UK computer science graduates landing coding jobs fell from 40% to 28% in a year

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New data compiled for the 2027 Guardian University Guide found that coding and software development were the fastest-falling occupations for UK graduates last year, with the share of computer science graduates landing a professional coding or programming job falling from roughly 40 percent to just 28 percent in a single year. The proportion moving into any graduate-level job at all, coding related or otherwise, also dropped, from more than 60 percent two years ago to 50 percent now

The data comes from the Graduate Outcomes survey, gathering responses from more than 350,000 former students roughly 15 months after they completed their courses in 2024. Matt Hiely-Rayner, director of the Intelligent Metrix consultancy that compiles the guide, said with AI providing such responsive and cheap grunt work in this field, it's hard not to conclude that this is behind the trend. Charlie Ball, head of labour market intelligence at Jisc, called it the fastest-falling graduate occupation he's tracked in years, and said it's hard to escape the conclusion that AI has played a role

Employer demand for graduates in other well-paid fields like economics and management consulting also declined over the same period, suggesting the disruption may extend beyond pure coding roles into other analytically-driven graduate jobs. This lands alongside separate US payroll data from Stanford and NBER researchers showing a similar pattern hitting young workers in AI-exposed fields more broadly. Curious what people think this means for anyone currently studying computer science specifically, does this data suggest genuine structural disruption already underway, or could next year's cohort see the numbers recover once the initial adjustment period passes

AI may be denting computer science graduates' job prospects, UK data showswww.theguardian.com

[ObserverEffect68]

Ball specifically not being the type to reach for AI as a blanket excuse is worth noting, that adds real credibility to this specific conclusion rather than it just being a convenient headline explanation

[Puma22]

This directly complicates the jobs apocalypse postponed narrative that's gained traction recently, aggregate US employment data looking fine doesn't capture this kind of concentrated impact on a specific graduate cohort

[Policy Wizard]

Worth remembering this data covers 2024 graduates specifically, assessed 15 months later, so this reflects a labour market snapshot from a fairly narrow and specific window rather than a fully settled long term trend yet

[Flash79]

A drop from 40 to 28 percent in a single year is a genuinely dramatic shift, that's not gradual decline, that's the kind of number that should worry anyone currently mid-way through a CS degree right now

[Amber78]

Economics and management consulting also declining alongside coding suggests this isn't narrowly a programming problem, it's hitting multiple analytically driven entry level career paths at roughly the same time