On 24th August, the BBC reported that the number of graduate jobs advertised has fallen by nearly 50% since last year. The pipeline between degree and corporate job is experiencing something of a blockage.
Andrew Hunter, from the job advertising site Adzuna that reported these numbers, thinks that employers are yet to see a reason to hire new graduates. It’s the lowest number of advertised graduate jobs since 2016. The graduate employment game is at best, in a trough, or at worst, in a grave.
People have been playing this game for ages. You go to uni. You try for an internship. Make the odd vacuous statement on LinkedIn, if you like. Find a grad scheme. Game complete! Financial security awaits. (And tens of thousands in debt, but of course that’s not important!)
A degree was the be-all and end-all, a ticket to employment, and the universities realised that. There are record numbers of people starting at university this year. Again. A cynic may wonder whether the financial value of students to our institutions has been trumping the academic value.
So, record numbers are starting university and there are record lows in graduate jobs. It doesn’t take fifty grand of debt and a mathematics degree to do that calculation. It’s tempting to just forget it all and apply for a job at the local purveyor of vapes. Some endeavours are curiously recession-proof – the high streets can attest to that.
Ah, but wait! You have forgotten one thing, sir. My LinkedIn. Surely my LinkedIn profile will help me stand out from the crowd? Just this week, I wrote a nuanced post about the necessity for adequate AI training in the corporate world. And I have loads of connections. They wouldn’t abandon me. Would they?
Perhaps not. AI and the changing job market appear to have only intensified the conveyor belt of boring shit on LinkedIn. It’s the ultimate example of The Emperor’s New Clothes. Surely we can’t mean all of this utter self-congratulatory nonsense? “I have been taking the time to reflect on blah blah blah… Pleased to announce that blah blah blah… Anyone got any jobs?”
I think a lot of people are starting to see through this. Corporate speak is on the way out, and the age of the tech bro is upon us, and yet it’s not even clear how long that will last. There’s talk of an AI ‘bubble’ stalking the world economy, threatening to burst its soapy financial chaos all over us, and even concern that our new artificial friends are powerful enough to destroy the bloody species.
Whilst I may experience a smattering of schadenfreude if the LinkedIn mafia falls, the impact of a collapse in grad jobs on the job market (and, selfishly, my own life) would be catastrophic. There’d be a whole generation of graduates who are extremely well-qualified to play an employment game that’s changed its rules.
Imagine spending years training to be a cricketer, but on your first professional match, you’re told you have to now play with a bat made of cereal. Also, the ball’s a grenade. And the wicket keeper’s an AI chatbot. You’d certainly feel a bit hard done by.
Many companies have decided they’re not that interested in graduates, talented or not. Some pretend to be, but then give you an AI screening interview. To use an old man’s favourite football phrase, “the game’s gone”. The long summer of languid leisure (and having affairs with your girlfriend’s mother) experienced by Dustin Hoffman’s perpetually unemployed character in The Graduate, could become more real than we’d all like. Gulp.
I’d love to say that it doesn’t matter, and that the inherent good of education is enough to make it all worth it. I almost do think that, but for the massive debt most students find themselves in. For many, university has become a rather expensive stepping stone to an employment paradise that is disappearing. Companies should be wary, however. Taking on able graduates is a long-term investment. Maybe for the first year or two, adequate AI implementation can cover their workload, but what about after that?
In classic impartial BBC fashion, their reporting also provided an alternative view. The head of labour market intelligence at Jisc suggested that the figures could indicate a change in how roles are advertised, rather than a drastic change in the number of roles. Man, I don’t know what to think anymore. It does go to show how important it is to read things in full, so you can give yourself a pat on the back for making it this far. Now go and work on your CV. You’re going to need it.
