Four sectors added graduate roles in July

Adzuna recorded 8,383 UK graduate job vacancies in July, 45% fewer than at the same point last year. The recruiting website said the total was the lowest since it began collecting the data in 2016. Adzuna also said the figures suggested a recovery reported during the spring had gone into reverse.

“July’s numbers are a step backwards, not a blip,” said Andrew Hunter, a co-founder of Adzuna. Hunter said the annual vacancy decline got worse for the first time since January and that jobseekers per vacancy were higher than a year ago. “The graduate job market also keeps setting new lows, which tells us employers still haven’t found a reason to open up hiring at that level,” he said.

The latest count was below the more than 55,000 graduate positions recorded in 2017. Adzuna said the latest decline extended across healthcare, nursing, hospitality and logistics.

Travel, teaching, trade and construction, and manufacturing were the only sectors showing increases. “It isn’t all bad news,” Hunter added. “Teaching, travel, and trade and construction are still adding roles, and manufacturing is now doing the same, too. But that’s a short list, and everyone outside of these sectors is having a harder time than they were three months ago.”

A record 262,820 people were preparing to go to university in September. Separately, the Office for National Statistics said about 1 million young people in the UK were not in education, employment or training in the first quarter of the year.

Adzuna’s figures suggested employers had reined in hiring in the face of increases in national insurance contributions and the minimum wage announced by the former chancellor Rachel Reeves in her last two budgets. The report also said some companies were prioritizing investment in automation and artificial intelligence tools rather than hiring.

The Institute for Public Policy Research reported this summer that 16- to 21-year-olds were less confident about being successful than a decade ago and that some were “losing faith in their futures.”

In July, Andy Burnham said he would try to boost youth employment through more backing for technical education and apprenticeships.