Share of computer science graduates employed in the UK declines
In the United Kingdom, the share of computer science graduates who found professional work as coders or programmers fell last year from about 40% to 28%. The share of those who moved into any graduate-level positions also declined—from more than 60% two years ago to 50% last year, The Guardian reports.
Employment data
These figures were included in the data for the University Guide 2027. The Graduate Outcomes survey, conducted by the UK’s Higher Education Statistics Agency, covered responses from more than 350,000 former students 15 months after they completed their studies in 2024.
Coding and software development became the employment sectors with the fastest decline among graduates. At the same time, employer demand for economics graduates for highly paid financial-sector roles, including economists and management consultants, fell.
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The possible role of AI
Matt Healey-Raynor, director of the consultancy Intelligent Metrix and compiler of The Guardian’s University Guide, linked the trend to the use of AI to perform basic work in this field quickly and cheaply. At the same time, Charlie Ball, head of labour market analytics at the UK agency Jisc, cautioned that direct evidence of AI’s impact is insufficient, although its role is difficult to rule out completely.
According to Ball, some computer science graduates are moving into related fields, including cybersecurity and network engineering. He noted that vacancies remain available, but purely programming positions were particularly scarce in 2025. Financial-sector employers Ball spoke with are mostly not replacing workers with AI, but are changing job requirements and expect new employees to be familiar with such tools.
