New data from Graduate Careers Australia sheds interesting light on the graduate employment sector.

2009 wasn’t a super year with the GFC affecting graduate recruitment intake. Only 79.2% of graduates were in full-time employment within four months of completing their degrees (down from 85.2%). Despite the downturn graduate salaries grew, with the median starting salary perched at $48,000 compared to $45,000 a year ago. Around 30% of employers have sourcing difficulty in certain disciplines. 

Interestingly, one in five graduate found information about their job on the Internet. And yet posting resume on the Internet is also the least successful method of finding a job. It’s interesting that Print continues to be a rather effective channel to find a job.

Things are looking up, with 21% of employers planning to increase the scale of their Graduate Program in 2010. 

Additional data available here & here

Roughly 110,000 students graduated each year from Australian colleges and universities, and majority of them (84.5%) joined the workforce within four months of graduating.

Meanwhile, competition for graduates is heating up each year; graduate vacancies rose from 9.8% in 2003, to 11.2% in 2008. Often employers’ problem includes the inability to fill graduate job vacancies.

If you are an employer or a recruiter, the odds are you will be involved in hiring or be in contact with a graduate(s) looking for a job. Given graduates constitute the bulk of new human capital joining the Australian workforce each year, it is important to better understand their behaviour. Below are a few resources.

Graduate recruitment resources:

• Gradient’s recent report – Change by Degree – provides myth busting insights into the behaviour of graduates.
• How much do graduates earn? How much do you need to pay? Graduate Career offers a yearly report on graduate remuneration trends in Australia.
• Members of the Australian Association of Graduate Employers pool resources together to better understand graduates behaviour. The group produce a yearly report on graduate employment destinations. Also, Ben Reeves’, CEO of AAGE, presentation on graduate behaviour.  Graduate Recruitment Industry Awards Winners, 2008.
• Virtual graduate recruitment fair – highly appropriate strategy to reach out to a digital generation.
• NAGCAS (National Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services)  has a wide range of resources on graduate careers development.
• Itinerary of graduate career fairs across Australian universities
• EOC has been in the forefront of graduate recruitment. Careers & Employment Expo is a yearly event targeting graduates across Australia.
• Sydney Talent is an interesting joint initiative of Sydney University and the business community to harness graduate talent. Universities will increasingly cash in on the human capital they helped produce.
• Graduate Opportunities is a career guide for graduates. Includes, snippets of major Australian sectors employing graduates.
• Niche job board targeting graduates – Graduatejobs . Juniorjobs targets entry level job seekers, including graduates.
• SEEK has 2,100 graduate vacancies. All the generalist job board have dedicated graduate sections.