Labour has made this the worst summer ever to graduate

Telegraph

12 hours ago

Aside from the intense heat and rolling geopolitical dramas, what will the summer of 2025 be remembered for? For the sunburnt graduates who will be snapped throwing their hats into the air over the coming weeks, the hope is that they will always look back on this sweltering summer as their big shift into adulthood and working life.
But once the post-graduation hangovers wear off, or the sugar rush, given that more young people are shunning the booze, a harsh and slightly boring reality awaits.
Enormous reservoirs of patience will be needed because there simply aren't enough entry-level jobs to go around.
Yes, we've heard it all before – I graduated just as the 2008/2009 financial crisis tightened its grip on Britain's job market, so I know the feeling well. But this time, it really could be the worst summer ever to graduate.
Not only is there the rise of AI to contend with, but the list of other problems appears endless: higher employment costs, a workers' rights revolution and a whole cohort of older staff who just aren't budging.
It's a dreadful combination for the young and ambitious who thought this would be their time to shine.
'This literally feels like an alternate reality, how have we just accepted that you need to apply for hundreds upon hundreds of jobs to get an entry-level position,' one person wrote on Reddit on Friday. '[There] doesn't seem to be a big difference between most graduates. What is going on?'
Here's my crack at the answer.
For a start, grunt jobs are rapidly being hoovered up by AI.
UK entry-level jobs are down by nearly a third since the release of ChatGPT in 2022, data released today will show, with some of Britain's biggest graduate employers – notably the 'big four' accountants – slashing graduate recruitment programmes because AI is doing the job instead.
Dario Amodei, the boss of AI firm Anthropic, recently predicted that the technology he's betting his career on could wipe out half of all entry-level jobs in white-collar professions such as law, consulting and finance within five years.
That might sound far-fetched, but the erasure of these junior jobs is already happening as technology grows smarter.
Even frustrated job seekers are complaining about AI while using ChatGPT to fire out hundreds of CVs in quick succession and with little thought. 'It's the Tinder-fication of the job market, when you have theoretically infinite applicants,' writes one person on Reddit.
That is without taking into account some UK-specific problems.
The Government's decision to increase employer costs and overhaul workers' rights has taken a further sledgehammer to entry-level roles.
Many businesses have frozen hiring following Rachel Reeves's Budget tax raid, which disproportionately affects young and low-paid workers after she raised employers' National Insurance contributions.
Bosses have also been warning that sweeping plans to give new staff full employment rights will stop them from taking a punt on newcomers.
In the House of Lords last week, Lord Sharpe of Epsom sounded a warning about proposals to introduce a day-one right to unfair dismissal claims.
'Why would any employer take on what might be considered a high-risk hire?' he said. 'Why would they take a chance on a young person seeking their first opportunity? Why would they hire a student who did not attend a top-tier university?
'Why would they consider a person from a lower socioeconomic background, who may lack conventional credentials but definitely possesses untapped potential?
'When employers face immediate legal liability for dismissal decisions, they naturally become more risk-averse in their hiring practices. They gravitate towards candidates with proven track records, established credentials and minimal perceived risk.'
This is not callousness, Sharpe told peers, but rational economic behaviour in response to the regulatory environment.
As the Employment Rights Bill chugs its way slowly through the parliamentary process and criticism continues to build, the hiring landscape for those with little to no experience is looking bleaker as bosses turn their backs on those without flawless CVs.
That affects a huge number of young people, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), with 987,000 people aged 16 to 24 not in education, employment or training between January and March 2025.
This is all happening in what is already a fairly grim and highly competitive jobs market.
Graduate job postings in the 12 months to June are down 33pc compared to a year earlier, according to Indeed, while the number of university leavers has climbed from 828,000 in the 2018/19 academic year to just over 1m in 2023/24.
Each entry-level role received 140 applications on average in 2024, according to the Institute of Student Employers, up from 86 applications per role in 2023.
A post-Covid boom in some industries, such as technology and consultancy, has also caused some employers to over-recruit, so their energy is now going on shrinking rather than growing.
Alison McGovern, the employment minister, says young people are being left 'on the scrapheap.' One person who graduated with a first-class degree in criminology and sociology last year told my Telegraph colleague last week that despite sending out more than 100 job applications, she hasn't been invited for a single interview.
Another young man who has spent seven years in higher education and has just graduated with a masters in biomedical engineering said that after applying to more than 40 engineering roles, he still hasn't managed to secure a job in the field. He is now working as a part-time swimming instructor.
Each year, we hear tales of students graduating into an appalling job market. Students are often told it's the worst. But with a helping hand from the Government, this year it really could be.