With increasing demand on their IT infrastructure, you’d be forgiven for thinking demand for IT related graduates would be picking up.
According to statistics from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), 17% of Computer Science Graduates are unemployed. That’s in comparison to roughly 0% for medicine, 5% for Education and 6% for law. Other degrees with high percentage of unemployment rates include Communications and Creative Arts.
A comparison to rates back in in 2002, shows Computer Science jump 5% from 12%, Communications up also up 5% and Creative Arts up 3%. Medicine has stood firm at 0.2%, while Education unemployment rates have reportedly jumped 2.1%.
Across the board, Graduate employment rates have dropped. Graduate Recruitment particularly in the private sector is the worst its been in years. According to Charlie Ball, deputy research director at the Higher Education Careers Service Unit,
“The highest unemployment rate, for graduates six months after graduating, ever recorded in the UK, was 13.5% at the start of 1983. We’re expecting over 10% unemployment next year anyway, and it would not take much of a shock to the graduate jobs market to make the next few years some of the toughest ever experienced.”
The agency’s figures are based on the experiences of 205,000 students six months after graduation. It may very well be that computer science students are holding out for a specific “dream” job 6 months after graduating and happy to focus on freelance work until that offer comes through the door. What’s your take?
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