They are becoming increasingly scarce, but today is one of those rare days where unemployed university leavers wake up to good news regarding the graduate jobs market.
A survey by the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) has recently shown that a healthy 60% of engineering and building management graduates were in work six months after graduation in 2010/2011.
The employment rate for electrical and electronic engineering, mechanical engineering, architecture and building and civil engineering graduates was higher than average for all graduates from first degree disciplines.
The unemployment rate dropped almost 2% (from 11.4% to 9.5%) for civil engineering graduates, according to the Higher Education Careers Service Unit’s (HECSU) ‘What do graduates do?’ survey.
Adding to the good news is the fact that over half of all civil and mechanical engineering graduates were employed in a field related to their degree subject.
Some 65.8% of mechanical engineering graduates and 57.1% of civil engineering graduates were working as engineering professionals six months after graduating.
The majority of electronic and electrical engineering graduates were employed as professional engineers (36.2%) or IT professionals (19.1%).
Overall, the survey shows that the job hunting efforts of graduates in these disciplines are likely to pay off – and that there is work available in their chosen fields.
And those having trouble finding
graduate electronic engineering jobs should be reassured that their degrees are “well regarded by employers” and that they are employable “across virtually all sectors”.
The encouraging outcome of this survey follows the news that the number of UK graduate jobs are finally beginning to pick up.
Are you an engineering graduate? Are you looking for a job that relates to your chosen field?