a time when last years graduates are still struggling to find work a good start is essential and graduates are now realising that their Job Hunting Skills, CV and Interview Techniques need to be razor-sharp in order to give them the best possible chance against the competition and gain professional, graduate-level salaries in the critical first two years after graduating.
The experienced and qualified consultants at SharpCV understand the graduate, professional and executive job markets extremely well and will individually design a CV to fit the role you are looking for as well as tailoring the topics covered in our interview coaching course to the sector you are interested in. Call 0800 6126745 / 0161 7958775 / 0207 1837749 now to discuss your situation with one of our consultants or read more about our Graduate CV, Professional CV, Executive CV, Interview Help and Career Services.
This article uses statistics taken from a feature in The Guardian and data from Prospects.ac.uk.