Go back

Employers withdrawing job offers for graduates amid pandemic

Image: JJ Ellison [CC BY-SA 3.0] via Wikimedia Commons

The economic downturn caused by coronavirus is prompting firms to cancel training places

Employers are taking back graduate job offers as the coronavirus slowdown starts to bite, according to the Institute for Student Employers.

A survey by the ISE found that around 14 per cent of employers said they had withdrawn entry-level job offers, while a further 14 per cent said they might cancel offers in the next few weeks. Around a third are pushing start dates back and more than half will induct new starters online.

Employers in retail and the built environment were most likely to have reneged on offers, with 38 per cent in retail and 36 per cent in the built environment cancelling job offers for graduates. Recruiters in finance, built environment firms, professional services, energy and engineering companies were making the most significant cuts in hiring, while entry-level jobs are only increasing among health and pharmaceutical employers.

But 14 per cent of survey respondents said they have still not finalised their recruitment numbers for this year (2019-20), which the ISE say shows, “how volatile the labour market is at present” and what these employers decide to do could make a “substantial difference” to how many students are hired from September. Around 40 per cent of employers did not know whether their early career recruitment will go up or down in 2020-21.

Stephen Isherwood, chief executive of the ISE, said there was no denying it would be “a challenging year” for students entering the job market. But he urged soon-to-be graduates to keep looking for work as past recessions had still seen vacancies left empty.

“Switching off is the worst thing students can do. It will only hinder their prospects further when the upturn comes and the jobs market recovers,” he said.

Despite the downturn, the survey suggests that graduates will suffer the least severe impact to their job prospects. Graduate jobs are expected to drop 12 per cent, but employers will recruit 32 per cent fewer people to apprenticeships or programmes for school leavers, and internships and placements are expected to fall by 40 per cent.

The survey was supported by the Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services and was carried out with 179 employers in late April and early May this year.