As the largest ever cohort of students to graduate, they were always going to be facing competition for jobs and, in England, as the first to have had to pay top-up fees in every year of their studies, they are also likely to enter the job market with the highest ever levels of debt. Add to this the fact that they are graduating into a recession and many are deciding their best bet is to delay starting their careers, either by going traveling or by staying on for postgraduate study.

A survey of universities carried out by the Guardian revealed a significant increase in applications for postgraduate courses; Nottingham University, for example, reports a rise of 48% on last year in the number of students applying for masters courses.

Student travel group STA reports a rise of 14% in the number of applications for working holiday visas compared to this time last year. But as HECSU predicts that the situation could be even worse next year, taking a year out to go traveling may not be the best option. Read more about the plight of the Class of 2009 on the Guardian website.

Deloitte, the second largest graduate recruiter in the UK, recently told Personnel Today that the reduction in vacancies is not as large as people think, and warned that UK companies that fail to promote job opportunities could lose out on talented graduates who decide to look for work abroad.