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Female graduates earn £6,500 less than male equivalents, government report warns

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

4-University-graduates-PA.jpg

Top female employees earn an average of £6,500 a year less than their male counterparts five years after leaving university, latest government figures have revealed.

Women’s salaries are marked at £31,000 on average across a range of graduate professions – 18 per cent lower than men, who earn an average of £37,500.

The findings, from the Department for Education’s Longitudinal Education Outcomes report have prompted fresh concerns over a widening gender pay gap.

Analysing data from 236,630 men and women who graduated in the 2008-09 academic year, the statistics are the first of their kind to track university leavers and their wages according to gender.

While men and women were found to be earning the same or similar pay during the first year after graduatation, the gap increased with each year of employment and was particularly noticeable in the upper wage range industries.

By year three, high earning women were found to be earning almost 15 per cent less – £26,500 compared to £31,000 for men.

Five years after graduating, the lowest earning men were found to have overtaken women completely – earning an average of £20,000 compared to £17,500.

The DfE report also noted that Black and Asian British-Pakistani graduates earned the lowest average salaries five years after graduation.

Commenting on the figures, Fawcett Society Chief Executive, Sam Smethers, called the gender pay gap a “huge waste of potential”.

She said: “We have the best educated female workforce that we have ever had but these figures show that we are just not getting them into the right roles at the right levels.

“The pay gap is a productivity gap. We need to end occupational segregation and open up senior roles to flexible & part-time work.”

Asking students to estimate their starting salary post-graduation, the National Student Money Survey reported that women expect to make over £3,300 a year less than their male equivalents, indicating they may be “primed” to expect lower earnings from a young age.

A Trade Union Congress (TUC) report earlier this year also found that women earn less than their male peers at every stage of their careers.

TUC head, Frances O’Grady, said the figures suggested the UK was almost half a century off achieving equal pay.

A Government spokesman said: “No woman should be held back just because of her gender. We now have the lowest gender pay gap on record, and we are working to get more women into the top jobs at our biggest companies.

“But we know there’s more to do – that’s why we are requiring employers to publish their gender pay and gender bonus gap for the first time from April and we are working to get more girls studying science, technology, engineering and maths subjects so that they get into more lucrative professions when they are older.”

[Source:- independent]

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Education

Female graduates earn £6,500 less than male equivalents, government report warns

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

4-University-graduates-PA.jpg

We need to end occupational segregation and open up senior roles to flexible & part-time work.”

Asking students to estimate their starting salary post-graduation, the National Student Money Survey reported that women expect to make over £3,300 a year less than their male equivalents, indicating they may be “primed” to expect lower earnings from a young age.

A Trade Union Congress (TUC) report earlier this year also found that women earn less than their male peers at every stage of their careers.

TUC head, Frances O’Grady, said the figures suggested the UK was almost half a century off achieving equal pay.

A Government spokesman said: “No woman should be held back just because of her gender. We now have the lowest gender pay gap on record, and we are working to get more women into the top jobs at our biggest companies.

“But we know there’s more to do – that’s why we are requiring employers to publish their gender pay and gender bonus gap for the first time from April and we are working to get more girls studying science, technology, engineering and maths subjects so that they get into more lucrative professions when they are older.”

[Source:- independent]

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Education

Jobs market shrinks for new graduates, survey suggests

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Office meeting

The number of jobs for new graduates has shrunk by 8% in a year, suggests a survey of more than 200 top employers.

This is a sharp reversal after four years of growth in graduate jobs, says the Association of Graduate Recruiters.

Some firms are “repackaging” graduate roles as higher apprenticeships but overall the labour market for young people is shrinking, says the AGR.

Brexit is the biggest serious challenge for recruiters, said AGR Chief Executive Stephen Isherwood.

The AGR, which represents blue chip companies and major public sector employers, carries out an annual survey of graduate job vacancies among its members.

Jobs squeeze

This year the 208 firms which responded to the survey had 19,732 graduate positions to fill – compared with 21,427 last year.

By contrast, the 2015 survey showed a 13.2% increase in graduate scheme vacancies compared with the year before.

Detailed figures show vacancies in construction, retail and engineering have decreased the most:

  • Engineering vacancies for graduates were down 14% from 2,106 in 2015 to 1,820.
  • Retail vacancies fell 16% from 1,975 last year to 1,666 in 2016.
  • Construction vacancies were down 11% from 1,266 last year to 1,121 this year.

