Far too many competing graduates: FMCG tops applicant rates, finds AGR

The number of graduates competing for each graduate job this year has risen over 50% from last year in some sectors, with FMCG the most oversubscribed sector by far.
Thu, 11 Jul 2013
The number of graduates competing for each graduate job this year has risen over 50% from last year in some sectors, with FMCG the most oversubscribed sector by far.

This is one of the findings of the Graduate Recruitment Survey 2013 from the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR), released on Wednesday (10 July), of AGR’s 209 members.
The number of applicants to FMCG company graduate schemes rose from 134.1 in 2011-12 to 211 in the current 2012-13 academic year.

The second most popular grad schemes were those in investment banks and fund management firms, with 135.3 people going for each post, followed by retail (130.2) and banking and financial services, whose 114.7 applicants per post was up from 78.6 last year.

Public sector schemes saw applicant numbers double from 43.7 to 90.7.

The least popular graduate schemes were those in consulting or business services (49), transport or logistics (43.3) and accountancy or professional services (36.9).

The total number of graduate opportunities amongst AGR members was down 3.9% across the year.

This contrasts with a 4.6% rise at the 100 firms in UK High Fliers’ report The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers, which also found that social enterprise had taken the top spot in graduate recruitment volume nationally, hiring 1,261 university leavers nationally.

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