Student Pulse 2023

In August, Talent Solutions hit the road to share the results of Student Pulse 2023 with our client community.

We were thrilled to be able to share the latest insights and data with our graduate community, and were warmly welcomed by CAANZ in Christchurch, KPMG in Auckland, and Xero in Wellington.

Student Pulse began in 2014 and is the biggest annual national student survey, with 944 participants in 2023.

Talent Solutions designed Student Pulse ten years ago to address key questions from graduate programme managers. These included understanding how students approach job hunting, their methods of accessing job information, expectations of potential employers, and the driving factors behind their applications for specific roles.

Student Pulse data gives graduate programme managers the market intelligence needed to shape an effective graduate programme strategy and gain a competitive advantage in the battle for early talent.

The student market:

·         We've observed a minor decline in university enrolments at the bachelor's level and beyond, shifting from 187,830 in 2021 to 185,580 in 2022 (based on the latest available data from Education Counts).

·         There are approx 42,450 final year students.

·         The composition of our university student population is made up of 61.5% students identifying as female and 37.9% identifying as male.

·         After a decline in international student numbers due to the pandemic, they're now making a comeback, rebounding from a 20% drop in 2021 to an 11% decrease in 2022.

Salary expectations:

How have graduate salary expectations changed from 2022 to 2023?

While salary is not the most important factor in motivating a student to apply to a graduate job, when comparing a number of offers to each other, salary considerations rise to the top.

Those pursuing degrees in Engineering, Arts, Commerce, and Science indicated salary expectations surpassing $60,000. Specifically, 55.3% of Bachelor of Engineering respondents anticipated salaries exceeding $60,000, compared to 34.7% in 2022. These findings are reinforced by Prosple's salary data by region with average graduate salaries for Auckland, Christchurch, and Wellington averaging in the mid-to-high $50,000s. Australian graduate salaries, with an average of $80,770 NZD (Talent.com), continue to pose a competitive challenge.

Interest in moving to Australia has risen from 79% in 2022 to 89%, indicating a growing attraction across the student population.

Social media:

Which social media channels are most popular with students searching for graduate opportunities in 2023? Despite conflicting reports on Gen Z's engagement with LinkedIn, New Zealand students appear to defy the trend. Whether fully engaging or using it as a job board, promoting opportunities on LinkedIn would appear to be an important channel to market (ahead of Facebook and Instagram) Snapchat and Twitter continue to feature as less effective channels for students when hunting for jobs.  

New questions for Student Pulse 2023:

Considering the attention generative AI tools like ChatGPT have received, we introduced a new question to the Pulse Survey this year on this topic. This question aimed to understand student interactions with and utilisation of such tools. At the time of data collection, respondents using tools like ChatGPT were primarily engaged in job hunting activities (43%) and research/assignment writing (42%). The usage of tools like ChatGPT is anticipated to increase over the upcoming 12-18 months.

Talent Solutions ran two webinars this year on this topic and you can find out more here: https://www.talentsolutions.co.nz/talent-talk-blog/graduate-selection-in-a-generative-ai-world and here: https://www.talentsolutions.co.nz/talent-talk-blog/the-implications-of-chatgpt-for-the-graduate-industry  

Best graduate recruitment campaign in 2023:

Congratulations to the organisations behind the top 10 graduate campaigns of 2023!
These employers were most frequently mentioned by students as having the best graduate recruitment campaigns.  This was an unprompted, free text question and therefore an excellent indication of the employer brands getting cut-through in a busy student market.

The full 2023 Student Pulse report is reserved for clients and partners of Talent Solutions, but in addition to this synopsis you can download a 2-page summary report here.

Remember, if you need help with defining your early talent strategy, outsourced recruitment services, selection process design, psychometric tools, video interview technology, on-boarding and learning programme development, or you just want to have a general chat about anything early talent; please reach out to the Talent Solutions team here.