Early Careers Survey 2024

Prospects Luminate's Early Careers Survey 2024 reveals an increase in graduates feeling disadvantaged in the job application process due to characteristics such as their ethnicity and social class. But there are also signs of positive trends when it comes to mental health, engagement with careers services, and certainty about career plans…

Early Careers Survey 2024 key findings

• Financial issues continued to dominate student and graduate thinking. Money was the biggest challenge of the past year, nearly half of those who said their career plans had changed were influenced by financial worries, and the greatest concerns of prospective students were the cost of living and tuition fees.
• The proportion of respondents who said that taking care of their mental health was among their biggest challenges remained high at 48%. However, this represented a drop of seven percentage points from 2022's survey, potentially indicating a welcome downward trend.
• Engagement with careers advice sessions, which took a tumble last year, rebounded across the board. The report provides ample evidence of the benefits students derive from engagement with careers resources.
• Sixty-two per cent of those taking the survey said they were either fairly or very certain about their career plans, up from 60% last year and 55% the year before, suggesting that young people are starting to feel more confident about putting firm plans in place.
• The proportion of new graduates who very quickly wanted to leave their employer has been stubbornly high at 40% in 2022 and 36% in 2021. This time around, just 20% of fresh graduates were already eager to move on from their current job, revealing a higher level of stability in the first year of their developing careers.
• There is growing evidence of graduates feeling disadvantaged in the job application process due to their personal characteristics. For example, 54% of ethnic minority graduates felt disadvantaged by their ethnicity (up from 43%), and one-fifth of graduates had the perception that their social class set them back. Meanwhile, 15% of women and 10% of men (up from 4%) felt like they were put at a disadvantage by their gender.

What's inside

The Early Careers Survey 2024 includes findings on:

• The biggest challenges of the past year
• Careers information, advice and guidance
• Work experience
• Career planning
• Jobs and apprenticeships
• Study plans and experience

About the Early Careers Survey 2024

Users of Prospects.ac.uk were surveyed between 11 January and 11 February 2024 to find out about their career plans and their experiences over the last 12 months.

The data presented in this report is based on the responses of 6,102 Prospects users, including school pupils, sixth form/college students, apprentices, university students, graduates, and those not in education, employment or training.

A breakdown of the respondents by characteristics including gender, ethnicity and disability is included in the full report.

The 'Study plans and experiences' section of this year's Early Careers Survey was produced in partnership with Net Natives.

Previous editions of the Early Careers Survey

• Early Careers Survey 2023 (PDF, 14Mb)
• Early Careers Survey 2022
• Early Careers Survey 2021 - part one, part two, part three