Produced by High Fliers Research
GRADUATE EMPLOYERS TOP 100
The definitive guide to the leading employers recruiting graduates during 2024-2025.
HIGH FLIERS PUBLICATIONS LTD IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE TIMES
Published by High Fliers Publications Limited The Gridiron Building, 1 Pancras Square, London, N1C 4AG Telephone: 020 7428 9100 Web: www.Top100GraduateEmployers.com
Editor Martin Birchall Publisher Gill Thomas Production Manager Darcy Mackay Marketing & Social Media Ellie Goodman Portrait Photography Phil Ripley cityspacecreative.co.uk
Copyright © 2024 High Fliers Publications Limited
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under the copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher of this book. The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers is based on research results from The UK Graduate Careers Survey 2024 , produced by High Fliers Research Ltd. The greatest care has been taken in compiling this book. However, no responsibility can be accepted by the publishers or compilers for the accuracy of the information presented. Where opinion is expressed it is that of the author or advertiser and does not necessarily coincide with the editorial views of High Fliers Publications Limited or The Times newspaper.
Printed and bound in Italy by L.E.G.O. S.p.A.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 978-1-9160401-5-1
Contents
Page
Foreword
4
Researching The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers
10
Understanding the Graduate Job Market
24
Successful Graduate Job Hunting
34
Employer Entries
Page
Page
Page
A&O Shearman
56 Deutsche Bank
104 106 108 110 112 114 116 118 120 122 124 126 128 130 132 134 136 138 140 142 144 146 148 150
Microsoft
152 154 156 158 160 162 164 166 168 170 172 174 176 178 180 182 184 186 188 190 192 194 196
AECOM
58 Diageo
Mott MacDonald
Airbus
60 DLA Piper
NatWest Group
Aldi
62 Dyson
Nestlé
Amazon
64 Enterprise Mobility
Newton
AON Arup
66 EY
NHS P&G
68 Forvis Mazars 70 Freshfields
AstraZeneca AtkinsRéalis BAE Systems
Penguin
72 Google
Pfizer
74 Grant Thornton
Police Now
Bank of America
76 GSK
PwC
Barclays
78 Hogan Lovells
Rolls-Royce
BBC BCG BDO
80 HSBC 82 IBM
Royal Air Force
Royal Navy
84 UK Intelligence Services
Santander
BlackRock Bloomberg
86 ITV
Savills
88 J.P. Morgan
Shell
BP
90 KPMG 92 L’Oréal
Slaughter and May
British Airways
Teach First
Capgemini Civil Service
94 Latham & Watkins
Tesco
96 Lidl
Transport For London
Clifford Chance
98 Linklaters
White & Case
Clyde & Co
100 Lloyds Banking Group
WSP
Deloitte
102 M&S
TOP 100 GRADUATE EMPLOYERS 3
Foreword By Martin Birchall Editor, The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers
W elcome to the twenty-sixth edition of The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers , your annual guide to the UK’s most prestigious and sought-after graduate employers. When Sir Kier Starmer swept into power in this summer’s General Election, he become the UK’s fifth Prime Minister in five years. As well as promising a new period of stability in British
Half began researching their career options in their first year, almost as soon as they arrived at university – and two-fifths completed an internship or work placement with a graduate employer at the end of their second year. By their final year, a record number of students took part in university careers fairs, employers’ on-campus recruitment presentations,
skills workshops, and other careers promotions during their search for a graduate job.
politics, he and his new Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, pledged that boosting the country’s economic growth would be at the heart of the Government’s priorities.
And when it came to applying for jobs, those graduating in the summer of 2024 applied earlier than usual to employers they were interested in, and completed an unprecedented number of applications – averaging sixteen applications per graduate, a quarter more than the previous year. Despite all of this preparation
“ Few of the country’s top employers recruit graduates based on their academic record – or the content of their university degree. ”
This renewed focus on growth, if it is successful, should be good news for graduate employment and the wider job market in the medium-term. But it’s unlikely to make a significant difference to students who are due to graduate from university in 2025.
and engagement with employers, the number of graduates from the ‘Class of 2024’ who received a definite job offer before leaving university actually dropped by ten per cent, compared with 2023. This means the proportion of new graduates who achieved a job offer was the second-lowest of the past decade – only the 2021 pandemic year led to a lower rate of graduate job offers. This is a timely reminder of just how much competition there is currently for graduate-level opportunities. Employers featured in The Times
Having bounced-back convincingly from the Coronavirus pandemic, growth in the graduate job market stalled in 2023 and there are few signs that it is likely to improve in the year ahead. Since its first edition in 1999, The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers has tracked university students’ success in the graduate job market. Our latest research with new graduates from the ‘Class of 2024’ reveals that they worked harder than any of the previous cohorts of university-leavers to secure their first graduate job.
TOP 100 GRADUATE EMPLOYERS 5
Foreword
The editorial features in this edition of The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers explain how your university careers service can help you prepare for employers’ selection processes and achieve a successful outcome. There are tips, advice and personal guidance from several of the country’s most experienced and well-respected graduate recruiters, plus a full analysis of the current graduate job market, with details of the latest graduate starting salaries available. In the quarter of a century since it was first published, more than 1.5 million copies of The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers have now been produced, helping students and graduates at universities across the UK to research their career options and find their first graduate job. Over 750,000 job hunters have registered to use The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers website – and during the past four years, more than 200,000 students and graduates have read the popular new digital edition of the Top 100 that was introduced to accompany the print edition. Some two and a half decades after its launch, The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers continues to provide an unrivalled, independent assessment of the UK’s most highly-rated graduate employers.
