Extract from IDS Executive Compensation Review 312

Graduate job market expectations buoyant

With ever greater numbers of graduates looking for jobs, employers need to be able to target their pay offers more keenly to ensure they attract the best candidates. Every year, we conduct our own survey of graduate starting salary rates and recruitment numbers and ahead of the full publication we publish some key findings based on early returns.

If employer’s stick to their current plans, then the job market for graduates looks set to be strong in 2007, with firms predicting a need for 23 per cent more recruits. But while employers’ current recruitment intentions are bullish, past experience suggests that outcomes do not always meet expectations.

This article provides tables showing latest recruitment levels and starting salary rates based on matched returns received so far for the ECRs annual Pay and Progression for Graduates, available from March 2007.