I know you’re probably still on a post graduation high, but I’m sorry to tell you that I have some bad news.  Yes, for all those graduates just sobering up following graduation the Sutton Trust is warning that just because you have a degree will not guarantee you a good graduate job.  Now, you might be asking yourself who the hell are the Sutton Trust?  Well let me tell you! The Sutton Trust is an organisation whose main objective is to improve educational opportunities for young people from non-privileged backgrounds…or at least that’s what their Chairman, Sir Peter Lampl says on their website.  So the Sutton Trust got to chatting with Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) and they’ve decided that you need to work on your CV and tailor it to make employers sit up and take notice.  This is what my good friend Tom Hadley from REC had to say: “Whether you’ve got a history degree or a media relations degree, if you’ve got a few more specific things on your CV where you have done placements and a few temporary jobs that can actually help you”.  So you know what that means?  Get yourself over to our CV videos here and start watching!

There’s more bad news for the automotive industry and just as GM are beginning to claw their way out of bankruptcy on the other side of the Atlantic.  The latest bad news comes from Aston Martin as they prepare to make 95 of their 1200 employees at their Warwickshire plant redundant.  These cuts come after Aston Martin made 600 staff redundant in December and production line staff were put on a three day week, apparently a recession isn’t the best of times to buy a luxury car.  Have no fear though Aston Martin have their new sensibly priced limited edition The One-77 in the pipeline to turn the company’s fortunes around…it’s only £1million!

June was a very good month, not only did we get to briefly welcome the sun to the summer but we also officially ‘experienced the slowest decline in the rate of permanent jobs offered for 13 months’, or in English: the number of jobs on offer didn’t fall as quickly as it has been!  It’s good news and I caught the guys from The Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) and KPMG photocopying their private parts in celebration.  It’s not the magic bullet we’re all hoping for, but it does show that there are signs of life and recovery in the UK job market, or as Kevin Green from REC says: “The UK jobs market shows signs of life. June had the best performance in the placement of permanent staff for a year. While the public sector continued to recruit, it is now critical demand returns to the private sector to negate the potential public expenditure constraints we are likely to see over the next few years which could in turn could hinder a full recovery of the UK jobs market.”

The good folks over at Tesco have decided to ignore the trends, probably because they’re loaded, and they’re continuing to recruit graduates.  That’s right my job hunting friends, Tesco has seen a 61% increase in graduate applications for its 15 2009 graduate scheme vacancies.  The bad news is that the application deadline for this years scheme was in September 2008, but the 2010 one is still open!  There is redemption at hand though if your dream is to wear the Tesco blue as they’ll be continuously recruiting graduates for their normal vacancies in commercial divisions like buying and merchandising.  My good friend (and potential Mrs Hanson number eight) Hayley Tatum, the Operations Director at Tesco, said between flirting: “At Tesco we are very aware the recent economic climate is having a detrimental effect upon today’s graduates and the talent of the future. We have always identified the skills and opportunities graduates bring and for this reason we have remained committed to our graduate recruitment process.  In recent research conducted by Tesco we highlighted the earning potential for a career in retail and we encourage today’s graduates to consider all options when leaving university. We witnessed incredible demand for graduate schemes this year and places had to be increased for many.”  If you’re interested in working for Tesco check out this video.

Job cuts, job cuts and more job cuts are on the menu today.  Virgin Atlantic are cutting 600 jobs and Diageo are cutting 900 jobs.  I know it all looks bleak, especially after the release of figures showing the economy is still shrinking, but there is a ray of hope in the form of British Gas as they’ve announced that they’ll be creating 2,600 jobs. The job cuts by Virgin Atlantic are a result of reducing services such as daily the flights to Chicago and the twice daily flights to Hong Kong.  As businesses continue to tighten their belts, Virgin expects that travel will continue to suffer.  Diageo’s 900 job cuts in Scotland is an attempt to save an estimated £40million a year and will be spread over a several years. But good old British Gas are riding to the rescue in a rickety old blue van with the creation of 2,600 jobs to roll out the new Smart Meters by 2012.  I know you’re probably thinking: “I didn’t go to university to install gas meters”, but these jobs are spread across the whole company so you there won’t be an extra 2,600 blue British Gas vans on the road.