Top 100 Graduate Employers usually receive 40 or 50 applications per graduate vacancy – and some of the most sought-after graduate programmes can attract two or three times this number. The experience of the ‘Class of 2024’ shows that students who are most-likely to be successful in the post-university job market are those who start thinking about potential future careers early and spend their time at university developing the key skills and experience that graduate employers are looking for. Few, if any, of the country’s top employers recruit graduates based on their academic record – or the content of their university degree. Many have removed school and university results from their applications altogether and are instead relying on their own battery of aptitude and psychometric tests and recorded AI-assessed interviews to determine applicants’ abilities and suitability for their graduate roles. This shift away from academic achievement to demonstrating the broad range of skills – from teamwork and leadership, to problem solving, critical thinking and resilience – that employers demand for their graduate programmes can be a difficult one to navigate.
Finding out about the Top 100 Graduate Employers
BY EMAIL
PRINT EDITION
DIGITAL EDITION
You’ll find the digital edition of the Top 100 on the official Top 100 website, giving you access to the very latest information about the UK’s most sought-after graduate employers.. Get ready for your graduate job search with full details of employers’ forthcoming application deadlines. And register on the website to receive regular updates about the country’s top graduate employers.
Each employer featured in this edition of the Top 100 has their own Employer Entry , providing details of graduate vacancies for 2025, minimum academic requirements, starting salaries, for new graduates, plus this year’s application deadlines.
Once you’ve registered with the Top 100 website, you’ll receive weekly email bulletins with news of the employers you’re interested in, details of their latest graduate vacancies, and their application deadlines.
www.Top100GraduateEmployers.com
6 TOP 100 GRADUATE EMPLOYERS
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Researching The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers By Gill Thomas Publisher, High Fliers Publications
W hen the first edition of The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers was published in 1999, there were an estimated five thousand employers, large and small, recruiting graduates from UK universities. The number of employers recruiting graduates has risen steadily in the past two and a half decades, and for those due to leave university in
Final year undergraduates from the ‘Class of 2024’ who took part in the study were selected at random to represent the full cross-section of finalists at their universities, not just those who had already confirmed their career plans and secured graduate employment. The question used to produce the Top 100 rankings was “Which employer do you think offers
the best opportunities for graduates?”. The question was deliberately open- ended and students were not shown a list of employers to choose from or
2025 and beyond, there are expected to be more than 200,000 graduate-level vacancies available annually. For students researching their
prompted during the interview. The wide selection of answers given during the research shows that final year students used very different criteria to decide which employer offered the best opportunities for graduates. Some evaluated employers based on the quality of the
career options, finding the ‘right’ graduate employer can often be a daunting prospect. What basis can you use to evaluate such a large number of different organisations and the employment opportunities they offer for new graduates after university?
“ The accounting & professional services firm PwC has retained its place as the UK’s leading graduate employer. ”
recruitment promotions they’d seen whilst at university – either online or in-person – or their recent experiences during the application and graduate selection process. Other final year students focused on the ‘graduate employment proposition’ as their main guide – the quality of training and development an employer offers, the starting salary and remuneration package available, and the practical aspects of a first graduate job, such as its location or the likely working hours.
The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers is compiled annually by the independent market research company, High Fliers Research, through interviews with final year students at the country’s leading universities. This latest edition is based on research with 14,271 students who were due to graduate from universities across the UK in the summer of 2024. The research examined students’ experiences during their search for a first graduate job and asked them about their attitudes to employers.
TOP 100 GRADUATE EMPLOYERS 11
Researching The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers
The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers 2024
2023
2023
