Graduates are struggling to find work because studying during lockdown prevented them from making wide circles of friends or learning how to behave in meetings, recruiters have claimed.
Employers believe that students who were forced to complete their courses online or in small groups are less “work savvy”. Graduates affected by lockdowns in 2020 and 2021 now face the double difficulty of needing more training at a time when vacancies have fallen.
Figures compiled by Reed, the recruitment company, suggest that vacancies are down 40.5 per cent in the three months to May compared with the same period in 2018. Pay levels for graduate jobs have also fallen for the past 18 months.
