IT Graduates Top Unemployment List

IT graduates are topping the unemployment charts six months after leaving university, according to a new study by the charity Higher Education Careers Services Unit (Hecsu).

The study, released on Monday, found that about one in six graduates with degrees in IT, or 16.3 percent, were unemployed six months after graduation. In 2009 the figure was 13.7 percent. Other electronics-related students were hit as well, with 13.3 percent of electrical engineering graduates found to be unemployed, up from 11 percent for the previous year.

Graduates of both these apparently-vocational courses seemed to have a surprisingly hard time getting into work, when the level of unemployment across all subjects was 8.9 percent.

High salaries

Hecsu deputy research director Charlie Ball told eWEEK that the proportion of unemployed IT graduates has been high for a number of years, following the 2001 dot-com crash. However, he said that the proportion only tells part of the story, being partly down to the fact that there are a large number of graduates in IT each year.

“There are a large number of IT graduates coming out every year, and they have often struggled to an extent to find jobs,” Ball said. “The other side of the coin is that most do still get jobs. With the exception of business studies graduates, more IT graduates are getting jobs, even at the bottom of a recession, than in any other qualification.”

He said 5,650 of the IT graduates surveyed had found employment, a higher figure than for any qualification other than business studies. The average salary for those jobs was also higher than the average of £19,695, with the average for pure computer science graduates, for instance, at £20,388.

In general the IT employment market is facing hard times, though it is less hard-hit than some other sectors. In the third quarter of 2009 IT job losses were at their highest level in six years.

Research from April found that CIOs were feeling more optimistic about the economy, but expected a net gain in hiring of only 5 percent.

Overall, the study found that nearly one in 11 graduates, or 8.9 percent, were found to be unemployed, the highest proportion for 17 years. The survey covered 82 percent of those who completed an undergraduate degree last summer and live in the UK. The graduates were interviewed in January, six months after leaving university.

The figure of 8.9 percent was a 1 percent rise on 2009’s figures. The last time the figure was so high was in 1992, when 11.6 percent of graduates were found to be unemployed after six months.

Unemployment has peaked?

A growing number of graduates were found to be taking jobs that don’t require a degree, such as waiting tables or pub work. The study found that the proportion taking graduate-level jobs dropped by 3.3 percent to 62.4 percent. The proportion working in retail and catering rose by 3.8 percent to 14.4 percent, or about one in seven.

Ball said graduate unemployment is likely to have peaked, with lower figures expected for next year.

However, he warned that the 490,000 public sector job losses expected due to government spending cuts could hamper graduates’ job hunting opportunities, particularly since the public sector had been one of the few sectors continuing to hire during the recession.