High-profile employers are more than ever inundated with applicants for graduate schemes and apprenticeships - British Gas revealed last week that it received more than 65,000 applications for 600 schemes, that is about twice as many as usual.
The employment magazine, Personnel Today reports that mobile phone operator Vodafone also had over 3,000 applicants for the 50 places on its graduate scheme, launched last year, while retailer Debenhams received 2,000 applications for the 25 graduate trainee places available this year, from advertising only on its own website and graduate career websites.
The latest Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) survey into the graduate recruitment market revealed that there are, on average, 48 applications for every position. The AGR has been lobbying government to devise tax breaks for employers who up their intake of graduate recruits.
The news comes as the latest figures on youth unemployment have been released at 929,000 - and would have hit exactly 1m without the 71,000 quarterly jump in student numbers.
More information on this and related stories from Personnel Today website.
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