Graduates Told: 'Must Try Harder' - graduate jobs

"Must try harder" is the message for accountancy graduates looking for work in the New Year as the recession bites amid an expected wave of redundancies.

It is believed that as many as 300,000 extra job seekers will join the number already factored in, meaning that competition among accountancy graduates may be stiffer than in previous years.

But finding a job may not be that much more difficult than normal, as graduates will be applying for positions with different specifications to those sought by people with experience.

Research shows that the number of graduate jobs is only likely to decline by 1% in the next year, meaning that for many, finding a job will not become too difficult.

John Philpott, the chief economist at the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development, said: "Overall, the 18-month period from the start of the recession in mid-2008 until the end of 2009 will witness the loss of around three quarters of a million jobs, equivalent to the total net rise in employment in the preceding three years."