The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers 2024-2025

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)

GOOGLE

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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