Glamour posts at a premium

Glamour posts at a premium

Competition for prestige positions will be fierce for the class of 1990

O

ptimistic forecasts made before the New Year about demand for graduates in 1990 are being torn up. There is no more talk about unprecedented opportunities for students to shop around for the ideal job. Instead, the class of 1990 is being warned that, although there will be more than enough jobs, their range of choice will be much more constricted. They will be told to think more of long-term job security when targeting their career area, rather than the short-term appeal of money or glamour.

The sectors of the economy suffering most from high interest rates are now known. Service industries of all kinds in the South of England are under pressure. Manufacturing industries in the North, especially those with significant export involvement, are doing better. The large Blue Chip graduate recruiters in the private sectors, such as IBM, BP, and others agreed that they would be downgrading their graduate recruitment.

Interest rates are starting to bite. Any activity associated with housing and mortgages is suffering. Estate agents are finding times hard. One leading firm is reducing its intake from 46 to 35 this year. Retailers, especially those with involvement in household products and discretionary spending such as fashion, are likely to be reducing their graduate intake. One of the high street fashion chains is reducing its graduate intake by half this year.

But it is not all doom and gloom. There are areas of growth. Events on the Continent, particularly in Eastern Europe, have put a premium on those graduates able to operate abroad. Graduates fluent in European languages linked to work experience in the EC will be very attractive. The same goes for those with Eastern European languages.

But it is likely to be a two-way process. For the first time, British companies such as Marks and Spencer have begun to look for continental graduates. In 1990 employers will be looking for more top quality graduates defined either by their outstanding personal qualities, previous work experience or strong vocational skills than ever before. The squeeze will be on the marginal graduate.

Graduates with no record of extra-curricular achievement, vocational qualifications or work experience will find themselves at a disadvantage. Arts graduates, in particular, will be at risk. They should turn to the public sector and the recently privatised utilities, such as British Gas, British Telecom and the water authorities. British Gas, for example, is recruiting 285 graduates this year instead of 240 last year.

under the Governments reorganisation of the National Health Service, administrators are being replaced by analytical-minded managers to han