Companies' appetite for new IT graduates will increase
at a faster rate in 2005 than in any year since the dotcom boom,
according to a survey by the Association of Graduate Recruiters
(AGR).
The 224 employers surveyed by the AGR are planning to appoint an
average of 32.8% more graduates to IT jobs in 2005 than they did in
2004. Demand for graduates to fill IT posts has increased at a
faster rate than it has for any other occupation.
Graduate recruits to consulting roles are expected to increase
by 26.9% this year and those to retail management jobs by
25.5%.
The increase in demand for graduates follows several years when
the number of graduates being hired for technology jobs dropped
sharply.
Philip Virgo, strategic adviser at the Institute for the
Management of Information Systems, said, "The number of computing
and IT graduates is down very sharply on previous years and comes
after the collapse of graduate recruitment in previous years."
The number of new graduate jobs in IT fell by 16.1% in 2003 and
recruitment activity bottomed out in 2004.
According to sector skills council E-Skills UK, 17% of
organisations that employ dedicated IT staff will hire people to
fill IT roles in 2005. Of those organisations, only 30% hired IT
graduates or postgraduates during the last 12 months. Twenty per
cent recruited graduates from disciplines other than IT and 50%
hired experienced IT employees.
However, graduate jobs in IT failed to command the average
increase in salary for graduates in all sectors. The average IT
graduate's salary will rise by just 2.3% in 2005, compared with an
average increase for all occupations of 4.8%.
Accountancy and purchasing jobs will see 2005's biggest pay
increases, with graduates in the respective occupations benefiting
from salary hikes of 10% and 11.1%.
Please visit our partner,
totaljobs.com for permanent and contract IT graduate jobs