There are nearly 200 applicants per finance graduate opportunity in the UK

efinancialcareers.com:

Finance has always been tough to get into. It’s maybe never been tougher.

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There were 188 applicants to every open graduate role in finance & professional services in the UK in the 2024 recruitment window, according to data from the Institute of Student Employers (ISE). That’s up by 69% on the 111 applications on average that were received in the 2023 recruitment window.

Although that might seem like a lot, it’s not a remarkable number. The number of average applications received per graduate opportunity across all industries was up by 63%, going from 86 per opening in 2023 to 140 in 2024.

The figures from ISE suggest that financial & professional services firms had increased the number of internships on offer by an average of 22%, and the number of graduate roles by 9%. That’s ahead of the country average, where internships were down 3% and graduates up 4%. Finance is growing faster than the rest of the economy, apparently.

Remarkably, this didn’t make finance the most in-demand industry to apply to in the UK. In 2024, “Digital & IT” received 205 applications to each open role. In 2023, It was “Retail, FMCG, and Tourism” that was most popular, receiving 129 applications to each open role.

The increase in finance recruitment, which was rather significantly down in 2023 after a rather jubilant 2022, is not unique to the UK. Goldman Sachs’ Q3 results earlier this week show that the firm’s headcount increased by 2,100 in the quarter, on par with the increase in 2022.

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