The Director of The Careers Group, Anne-Marie Martin, recently presented research conducted on behalf of the Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (AGCAS) at a GTI TARGETjobs Breakfast News meeting for graduate recruiters.

The research asked careers services throughout the UK about the response to the recession from institutions, employers, students and careers services. The findings showed that:

• government and university concern about the situation has led to some additional resources being made available.
• employers are maintaining an active presence on campus with fairs remaining especially buoyant.
• vacancies were reported to be down by a number of careers services, yet other services reported maintained levels or have even seen growth. On investigation this proved to be because careers services had devoted additional resources to sourcing vacancies.
• unemployment appears to be at a higher level in the July 2008 cohort.
• students are anxious but there is no panic. They are using their careers services more. However some students appear to be trying to avoid the issue, choosing to pretend the recession will not affect then, or giving up entirely on some sectors such as finance even those these sectors are still recruiting.

The careers services reported their responses to the recession have been to increase research into the effect of the recession on different career sectors, to offer extra products such as workshops and advice sheets tailored to this recession, to more actively seek out graduate opportunities to advertise to their students, and to encourage students to engage with their careers services for additional assistance.

The slides from the presentation are below: