[REACTION] Graduate vacancies plunge 40%

Reacting to new research by Adzuna showing graduate vacancies have fallen by more than 40 percent year-on-year despite overall job vacancies rising for a fourth consecutive month, I thought you might be interested in a comment from Alex Fenton, Group CEO of recruitment firm The Legends Agency.

Alex works with UK employers every day and says the sharp fall in graduate hiring reflects the growing cost pressures facing businesses, with entry-level recruitment often the first thing to be cut.

His full comment is below:

"Don't be fooled by the headline vacancy numbers. A recovery that shuts graduates out isn't much of a recovery at all.

"The businesses we speak to want to hire young people, but the maths simply isn't working. Rising employment costs mean many are freezing entry-level recruitment or looking overseas instead.

"Unless the Government tackles the cost of hiring, we're in danger of creating a generation locked out of the workforce before they've even had a chance to get started."

Happy to arrange an interview with Alex if you'd like to discuss what he's seeing across the labour market in more detail.

Best, Annagreta

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[Title: A person smiling at the camera AI-generated content may be incorrect.]Alex Fenton, Group CEO at The Legends Agency Alex Fenton is a serial entrepreneur and fintech leader with a track record of founding, scaling, and exiting multiple successful businesses. At 25, he founded GapCap, a fintech lender that provided over $500 million in funding to UK SMEs and was named Alternative Lender of the Year in 2019. GapCap was acquired by Growth Lending, where Alex served as Chief Executive, and he later led the roll-up and successful exit of ThinkWorkForce. Alex currently serves as Group CEO of The Legends Agency, which helps global firms build teams in South Africa, and oversees Funding Bay and FBX Capital, an SME lending group providing debt financing solutions across the UK. He has facilitated over £1 billion in funding to UK businesses and continues to drive innovation in SME finance through technology-enabled brokerage and boutique debt advisory services.

Annagreta Isabella Amadio | Senior Account Executive | Higginson Strategy Runway East | 2 Whitechapel Rd | London | E1 1EW Tel: 07895013602 Website | LinkedIn | Instagram |Podcast