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76
1 2 3 4 7 6
22 80 47 69 74 45 64 60 97 57 58 86 62 73 75 83 42 55 68 99 50 51 61 82 89 78
PWC
UNLOCKED GRADUATES
CIVIL SERVICE
SHELL
NHS
BRITISH ARMY
DELOITTE
UBS
BBC
MI5 - THE SECURITY SERVICE HERBERT SMITH FREEHILLS
EY
11
J.P. MORGAN
WHITE & CASE BLOOMBERG
5
10
BARCLAYS
ENTERPRISE MOBILITY LOCAL GOVERNMENT
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45
9 8
ALDI
KPMG
CLYDE & CO
20 13 16 15 17 25 18 19 14 12 29 21 35 34 31 28 24 36 40 23 33 43 32 38 39 79 27 48 49 46 59 41 30 44
LLOYDS BANKING GROUP
LATHAM & WATKINS
HSBC
AECOM
GOLDMAN SACHS
M&S
TEACH FIRST
BANK OF AMERICA BRITISH AIRWAYS
CLIFFORD CHANCE
ASTRAZENECA
AIRBUS TESCO
MCKINSEY & COMPANY
L’ORÉAL
BDO WSP
GSK
AMAZON
DYSON
ARUP
DLA PIPER SANTANDER
UNILEVER
A&O SHEARMAN
AON CITI
ROLLS-ROYCE
P&G
SIEMENS
77 NEW
BAE SYSTEMS
IRWIN MITCHELL
78 79 80
71 54 81
NEWTON
MCDONALD’S
NATWEST GROUP
BAIN & COMPANY BANK OF ENGLAND ROYAL AIR FORCE HOGAN LOVELLS MOTT MACDONALD
BP
81 NEW
LINKLATERS
82 83
72 84
BCG
POLICE NOW
84 NEW
MORGAN STANLEY
TRANSPORT FOR LONDON
85 86 87
52 92 93
IBM
VODAFONE
PENGUIN
SECRET INTELLIGENCE SERVICE (MI6)
BLACKROCK
JACOBS
88 NEW
APPLE
BMW GROUP
89
67
ROYAL NAVY
BT GROUP
90 NEW 91 NEW
PFIZER
NESTLÉ
ATKINSRÉALIS
OLIVER WYMAN BAKER MCKENZIE FORVIS MAZARS
92 93 94 95 96 97 98
77 94 96 98 70 76 90
JLR SKY
MICROSOFT FRESHFIELDS
MARS
CAPGEMINI
46 NEW
ITV
DEUTSCHE BANK
47 48 49 50
53 26 37 56
ACCENTURE
SAVILLS
LIDL
GRANT THORNTON
99 NEW 100 NEW
SLAUGHTER AND MAY
ARM
JANE STREET
DIAGEO
Source High Fliers Research 14,271 final year students leaving UK universities in the summer of 2024 were asked the open-ended question “Which employer do you think offers the best opportunities for graduates?” during interviews for The UK Graduate Careers Survey 2024
12 TOP 100 GRADUATE EMPLOYERS
are each up more than twenty places in this year’s Top 100 . Vodafone has had the most significant fall of the year, dropping thirty-three places from 52nd place in 2023 to 85th place and the Unlocked prison officers programme, which was last year’s highest- climber, has dropped back twenty-nine places to 51st place. Other graduate employers ranked lower in 2024 include Deutsche Bank, consultants Bain & Company and Airbus, who have each fallen at least twenty-five places this year. For the first time ever, there are no new entries this year, but nine previously-ranked employers have re-entered the Top 100 , the highest being for television company ITV, which returns in 46th place. Law firm Irwin Mitchell reappears in 77th place and, following a three- year absence, the RAF is ranked again, in 81st place in 2024. There are a further six re-entries, for Transport for London, the BMW Group, consumer goods company Nestlé, consultants Oliver Wyman, computing company Arm, and the multinational drinks giant Diageo. With all three of the Armed Forces in the new Top 100 , it is interesting to see that for the first time in twenty-six years, the Royal Navy – which is now in 42nd place – has been ranked ahead of the British Army, which has dropped to its lowest-ever ranking of 53rd place. Among the graduate employers departing the Top 100 in 2024 are Frontline, the children’s social work graduate programme, which is unranked for the first time since its launch a decade ago. Other employers leaving the rankings this year include law firm CMS, Channel 4, technology consultants Kubrick, consumer goods manufacturers Johnson & Johnson, Mercedes, Cancer Research UK, engineering consultants Arcadis, and insurance company Aviva. Since the original edition of The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers was published a quarter of a century ago, just three organisations have made it to number one in the rankings. Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) held on to the top spot for the first four years, beginning in 1999, and its success heralded a huge surge in popularity for careers in consulting. At its peak in 2001, almost one in six graduates applied for jobs in the sector. In the year before the firm changed its name from Andersen Consulting to Accenture, it astutely introduced a new graduate package that included a £28,500 starting salary (a sky-high
Across the full survey sample, final year students named more than 1,500 different organisations, from well-known national and international organisations to small and medium-sized regional and local employers. The responses were analysed and the one hundred organisations that were named most often make up The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers for 2024. In one of the closest votes in the twenty-six year history of the annual rankings, the accounting & professional services firm PwC has retained its place as the UK’s leading graduate employer for the second year running, but by the narrowest of margins. This is the seventeenth time that the firm has been the country’s number one graduate employer and 6 per cent of final year students from the ‘Class of 2024’ voted for the firm. After four years as the number one graduate employer, the Civil Service – best-known for its prestigious Fast Stream programme – moved down into second place in 2023 and despite a substantial increase in its vote this year, it remains at number two in 2024 too. The NHS and the accounting & professional services firms Deloitte and EY are each unchanged in third, fourth and sixth places respectively. The BBC has moved into the top five, its best ranking for seventeen years, and J.P. Morgan is ranked in seventh place, the highest-ever position for an investment bank in Top 100 . Google has dropped back to eighth place, its lowest for a decade, but Barclays is up again, ahead of the retailer Aldi which is in tenth place this year. KPMG, the accounting & professional services firm, has slipped out of the top ten for the first time, but Lloyds Banking Group climbs to 12th place – the bank’s best ranking yet – up from 40th place just three years ago. Pharmaceuticals company AstraZeneca has returned to the top twenty, in its highest- ever position, overtaking rivals GSK which has dropped back to 20th place. And Amazon, which was one of the fastest-climbing employers ever in The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers , has fallen out of the top twenty this year. Within the new Top 100 , the year’s highest climbers are led by the investment managers BlackRock, which has leapt forty-two places to 37th place, up from 79th place in 2023. Enterprise Mobility, the car and van hire company, has had a similar rise, jumping thirty-eight places to 59th place. Engineering consultants WSP, oil & energy company Shell and law firm Latham & Watkins
TOP 100 GRADUATE EMPLOYERS 13
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Researching The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers
employer represented a real renaissance for the entire accounting & professional services sector. Twenty years ago, a career in accountancy was often regarded as a safe, traditional employment choice, whereas today’s profession is viewed in a very different light. The training required to become a chartered accountant is now seen as a prized business qualification, and the sector’s leading firms are regularly described as ‘dynamic’ and ‘international’ by undergraduates looking for their first job after university – and continue to dominate the annual graduate employer rankings. A total of 237 different organisations have now appeared within The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers since its inception, and thirty-six of these graduate employers hold the inspiring record of being ranked within the Top 100 in all twenty-six editions since 1999. The most consistent performers have been PwC, KPMG and the Civil Service, each of which have never been lower than 10th place in the league table. The NHS has also had a formidable record, appearing in every top ten since 2003, while the
figure for graduates in 2000) and a much-talked- about £10,000 bonus, helping to assure the firm’s popularity, irrespective of its corporate branding. In 2003, after two dismal years in graduate recruitment when vacancies for university-leavers dropped by more than a fifth following the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001, the Civil Service was named the UK’s leading graduate employer. Just twelve months later it was displaced by PricewaterhouseCoopers, the accounting and professional services firm formed from the merger of Price Waterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand in 1998. At the time, the firm was the largest private sector recruiter of graduates, with an intake in 2004 of more than a thousand trainees. Now known simply as PwC, the firm remained at number one for an impressive fifteen years, increasing its share of the student vote from 5 per cent in 2004 to more than 10 per cent in 2007, and fighting off the stiffest of competition from rivals Deloitte in 2008, when just seven votes separated the two employers. PwC’s reign as the UK’s leading graduate
Number Ones, Movers & Shakers in the Top 100
NUMBER ONES NUMBER ONES 1999 ANDERSEN CONSULTING 2000 ANDERSEN CONSULTING
2003 ROLLS-ROYCE (UP 37 PLACES) 2004 J.P. MORGAN (UP 29 PLACES) 2005 TEACH FIRST (UP 22 PLACES) 2006 GOOGLE (UP 32 PLACES) 2009 CADBURY (UP 48 PLACES) 2010 ASDA (UP 41 PLACES) 2011 CENTRICA (UP 41 PLACES) 2012 NESTLÉ (UP 44 PLACES) 2013 DFID (UP 40 PLACES) 2007 PFIZER (UP 30 PLACES) 2008 CO-OPERATIVE GROUP (UP 39 PLACES) 2014 TRANSPORT FOR LONDON (UP 36 PLACES) 2015 DIAGEO, NEWTON (UP 43 PLACES) 2016 BANK OF ENGLAND (UP 34 PLACES) 2017 CANCER RESEARCH UK (UP 38 PLACES) 2001 EUROPEAN COMMISSION (UP 36 PLACES) HIGHEST CLIMBING EMPLOYERS 2000 CAPITAL ONE (UP 32 PLACES) HIGHEST CLIMBING EMPLOYERS 1999 SCHLUMBERGER (UP 13 PLACES) 2002 WPP (UP 36 PLACES)
HIGHEST NEW ENTRIES 2000 MORGAN STANLEY (34th) HIGHEST NEW ENTRIES 1999 PFIZER (31st)
2003 CIVIL SERVICE 2002 ACCENTURE 2001 ACCENTURE
2001 MARCONI (36th)
2002 GUINNESS UDV (44th)
2003 ASDA (40th)
2004 PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS 2005 PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS 2006 PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS 2007 PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS 2008 PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS 2009 PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS 2010 PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS
2004 BAKER & MCKENZIE (61st)
2005 PENGUIN (70th) 2006 FUJITSU (81st)
2007 BDO STOY HAYWARD (74th)
2008 SKY (76th)
2009 BDO STOY HAYWARD (68th) 2010 SAATCHI & SAATCHI (49th)
2011 PWC 2012 PWC 2013 PWC 2014 PWC 2015 PWC 2016 PWC 2017 PWC 2018 PWC
2011 APPLE (53rd)
2012 EUROPEAN COMMISSION (56th)
2013 SIEMENS (70th) 2014 FRONTLINE (76th) 2015 DANONE (66th) 2016 SANTANDER (63rd)
2018 ASOS (52nd) 2017 DYSON (52nd)
2018 MCDONALD’S (UP 30 PLACES) 2019 POLICE NOW (UP 43 PLACES)
2020 CIVIL SERVICE 2019 CIVIL SERVICE 2021 CIVIL SERVICE 2022 CIVIL SERVICE
2020 CHANNEL FOUR (77th) 2019 UNLOCKED (49th)
2020 DLA PIPER/WHITE & CASE (UP 32 PLACES) 2021 CHARITYWORKS (UP 45 PLACES) 2022 JAGUAR LAND ROVER (UP 30 PLACES)
2021 BDO (49th)
2022 BMW GROUP (66th) 2023 DLA PIPER (51st)
2024 PWC 2023 PWC
2024 BLACKROCK (UP 42 PLACES) 2023 UNLOCKED (UP 45 PLACES)
2024 ITV (46th)
Source High Fliers Research
TOP 100 GRADUATE EMPLOYERS 15
Researching The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers
100 a decade later, and Ford, which was once rated as high as 14th, disappeared out of the list in 2006 after cancelling its graduate recruitment programme two years previously. Sainsbury’s appeared in the top twenty in both 2003 and 2004 but left the Top 100 eight years ago and hasn’t been ranked since. More recent high-ranking casualties include the John Lewis Partnership which – having been 9th in 2003 – tumbled out of the Top 100 in 2020 and Boots, the pharmacy and health retailer that initially appeared in 10th place in the first edition of The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers disappeared from the rankings in 2021. ExxonMobil, the oil & energy company that was a top twenty employer in the original Top 100 , has also been unranked since 2021. And Marks & Spencer which was in 7th place in the inaugural Top 100 in 1999, dropped out of the rankings altogether in 2022. More than thirty graduate employers – including
BBC and EY (formerly Ernst & Young) have both remained within the top twenty throughout the past twenty-five years. And consumer goods company Unilever and investment bank Goldman Sachs are two more employers that have appeared in the top quarter of the rankings each year. Retailer Tesco is the highest-climbing employer within the Top 100 , having risen eighty-eight places in its first thirteen years in the rankings, reaching 12th place in 2012. Google is another graduate employer that made very rapid progress during its early years in the Top 100 rankings, jumping over eighty places in a decade, to reach the top three for the first time in 2015. But car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover holds the record for the fastest- moving employer, after leaping more than seventy places in just five years, between 2009 and 2014. Other well-known graduate employers haven’t been so successful. British Airways ranked in 6th place in 1999 but dropped out of the Top
Winners & Losers in the Top 100
EMPLOYERS CLIMBING HIGHEST
NEW ENTRY RANKING
HIGHEST RANKING
TESCO
100th (1999) 85th (2005) 89th (2009) 94th (2013) 81st (2015) 87th (2009) 65th (2002) 96th (2007) 90th (2018) 63rd (2003) 87th (2009) 81st (1999) 94th (2004) 90th (2001) 76th (2014)
12th (2012) 3rd (2015) 13th (2017) 19th (2019) 10th (2022) 16th (2014) 33rd (2010) 28th (2021) 2nd (2014) 27th (2012) 23rd (2005) 37th (2009) 36th (2022) 26th (2018)
LIDL
NEWTON AMAZON
JAGUAR LAND ROVER
ALDI
2nd (2015-2016)
MI5 – THE SECURITY SERVICE
POLICE NOW TEACH FIRST
APPLE
DEUTSCHE BANK
ATKINS
SLAUGHTER AND MAY
FRONTLINE
EMPLOYERS FALLING FURTHEST
HIGHEST RANKING
LOWEST RANKING
BRITISH AIRWAYS MARKS & SPENCER
6th (1999) 7th (1999) 9th (2013) 10th (1999) 11th (1999) 17th (2002) 18th (2003) 19th (1999) 11th (2006) 22nd (2001) 26th (2018) 27th (2000) 34th (2008) 32nd (2005) 27th (2004)
Not ranked (2010, 2011, 2017, 2019-2022)
Not ranked (2021-2022) Not ranked (FROM 2020) Not ranked (FROM 2021) Not ranked (FROM 2006) Not ranked (FROM 2016) Not ranked (FROM 2021) Not ranked (2018)
JOHN LEWIS PARTNERSHIP
BOOTS FORD
UBS
SAINSBURY’S EXXONMOBIL
SHELL
90th (2021)
THOMSON REUTERS
Not ranked (2009-2012, FROM 2014)
FRONTLINE
Not ranked (2024)
BANK OF AMERICA
Not ranked (2019-2022, 2024) Not ranked (2015, FROM 2021) Not ranked (FROM 2017-2020) Not ranked (FROM 2018)
ASDA
RAF
Source High Fliers Research CANCER RESEARCH UK
16 TOP 100 GRADUATE EMPLOYERS
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Researching The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers
in 2nd place in both 2015 and 2016. Consulting firm Newton is another impressive climber, having jumped more than seventy places from 94th place in 2013 to being ranked in the top twenty for the first time in 2019. The Coronavirus pandemic had a very significant impact on the annual rankings, with a fifth of the employers that appeared in The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers in 2020 – the final rankings before the onset of the pandemic – no longer ranked two years later.
