Graduate applicant numbers have surged, while employers expect a 6.9% drop in graduate vacancies, according to the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) bi-annual survey.

The average number of applications for each graduate vacancy now stands at 69, compared to 49 last year and 31 in 2008.

The number of graduate vacancies has fallen by nearly 7% this year, following a drop of 8.9% in 2009.

Carl Gilleard, chief executive of the AGR, says: “Recruiters are under intense pressure this year dealing with a huge number of applications from graduates for a diminishing pool of jobs. Those of our members who took part in the survey reported a total of 686,660 applications since the beginning of the 2010 recruitment campaign. It is hardly surprising then that the number of employers asking for a 2.1 degree has shot up by 11 percentage points. However, while this approach does aid the sifting process it can rule out promising candidates with the right work skills unnecessarily. We are encouraging our members to look beyond the degree classification when narrowing down the field of candidates to manageable proportions.”