The regional geography of new graduate labour in the United Kingdom

Abstract

Using a newly-constructed database of UK undergraduates' previous residences, universities and first employment this paper develops a framework to model the flows between these locations. Graduates recruited by any labour market are classified into four recruitment pathways. The model is then applied to the UK regional system for four successive graduating cohorts from 1998/9. We identify clear winner and loser regions in graduate recruitment, the different roles of the four pathways and the effect of degree class. We then explain these markedly different regional outcomes and suggest some policy implications for regions that currently lose potential graduate workers in this process of inter-regional interaction.