Nokia, Maersk, the Home Office, Cable & Wireless, United Biscuits, Nationwide, Samsung, Mercedes, the Met Office and TikTok – have the dubious record of having only been ranked in the Top 100 once during the last twenty-six years. And former engineering & telecommunications company Marconi had the unusual distinction of being one of the highest-ever new entries, in 36th place in 2001, only to vanish from the list entirely the following year. One of the most spectacular ascendancies in the Top 100 has been the rise of Aldi, which joined the list in 65th place in 2002, rose to 3rd place in 2009 – helped in part by its memorable remuneration package for new recruits (currently £50,000 plus a fully-expensed VW electric car) – and was ranked
Teach First, the first of five inspirational schemes that are transforming society by bringing top graduates into public service, appeared as a new entry in 63rd place in 2003, before climbing the rankings every year for a decade and reaching Employers Ranked from 1999-2024 in the Top 100
MOST CONSISTENT EMPLOYERS
HIGHEST RANKING
LOWEST RANKING
PWC
1st (2004-2018, 2023-2024) 1st (2003, 2019-2022) 3rd (2006-2008, 2011-2012) 5th (2005-2007, 2024)
3rd (1999-2001, 2003, 2022)
CIVIL SERVICE
8th (2011) 11th (2024) 14th (1999) 20th (2001) 25th (1999) 29th (1999) 35th (2006) 42th (2021) 30th (2001) 49th (2015) 23rd (2008) 48th (2008) 46th (2022) 57th (2005) 39th (2022) 58th (1999) 45th (2003) 60th (2001) 59th (2000) 56th (2001) 53rd (2024) 53rd (2023)
KPMG
BBC GSK
10th (2017-2018) 6th (2021-2023)
22nd (2002-2003)
EY (FORMERLY ERNST & YOUNG)
GOLDMAN SACHS
5th (2001) 6th (2003) 9th (2024) 2nd (2022) 2nd (2013) 23rd (1999) 7th (2002)
HSBC
BARCLAYS
NHS
27th (1999, 2002)
UNILEVER
BAE SYSTEMS
DELOITTE
BP
14th (2003-2004)
CLIFFORD CHANCE McKINSEY & COMPANY
16th (2024)
45th (2007, 2012)
18th (2022-2023)
IBM
13th (2000)
ALLEN & OVERY
24th (2010, 2024) 4th (1999-2001) 21st (2004-2005) 7th (2024) 22nd (2024) 19th (2021) 12th (2024) 4th (2003) 15th (2019) 35th (2010) 30th (2008) 29th (2003) 23rd (2005) 14th (2000) 11th (2006) 9th (2000) 12th (2012) 1st (1999-2002) 19th (2022-2023)
PROCTER & GAMBLE
MICROSOFT J.P. MORGAN
ARUP
LINKLATERS
LLOYDS BANKING GROUP
ROLLS-ROYCE ROYAL NAVY BRITISH ARMY ACCENTURE
68th (2002) 88th (2013) 89th (2023) 85th (2018) 96th (2018) 89th (2024) 90th (2021) 96th (2023) 100th (1999) 98th (2016-2017)
CITI
L’ORÉAL
McDONALD’S
DEUTSCHE BANK
BT
SHELL MARS
Source High Fliers Research TESCO
18 TOP 100 GRADUATE EMPLOYERS
Researching The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers
just four years after it first joined the Top 100 as a new entry in 2019. Together, the twenty-six annual editions of The Times Top 100 Graduates Employers have produced a definitive record of the graduate employers that generations of students and recent graduates have aspired to join after leaving university – and these latest results provide a unique insight into how the ‘Class of 2024’ rated the country’s leading graduate employers.
2nd place in the Top 100 in 2014. Frontline, the children’s social work graduate programme, was a new entry in 76th place that year, before progressing fifty places to 26th place by 2018. Over the past six years, another of these programmes, Police Now, jumped more than sixty places from 90th in 2018 to 28th place in the Top 100 in 2021. And most-recently, Unlocked – the ground- breaking programme recruiting graduates to work as prison officers – reached 22nd place in 2023,
The UK’s Number 1 Graduate Employer 2024
W e are incredibly proud and delighted to be number one in The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers for the second year running – and the seventeenth time overall. We work hard to make sure the opportunities that we offer to students and graduates are compelling and that the firm is a great place to begin your career and develop in the future. Each year, we spend a great deal of time on campus introducing PwC to students in all years, from all backgrounds and studying all degree disciplines – and giving potential applicants a real feel for the culture of our firm and its people. We know that making the right career choice is a big decision. If you’re looking for a taster experience, a work placement, or are thinking of applying for a graduate position with us, we want you to have the chance to meet us in- person, so you can make an informed decision about your options. We collaborate with university careers services and student societies to run an extensive programme of events, skills sessions and experiences at universities around the country. Our aim is to help you understand the breadth of opportunities you get working for a firm like ours – look out for our distinctive ‘eco- booth’ at your university during the year ahead. Making the transition from education into the workplace can be really challenging. PwC recruits up to 1,500 graduates each year in the UK and whichever part of the firm you join after university, we want you to have the best possible start to your career. You’ll be
“
Cathy Baxter, Head of Early Careers, PwC
supported by world-class professional training, careers coaches, and a large peer-group of like- minded graduates. From preparing to become a chartered accountant or tax adviser, to developing as a business consultant or technology specialist, we provide unrivalled opportunities for new graduates to hone their technical and professional skills. And for those with an eye on the future, our graduate programmes can be the foundation for fulfilling careers at the firm. But they also provide qualifications and training & development that is recognised and respected across the wider employment market. So whether you opt to stay with the firm long- term or move into roles elsewhere, your early experiences as a graduate with PwC will help shape your career.
”
20 TOP 100 GRADUATE EMPLOYERS
Work with talented people in supportive teams.
Training contracts 50+
Global offices 60+
Global employees 5.5k+
50+ As a trainee here, you’ll have the opportunity to work with our household name clients, spend time in an overseas office or take up secondments in areas of specific interest. If you have ambition, we’ll help you harness it and use it to create a career without boundaries.
Go further. Search Early Careers at Clyde & Co.
LEAD THE FUTURE Graduate Leadership and Management Development Programme Nationwide Opportunities
Whichever scheme you join you’ll help drive forward government operational services, and policies that make meaningful change for millions of people. From clean energy, cybersecurity and defence, to health, housing, international relations and more, you could help tackle some of our biggest challenges. We’re here to develop future leaders and managers, building a Civil Service that represents every community and keeps ahead in our fast-changing world. We want science and engineering to be at the heart of government decision-making. So – while we welcome graduates from all backgrounds – if you have a STEM degree, we’re keen to hear from you. faststream.gov.uk
Go further, sooner. Own your development on our unique, career-accelerating programme. And put what you learn into practice, on work that impacts our nation. Join the Fast Stream and grow the skills, knowledge and networks you’ll need to advance your career progression to a senior role in the Civil Service. We offer 17 different professional schemes. Each one offers high-quality practical training, on-the-job learning, a breadth of experience across a range of postings, and a career path in a government profession.
