Graduate careers - what a difference a year makes
A new report reveals the impact of Covid 19 restrictions on mid-career graduates, the persistence of the gender pay gap, and the potential longer-term implications for the nature of the graduate labour market.
- The report captures the impact of the pandemic on a national sample of graduate workers in their early thirties, the majority of whom had by 2019 achieved reasonable job security, and many of whom were balancing work and parenting or other caring roles when the pandemic hit.
- The findings reveal how the pandemic has impacted workers’ economic position, reshaped their motivations and aspirations, and affected their mental health.
- Experiences of the pandemic have reinforced existing inequalities in terms of access to secure and enjoyable employment.
- The gender pay gap revealed in this study of mid-career graduates is unchanged from that shown in a study undertaken in 2002.
- Working from home creates new potential for discrimination, particularly in access to training and promotion
- Graduates with confidence in their employer’s concern for the welfare of their staff coped better with the challenges of the pandemic
- These graduates had faced a difficult start to their careers thanks to the 2008 recession, many reporting that this made them more resilient to the challenges of Covid. Their experience has implications for graduates now leaving higher education, and for policymakers and employers.
- Income: 16 per cent of participants said they had seen their personal incomes decline between March 2020 and December 2020. Some highly-paid graduates experienced pay reductions, but the groups that saw their incomes fall tended to be mainly among the lower paid graduates, those with gross annual incomes less than £21,000, the self-employed, and those holding jobs in the hardest hit sectors, transport and tourism, hotels and catering and construction.
- Job security: Only a third of self-employed respondents had been able to rely on government compensation for lost income. Among the self-employed graduates there was polarisation according to the sustainability of the demand for their knowledge and skills. Those operating in sectors characterised by erratic work opportunities and high competition had become more insecure and vulnerable during the pandemic, but those in traditional graduate professions and those using and developing new technology mainly reported continued, secure, and even increasing demand for their expertise.
- Rapid rise of remote working: The Covid restrictions amplified development of new ways of working already being established in many organisations: virtual team-working, online meetings, reduction of non-essential work-related travel, use of technology in production and administration. Companies which coped well included highly-profitable global and national multi-site organisations which tended to be better-equipped and more able to take account of the changed circumstances in which they were required to operate, but also charities committed to employee participation in decision-making and environmental sustainability, and small companies accustomed to working collaboratively across occupational boundaries.
- Potential loss of collaboration opportunities and risk to innovation: graduates working in scientific and creative professions and those requiring advanced interpersonal and communication expertise reported that without face-to-face collaborative working, innovation may proceed more slowly and the labour market for the graduates working in the relevant fields will be diminished.
- New potential for discrimination: the introduction of flexibility into the location of employment is not necessarily a ‘win-win’ situation for employers and employees. Face-to-face working facilitates informal consultation and greater non-verbal communication in ways that a computer screen cannot. This is important for recognition of efforts and for promotion. To the extent that certain groups may find themselves more likely to be working remotely than others, the potential for discrimination may increase.
- Fear for the future: between 2019 and 2020, 8 per cent fewer participants agreed with the statement ‘I am optimistic about my long-term career.’ Those most likely to remain optimistic about their long-term career prospects were male, had been under 21 when they embarked on their undergraduate studies, came from managerial and professional backgrounds, and had studied in fields such as Medicine & Dentistry or Maths & Computing.
- Changed views about work/life balance: living through the pandemic and working at home had led many of the graduates to question their previous career-centred lives. In particular, although restrictions about household mixing, and the closure of schools and childcare services had created huge difficulties for parents, there was evidence of both men and women adapting their work patterns to accommodate this challenge – and appreciating how unbalanced their previous lives had been.
- Changed aspirations: a substantial proportion of respondents said their career plans, values and aspirations had been affected by their experiences during the pandemic and they had re-evaluated what was important to them in their career. This was reported by more than half who had first degrees in Creative Arts, non-STEM academically focussed subjects and, more surprisingly, Law, Economics and Management, and also by those working in Marketed Services.
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