The job market
There are a wide variety of factors - social, political and economic - all influencing the labour market. Technology, globalism and changes in the make up of the workforce – more women working; more older people; fewer younger people; higher levels of qualifications and skills - are all factors.
Don’t forget, employers will look for transferable skills including numeracy, IT, communication and networking in addition to your advanced qualifications, degree/HND.
How are businesses changing?
- Leaner – fewer levels of management.
- Many of the larger organisations have divided into smaller operating units.
- International companies are locating departments wherever in the world they are able to find the right skills at the cheapest price.
Back to top
So what does all this mean for jobs?
- An increased need for high level technological skills.
- Higher skilled jobs in manufacturing as well as services could be attracted to the UK .
- Greater flexibility of work - part-time working, temporary contracts, variations in working hours, working from home.
- More people having several jobs at the same time – not necessarily in the same type of work.
- People will change their employer and their career more than in the past.
- Training will become a continuous process throughout working life.
- It will become harder to describe work by job titles.
- The demand for ‘knowledge workers’ - highly skilled, highly trained professionals, without rigid job titles - will increase.
- There will be an increased need for managerial and supervisory skills.
Back to top
How have changes in the job market affected school and college leavers?
- More people go to university. Ten years ago 20% of all 18 year olds went to university. Now it is 35% - higher than in the USA and the second highest in Europe.
- Even if you do not decide to study for a degree at 18, you may well do later in your life. The number of mature students is increasing dramatically.
- 54% of all graduates are female.
- Changes in the financing of students have meant more students now live at home while attending university.
- 40% of undergraduates do some sort of paid work during term time.
- As many as one in five 18 year olds (50% in independent schools) takes a gap year before starting university.
- 80% of people who start a degree course actually obtain a degree. Only Japan has a higher pass rate than the UK.
- The subject you study, the level of degree you obtain and even the university at which you study can dramatically affect your career and the salary you will earn, initially and throughout your working life.
- Graduate unemployment is very low, but of those graduates choosing to seek work rather than continue into post-graduate degrees, nearly a third enter jobs which do not ask for a degree.
- However, all this changes – three and a half years after graduation only 10% are in non-graduate jobs. In fact there is an increasing trend for graduates to stay in their first jobs for a relatively short period of time.
- There are now more levels of graduate jobs:
- fast-track top graduate jobs
- traditional graduate jobs
- jobs where a degree brings added value.
The current trend in many occupations is for employers to recruit good graduates, whatever their degree subject. This is not true for all occupations, especially technical or scientific ones.
Back to top