Understanding the Graduate Job Market By Martin Birchall Managing Director, High Fliers Research
O ver the past quarter of a century since the first edition of The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers was published in 1999, graduate recruitment at the UK’s leading employers has increased very substantially. The number of graduate vacancies on offer to university-leavers has increased in seventeen of the past twenty-five years and reached a new record
intake of more than 40,000 new graduates during this period. A record fifty-nine of the employers featured in The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers reduced their graduate hiring in 2009 alone. Although the graduate job market bounced back successfully in 2010, with an annual increase in vacancies of more than 12 per cent, it took a further five years for graduate recruitment to return to the pre-recession peak recorded in 2007. The uncertainty that followed
level in 2022, with almost twice as many opportunities available, compared to graduate recruitment at the beginning of the new the millenium.
Britain’s vote to leave the European Union in 2016 saw graduate vacancies
dip again in 2017. But growth returned a year later and by 2019 entry-level recruitment was up by 43 per cent compared to the number of vacancies available in 2009 – the low point in graduate recruitment during the economic crisis – and had been expected to rise even higher in 2020.
But this sustained period of growth in graduate jobs has been punctuated by four significant downturns in recruitment.
“ Accounting & professional services firms will be the largest recruiter of new graduates in 2025, with over 6,500 roles on offer. ”
In the two years following the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US, the worsening economic outlook prompted employers in the UK to reduce their entry-level vacancies for new graduates by more than 15 per cent. Graduate recruitment recovered in 2004 and vacancies for university-leavers grew at between 10 and 12 per cent annually over the next three years, before the global financial crisis of 2008 and 2009 heralded the worst recession in the UK since the Second World War. Graduate vacancies at the country’s top employers plunged by an unprecedented 23 per cent in less than 18 months – and almost 10,000 jobs were cut or left unfilled from a planned
But the start of the Coronavirus pandemic in March 2020 forced the UK’s top employers to pause or re-evaluate their graduate recruitment and many were unable to continue with that year’s planned annual intake of university-leavers. Graduate recruitment was cut in thirteen out of fifteen industries and business sectors, most noticeably at major engineering & industrial companies and accounting & professional services firms, where over 700 planned vacancies were left unfilled. The final number of graduates recruited
TOP 100 GRADUATE EMPLOYERS 25
Understanding the Graduate Job Market
outlook and graduate recruitment is likely to be largely unchanged for the second consecutive year. A fifth of employers are planning to hire more graduates in 2025, two fifths expect to match their previous intake, but over a third of organisations are likely to recruit fewer university-leavers over the coming year. In 2023, accounting & professional services firms featured in the Top 100 recruited an unprecedented number of university-leavers – a total of more than 7,000 trainees. And although recruitment in the past year has been lower, the sector will again be the largest recruiter of new graduates in 2025, with over 6,500 roles on offer. Graduate vacancies in the public sector are expected to increase for the fourth consecutive year, with more than 4,200 entry level opportunities available. And after a sharp rise in recruitment at engineering & industrial companies in 2024, these employers are set to cut their graduate intake in 2025 by a fifth. After a small rise in vacancies in 2024, there are expected to be fewer graduate roles at the City’s investment banks and fund managers in 2025 and employers elsewhere in the banking and finance sector also expect to cut their recruitment.
by employers featured in The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers in 2020 was 12 per cent lower than in 2019. Recruitment began to bounce back in 2021 with a substantial 9.4 per cent rise in entry-level vacancies – the ‘V-shaped’ pandemic recovery in the graduate job market largely mirroring the recovery in the wider economy. This strong growth gathered pace the following year when graduate vacancies increased in all fifteen industries and business sectors represented in The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers . In all, the number of graduate jobs available jumped by 14.5 per cent in 2022, the largest-ever year- on-year rise in graduate recruitment at the UK’s leading employers. Over the past twelve months, recruitment has been stable, with a modest 1.5 per cent increase in graduate vacancies, and at the start of the new 2024-2025 recruitment season, employers in The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers are predicting that they will have a total of 26,043 graduate vacancies for autumn 2025 start dates. This is a slight reduction in the number graduates recruited in 2024 – an annual decrease of 1.1 per cent – and suggests that employers have a cautious
How Graduate Vacancies have Changed 2000-2025
p 14.5%
p 1.5%
p 6.2%
p 4.3%
q 1.1%
p 1.6%
q 6.3%
p 10.1%
p 7.9%
p 9.4%
p 10.8%
p 2.5%
p 3.3%
q 4.9%
p 12.6%
p 14.6%
p 10.9%
q 12.3%
q 6.7%
p 2.8%
q 0.8%
p 0.5%
q 6.5%
q 17.8%
q 8.3%
p 15.0%
2000
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
2025 2023 2024
Source High Fliers Research
TOP 100 GRADUATE EMPLOYERS 27
Understanding the Graduate Job Market
Other very substantial individual graduate recruiters in 2024 include the car & van rental company Enterprise Mobility (1,300 graduate vacancies), the Civil Service Fast Stream (1,000 vacancies) and accounting & professional services firms EY and KPMG (1,000 vacancies each). Over half of Top 100 employers have vacancies for graduates in technology and finance, two fifths have opportunities in engineering, and a third are recruiting for human resources roles, consulting positions, or general management vacancies. At least a fifth of the country’s top graduate employers are looking for new recruits to work in sales or marketing and research & development,
In the next 12 months, graduate recruitment is predicted to rise or match 2024 hiring levels in just six out of fifteen key industries and business sectors, with graduate vacancies expected to decrease in the remaining nine sectors. The three employers from The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers with the biggest graduate recruitment targets for 2025 are Teach First, the popular programme that recruits graduates to teach in schools in low-income communities around the UK, which has 1,750 places available – and accounting & professional services firms PwC and Deloitte, which are each aiming to recruit 1,500 new trainees in the year ahead.
