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State-educated, working class and ethnic minority graduates were less likely to secure employment offers in 2024 compared to 2023 than their privately educated, privileged and White peers, according to UCL researchers.

Credit: iStock / Harbucks

The findings suggest an ongoing downward trend in graduate employability for diverse candidates from under-represented groups, with implications for social mobility and the overall economy.

Privately educated applicants were 20% more likely to receive an offer than their similarly able state-educated peers in 2024, a rise from 7% in 2023. When ethnicity was also taken into account, White privately educated applicants were 21% more likely to receive an offer than White state educated applicants, up from 9% in 2023. Ethnic minority state educated applicants were 32% less likely to secure an offer, compared to White state educated applicants.

White applicants were also increasingly more likely to receive offers than similarly able ethnic minorities from Asian, Mixed and other ethnic groups in 2024, compared to 2023. The gap between Black and White applicants fell slightly over the years, from 38% in 2022 to 34% in 2023 and 31% in 2024. The researchers say this suggests that any gains from employers hiring more Black applicants have come at the expense of other ethnic minority groups, rather than at the expense of White applicants.

The team found that inequalities in offers persisted across socioeconomic background, ethnicity and gender, and in 2024 were more pronounced than in 2023. The researchers say the findings have stark implications not only for reducing inequalities and improving social mobility for graduates from diverse backgrounds, but also for economic productivity, as previous research shows that more inclusive countries are more productive.

For the Nuffield Foundation-funded report, led by UCL researchers with Oxford Brookes University, the researchers analysed application data from 17 large employers in the UK across the public and private sectors, including large law and accounting firms, looking at graduate recruitment, internships and apprenticeships. The team built on a previous report, published in March 2025 by the UCL Centre for Education Policy & Equalising Opportunities (CEPEO), by analysing 2023 and 2024 data for over 250,000 applicants to create a picture of how employment prospects changed.

Lead author Professor Lindsey Macmillan (Director of CEPEO, IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education & Society) recently said:

“While we are working with employers who are fully engaged with the social mobility agenda, these new findings show just how much tougher it is to ensure a diverse workforce when competition for jobs increases.

“While graduate vacancy growth rates have slowed, application rates have soared for these programmes making them all the more competitive. We know from existing evidence that young people from disadvantaged backgrounds and ethnic minority groups are at the back of the line when this happens. Employers need to have a laser sharp focus on their EDI priorities in the face of these challenges.”

The researchers found that women made more applications for graduate employment in 2024 compared to 2023, and they became increasingly more likely to receive an offer over men in general, at 18% in 2024 compared to 6% in 2023. However, the proportion of women in receiving job offers is still significantly below the proportion of women in the national pool of graduates.

For the overall report, the team considered key diversity characteristics including socio-economic background, basing advantage on whether the main earning parent of the applicant worked in a professional occupation, gender and ethnicity as well as university ranking, subject choice, region of origin, office location, access to professional networks, work experience and the type of role chosen to compare recruitment likelihood amongst similar candidates.

Co-author Dr Claire Tyler (CEPEO, IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education & Society) recently said:

“The employers in our sample have proactive social mobility strategies, are strong performers in the Social Mobility Employer Index and are open and generous with their data for research purposes, yet still barriers for working class and ethnic minority applicants remain and appear to be worsening. The picture may be even more worrying for employers who are at the beginning of their social mobility journey. Employers who can access untapped talent pools to attract, hire and retain the best UK talent will be better prepared for skills shortages, longer term declining birth rates and the forecast growth in professional jobs over the coming decade.”

The authors recommend that employers be particularly vigilant about diversity across the recruitment process when competition is higher for places. Diversity schemes in the internship recruitment process helped, and the removal of them led to a decline in diversity. Employers should therefore consider keeping existing schemes or introducing new ones that focus on hiring diverse candidates. Employers should also consider building a strong evidence base of successes to support colleagues, their sector and policymakers.

The research was funded by the Nuffield Foundation and reviewed by an independent advisory board.

Dr Emily Tanner, Programme Manager at the Nuffield Foundation recently said:

"Using employers' own data, this research helps to identify why some young adults are less likely to secure access to professional jobs despite high educational attainment - a critical issue for social mobility and economic productivity. It demonstrates the need to redouble the commitment to fair recruitment practices when the labour market contracts."

Links

• Inequalities in Access to Professional Occupations Working Paper
• Professor Lindsey Macmillan's academic profile
• Dr Claire Tyler's academic profile
• IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education & Society
• UCL Centre for Education Policy and Equalising Opportunities

Media contact

Nick Hodgson

+44 (0)7769 240 209.

nick.hodgson[at]ucl.ac.uk