The downturn in the economy is beginning to damage the job prospects of university graduates, according to a new report.
The proportion of graduates getting jobs within six months of earning their degrees dropped by nearly 6 per cent between April 2001 and April 2002.
A report from the Higher Education Authority is the first sign that graduates are being affected by the economic downturn after years in which most were confident of securing employment.
Graduates are still doing better than any others in the job market, according to the report, First Destination of Award Recipients in Higher Education (2001).
The number seeking employment in April 2002 was 3.4 per cent, up from 2.1 per cent in the previous year. However, the finding compares favourably with the unemployment rate for the State as a whole, which stood at 4.3 per cent in March 2003.
The figure for graduates still seeking employment in 1991 was 8 per cent.
Education is the career with the best job prospects, according to the report: 94 per cent of the 1,000 students graduating with primary degrees in education got jobs in 2002, up 29 per cent on 2000. Amid the economic downturn, more graduates are opting to stay in college and obtain postgraduate qualifications in order to improve their prospects.
In 2002, 40.7 per cent of graduates were pursuing further education, the highest proportion since 1993.
The trend in increasing participation in higher courses among HETAC/DIT certificate and diploma award recipients is continuing, with a significant 8.2 per cent increase in the number choosing further studies.
This ambition for higher qualifications reflects a realism amongst students regarding the harsher employment environment.
While the figures relate to the employment scene of 12 months ago, they are the first significant measure of the worsening graduate job market.
A record 40,582 students who received higher education awards in 2001 were surveyed for the latest in the HEA series of reports. The number is more than 3,000 up on the figure recorded in 2000. The recipients followed courses ranging from one-year certificates to postgraduate degrees, and the response rate for the survey was 69 per cent.
Of those respondents in employment, 89.5 per cent had attained jobs in the State.