Graduate recruitment

As graduation ceremonies take place in universities around Wales, research by BBC Wales reveals a huge increase in the number of graduates returning to education because of concerns about the job market.

Wales@Work spoke to 11 Welsh universities and all but one said they'd seen a rise in the number of post grad applications. The biggest increases were at the universities of Newport (59%), Cardiff (45%), UWIC (44%), Swansea Met (33%), Glyndwr (25%), Glamorgan (22%) and Carmarthen (17.5%).

Swansea University saw a 2.2% rise while Bangor and Aberystwyth didn't have figures but both reported small increases in the number of students choosing to delay their job search for another year in education.

And it comes as no surprise. A recent survey for the CBI claimed 38% of firms across the UK are freezing their graduate recruitment schemes and there are 48 graduates applying for every available job.

So how difficult is it for this year's college leavers? What impact will the lack of new graduates joining the Welsh workforce have on businesses in the long term? And how can companies ensure they still get the best graduates?

Wales@Work discusses the tough times ahead for the class of 09.