UK Graduate Scheme Statistics 2026

The UK graduate recruitment market is navigating a period of consolidation. According to the High Fliers Graduate Market in 2026, forecasts predict 26,043 graduate vacancies for autumn 2025 start dates, representing a modest 1.1% decline from the previous cycle. This follows a more significant contraction in 2024/25, when graduate hiring fell 8%—the weakest performance since 2021, according to the ISE Student Recruitment Survey 2025.

This slowdown reflects broader economic uncertainty, though it masks significant variation across sectors. While some industries, particularly professional services and engineering, continue to recruit at scale, others have tightened intake considerably. Despite the overall decline, average graduate starting salaries have strengthened to £35,000, up £1,000 from the previous year, suggesting that employers remain committed to attracting top talent despite reduced recruitment volumes.

Employer responses to market conditions have been mixed. According to ISE data, 42% of employers reduced graduate hiring, while 25% maintained previous levels and 33% increased recruitment. This polarisation indicates that larger employers with sustained investment continue to recruit robustly, while smaller and mid-market firms have been more cautious.

Graduate students have adopted a portfolio approach to graduate recruitment, with typical applicants submitting an average of 29 applications across different graduate schemes. This high volume reflects both the competitiveness of the market and the broad career interests of recent graduates. Combined with the 140 applications per vacancy average, this dynamic creates significant administrative burden on both employer and candidate sides.

The most competitive institutions—Birmingham, Manchester, Nottingham, Warwick, and Bristol—consistently attract disproportionate attention from large employers. These universities' prominence reflects both their reputation and their graduate outcomes, creating a self-reinforcing cycle where success attracts further employer recruitment effort. However, employers continue to diversify their recruitment bases, with 77% still requiring minimum academic requirements, indicating that meritocratic standards remain central to selection processes across the market.