Construction National

Graduate construction jobs to rise by 30% at biggest employers

The number of graduate jobs in construction looks set to increase by nearly 30% this year, according to the latest survey by the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR), their Winter 2011 review. This increase of 29.4% reverses the findings of the AGR’s two previous reviews, where the number of vacancies were predicted to decline. The rise has been put down to international expansion and expected growth in areas such as nuclear power. To counterbalance this, however, construction companies and consultancies are said to be cutting their graduate salaries by 1.1%.

These figures should only be taken as an indication of what’s happening at the largest employers; the AGR only surveys its members and only some of the largest construction employers are members of the AGR. Members include AECOM, Arup, BAM Construct UK, BAM Nuttall, Costain, EC Harris, Mace and Mott MacDonald, but it’s worth bearing in mind that only 3.7% of all AGR respondents classified themselves as construction companies or consultancies. What’s happening with these employers is clearly not representative of all employers within the construction industry.

But the findings do bear out the picture that the largest construction firms – those with the broadest portfolios of work – are the ones doing best in these troubled economic times. Last November we reported that employees working for the larger employers tended to earn the highest salaries and most plentiful benefits package.