Graduates are facing up to the prospect of the toughest job hunt for 20 years according to new research.
A survey of The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers and around 1,000 final year student job hunters by High Fliers reveals graduates will face the toughest competition for jobs in the last two decades, with many likely to struggle to find work when they complete their studies.
The research found that of the 40,000 graduates the employers planned to recruit in 2008 and 2009, almost 7,000 vacancies have been cut or left unfilled.
The worst hit sector is the City where there has been a reduction in graduate entry levels by nearly half. Just the public sector and Armed Forces stepped up recruitment of graduates.
The increased competition for jobs means that graduates need to be better prepared for work than ever before and must stand out from the crowd when applying for a diminishing number of jobs.
Many top employers have introduced psychometric testing as a means of finding the most suitable candidates to fill remaining vacancies and graduates should make sure they are familiar with the techniques if they are to give themselves the best possible chance of landing their dream job.
Although it is impossible to revise for a psychometric test as you would traditional tests, awareness of the basics of psychometric testing will help candidates face the test with a little more confidence and enable them to assess there own suitability for the role.