Working in United Kingdom

 

	Population:	60 million
	Area:	242,910 square km
	Capital:	London
	Main cities:	Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dublin, Belfast, Liverpool, Cardiff
	Languages:	English, welsh (in some areas of Wales)
	Currency:	� sterling
	Unemployment rate:	5,4%
	Number of Universities:	174
	Number of students:	1,85 million

Two-thirds of first degree graduates find jobs within six months of completing their course. 
6.6 million holders of higher education qualifications are working in the UK. 
Employers increasingly expect graduates to be self-reliant and manage their own career and personal development. 
Nearly two-fifths of employers are unhappy with graduates� business awareness. 
On average, male graduates earn 55% more than male non-graduates and female graduates earn 63 more than female non-graduates by the age of 30-34. 
Only 5.7% of new graduates in Britain are unemployed, compared to 7.9% of all 21-24 year olds. 

How many graduate jobs are there?

The employment figures for the class of �98 confirmed that a large number of employers want to recruit new first degree graduates, with almost 120,000 in jobs by the beginning of 1999. A survey of the members of the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR), representing more than 600 of the largest employers of degree holders in the UK, forecast an increase of 5.1% in the number of vacancies for new graduates between 1998 and 1999. Although most employers are still cautious about making long-term predictions, more than half of employers in the survey expected to increase their graduate recruitment during the next three years.

The winter 1997/8 Labour Force Survey estimated that there were 6.6 million economically active holders of higher education qualifications of working age in the UK, of whom 96.8% were in employment. The highest numbers of recent graduates are working in the Public administration, business services, education and health, and Banking, finance and insurance sectors.