This year there are more than 10,000 apprenticeships on offer in these companies – a rise 13% on 2015, the AGR calculates, though it also points out that this is still relatively small compared with the drop in graduate vacancies.

Overall the combined number of vacancies for graduate jobs and apprenticeships has decreased 3% on the year, it adds.

“The labour market for young people is shrinking for the first time since the financial crisis, but the composition of the market is also changing as employers invest more in school leaver programmes and apprenticeships,” said Mr Isherwood.

“The uncertainty of Brexit is the single biggest challenge facing recruiters in the year ahead.”

He added that the apprenticeship levy, which from April 2017 will impose a levy of 0.5% on company payrolls to raise £3bn a year to fund three million apprenticeships, was another significant concern for employers.

But, despite the fall in the figures, there are still thousands of vacancies available for university graduates, he said, while “school leavers will find many more different options open to them for high quality jobs”.

The Department for Education said graduates continued to have “stronger employment outcomes, earning on average £9,500 a year more than non-graduates”.

“Last year the vast majority of graduates, 93.9%, were in employment or further study with a consistent increase over the last four years, up 3.6%,” said a DfE spokesman.

“Our higher education reforms are focusing universities on further improving graduate outcomes, by delivering excellent teaching which gives students the skills that both they and employers need.”

[Source:- BBC]

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Education

Poorer graduates miss out on top banking jobs because of their clothes and accents

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

interview.jpg

Poorer graduates are not being offered jobs because of their accents and the clothes they wear, it has been revealed, as experts warn classist snobbery is still rife within the financial quarter.

A report from the Social Mobility Commission found that investment banks are failing to hire talented graduated from less advantaged backgrounds because they recruit from a small pool of elite universities and hire those who “fit in” with the pre-existing culture.

Working class candidates are often rejected for jobs for being unaware of the traditional “opaque” dress codes abided by in the City – for instance wearing brown shoes instead of black – that richer children grow up knowing, researchers found.

Firms also prefer to select recruits who display “polish” and favour middle and higher income candidates who come from the UK’s top six or seven universities, leaving those from working class backgrounds with poorer access to top jobs.

Successful candidates within investment banking were likely to display “a combination of social skills” taught in private schools and at home “if they come from a middle or upper class background”, researchers said.

“To provide one example, for men, the wearing of brown shoes with a business suit is generally, though not always, considered unacceptable by and for British bankers within the investment banking, corporate finance, division.”

One candidate from a less affluent background was told by one bank that while he was “clearly quite sharp”, he was “not quite the right fit” and his tie was “too loud”.

An anonymous banker admitted that such discrimination was commonplace: “In corporate finance, if you’ve got the wrong cut of suit, if you are wearing the wrong shoes, or tie, or you look awkward in a suit, you’re done before you start.“

Research from Royal Holloway University of London and the University of Birmingham also found that young people who aspire to work in senior banking roles are expected to have a breadth of work experience within the field – something students with family connections in the industry were much more likely to obtain.

Commenting on the report, Alan Milburn, Chair of the Social Mobility Commission, said: “Bright working class kids are being systematically locked out of top jobs in investment banking because they may not have attended a small handful of elite universities or understand arcane culture rules.

“While some banks are doing excellent work in reducing these barriers, there are still too many that need to wake-up and realise that it makes sound business sense to recruit people from all backgrounds.”

“It is shocking, for example, that some investment bank managers still judge candidates on whether they wear brown shoes with a suit, rather than on their skills and potential.”

Overall, banks were more likely to hire from a handful of universities including Oxford, Cambridge and the London School of Economics.

But candidate case studies published in the government taskforce paper revealed a pattern whereby those with personal connections to managing directors were being offered jobs automatically by the time they had finished a work placement.

Olly Newton, Director of Policy and Research at the social mobility charity The Edge Foundation, said: ‘These old-fashioned prejudices impact not just on opportunities for young people, but on the UK economy if we overlook the most talented in favour of the best-dressed.

“The Social Mobility Commission’s recommendation to value vocational learning equally to academic routes is particularly welcome, and we welcome the fact that these barriers are slowly breaking down.

“One in four students now enter university with a BTEC qualification. We need better employer engagement in our schools and colleges to provide valuable social capital for youngsters from less advantaged backgrounds.”

[Source:- independent]

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