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The 2012 graduate market is expected to be completely different to 2011. Lots of the UK's leading employers have pledged to increase their graduate recruitment by almost 6.4% after a smaller rise of 2.8% in 2011. Vacancies dropped by 17.8% in 2009 compared to 6.7% in 2008.

Half of UK employers are expected to increase the amount of graduates they take on and over a quarter are hoping to maintain their current levels of graduate recruitment.

There has been a general freeze on government and council departments recruitment but the public sector is expected to increase recruitment this year. Estimates suggest public sector employers are hoping to increase their intake by around 22% this year. It is also expected that the engineering and IT industry will see an increase in roles.

Overall employers in nine out of the fourteen main job industries are set to take on more graduates this year.

Although the total number of vacancies for graduates is set to increase this year recruiters have already stated that around one third of this year's graduate positions are expected to be filled by graduates who have already got an existing relationship with them. The existing relationship may be due to a work placement, summer job or part time role that the student undertook whilst studying.

The biggest individual recruiter of this year's graduates will be PwC, Deloitte, Teach First, KPMG and Ernest and Young.

The figures may seem fairly positive yet graduate positions are actually still well below the pre- recession figures. It is worth bearing in mind that there are predicted to be an extra 50,000 new graduates looking for work this year compared to the pre-recession figure.

Starting salaries are also expected to remain static for the third year on the run, Graduate salaries did previously increase by 5.9& in 2009.

If you are due to graduate this year and need help finding your ideal job you might want to consider using a recruitment consultant.