Competition to land a first job in the City is getting tougher

According to research by global jobs site eFinancialCareers.com, 75% of students surveyed say they’d be prepared to work for free – up from 63% last year.

For this year’s graduates currently looking for a job, only 16% have so far been offered a position.
 
More than a third of students (36%) expect it to take up to three months to find a new job once they graduate, and more than a quarter (28%) think it could take as long as six months.
 
Most (98%) of those surveyed want to start work as soon as their studies end, with only a handful seeing any benefit in taking a gap year to wait for the market to pick up.
 
James Bennett, managing director, EMEA and APAC for eFinancialCareers.com, says: “The allure of the City remains strong and whilst overall hiring levels in the sector are up compared to 2010, this growth isn’t being reflected in the number of graduate or internship roles currently on offer. Students fully understand that securing their first job in the City is going to be extremely challenging this year but our findings suggest that the overwhelming majority remain undeterred.”