Graduate Vacancies & Starting Salaries in 2025
GRADUATE VACANCIES
4%
More than 1,000 vacancies
8%
501-1,000 vacancies
17%
251-500 vacancies
21%
101-250 vacancies
21%
51-100 vacancies
27%
1-50 vacancies
2%
No vacancies
STARTING SALARIES
18%
More than £50,000
6%
£45,001-£50,000
8%
£40,001-£45,000
11%
£35,001-£40,000
35%
£30,001-£35,000
20%
£25,001-£30,000
2%
£25,000 or less
30
20
40
50
0
10
Percentage of Top 100 employers
Source High Fliers Research
28 TOP 100 GRADUATE EMPLOYERS
Understanding the Graduate Job Market
with record annual increases at several of the top City and international law firms. One in six employers featured in The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers now offering starting salaries in excess of £50,000 for their new recruits. The most tempting salaries publicised within this edition are at the law firms A&O Shearman, Freshfields, Herbert Smith Freehills, Hogan Lovells, Linklaters, Slaughter and May, and White & Case – each of which is offering new trainees a starting salary of £56,000 in 2025. Away from the legal sector, retailer Aldi continues to pay a sector-leading graduate salary of £50,000 for its Area Management trainee programme, and consulting firm Newton offers a starting salary of £45,000. One in three of the UK’s leading employers recruit graduates year-round, or in different phases during the year, and will accept applications throughout the 2024-2025 recruitment season until all their vacancies are filled. For employers with an annual application deadline, most are in November or December, although a limited number have October or post-Christmas deadlines for their graduate programmes.
but there are fewer graduate jobs available in retailing or in more specialist areas, such as purchasing, logistics & supply chain, property and the media. More than four-fifths of Top 100 employers have graduate vacancies in London in 2025, and three-fifths have posts available elsewhere in the south east of England. Up to half also have roles in the north west of England, the south west, the Midlands, Yorkshire and the north east. Over half are recruiting for graduate roles in Scotland, but Northern Ireland, Wales and East Anglia have the fewest employers with vacancies this year. Graduate starting salaries at The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers changed little between 2012 and 2021, increasing by just £1,000 in this nine-year period to a median of £30,000. But this went up to £32,000 in 2022, the first annual boost in starting salaries for seven years. And it has continued rising since – to £33,500 in 2023 and £34,000 in 2024. These rates are expected to increase further in 2025, with the most generous starting salaries available at the leading investment banks & fund managers (a median of £60,000), law firms (£56,000) and consulting firms (£50,000). It is noticeable that employers in each of these popular destinations for new graduates have opted to step-up their starting salaries in the past year,
This means that there is every incentive to apply early for the wide variety of graduate vacancies that are available in 2025 at The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers . Graduate Vacancies at Top 100 Employers in 2025
2024
GRADUATE VACANCIES IN 2025
% CHANGE IN 2025
% CHANGE IN 2024
MEDIAN STARTING SALARY IN 2025
p 13.5% p 4.2% q 21.0% q 1.9% q 4.8% q 7.5% NO CHANGE p 21.4% q 7.6% q 3.5% q 9.8% q 20.7% q 1.6% p 9.2% p 16.1%
q 8.2% p 9.4% p 20.8% q 10.6% p 4.1% p 3.9% p 3.0% q 22.2% p 7.8% p 9.1% p 7.3% q 24.2% p 18.1% q 3.1% q 14.5%
1. 1 ACCOUNTANCY & PROFESSIONAL SERVICES FIRMS 6,695
£37,500 £30,300 £30,900 £33,500 £60,000 £35,000 £31,000 £28,800 £56,000 £34,000 £35,000 £50,000 £42,000 £32,500 £27,500
2. 2 PUBLIC SECTOR EMPLOYERS
4,293 3,325 2,050 1,850 1,775 1,350
3. 3 ENGINEERING & INDUSTRIAL COMPANIES
4. 4 TECHNOLOGY COMPANIES
5. 6 INVESTMENT BANKS & FUND MANAGERS 6. 5 BANKING & FINANCIAL SERVICES
7. 8 ARMED FORCES
8. 9 MEDIA ORGANISATIONS
975 857 415 275 260 250 143 130
9. 7 LAW FIRMS 10. 10 RETAILERS
11. 13 CONSUMER GOODS MANUFACTURERS
12. 11 CONSULTING FIRMS
13. 12 OIL & ENERGY COMPANIES
14. 14 CHEMICAL & PHARMACEUTICALS COMPANIES
15. -
PROPERTY COMPANIES
Source High Fliers Research
30 TOP 100 GRADUATE EMPLOYERS
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