Hat Tip: 'Generation Crunch' Faces Jobs Crisis

Under 25-year-olds have been re-named "Generation Crunch" by the Guardian, where a report highlights the bleak prospects facing graduates as the credit crisis takes its toll on recruitment. A generation used to generous job offers and £10,000-'golden hellos' are having to adjust to a tough new reality, "floored by the sucker punch of recession". Students are beginning to question the value of their degree -- out of 640 surveyed by the Higher Education Careers Services Unit, 62 per cent were not sure their degree would be much help in landing them a job.

Jobs in finance and retail are drying up, says the report, and management consultancy KPMG claims its 600 graduate entry positions are nearly all taken. Worried students who'd hoped for a posting at one of the big banks or a consultancy are besieging university careers advisors, while top recruiters are limiting their searches to a handful of top tier universities.

With limited jobs on offer, graduates will find themselves competing with less skilled job candidates -- and it's not a given that the more academically qualified candidate will win out, especially with more money going into vocational training and apprenticeships.

This may sound familiar to anyone who graduated in the teeth of the early 1990s recession, when your glowing BA and work experience counted for little unless you could type 60wpm or handle a switchboard. Teaching English as a Foreign Language was the favoured route out of a stagnant job market, while 12-month internships at top ad agencies weren't uncommon.

The advice of Carl Gilleard at the Association of Graduate Recruiters sounds sane, if unappealing to students who've swotted in the hope of a high-powered job that will make a dent in their student loan: accept a less exalted position, even if it means working behind a bar or stacking shelves. "It's better to consider a temporary job than to sit at home and feel sorry for yourself."

(Photo: Unusualimage, CC2.0