Bad news: Investment banks have cut 2011 graduate places 20% since September

Much as we feared, after a poor second half of 2010 and with the European debt crisis still in evidence, investment banks have cut nearly 650 roles from their 2011 graduate recruitment targets. Worse - if you're still planning to find a full time role for 2011 - more than 50% of full time investment banking graduate roles are ALREADY FILLED, by last year's interns.

At least this is the verdict of High Fliers Research, a research company which included 12 leading investment banks in its 2011 graduate recruitment market outlook.

According to High Fliers, there are now likely to be 2,655 graduate roles filled in investment banks this year, down from the 3,300 target set in September. 53% are likely to be filled by interns. This is, however, a 12.2% increase on 2010 numbers.

Investment banking is also one of only three industries that recruits more interns than the number of permanent places on offer to graduates. There were 3,220 interns taken in during 2010-11.

It's also worth noting how far graduate numbers have fallen since the halcyon days of 2007, when recruitment of students was at its peak. Since the crisis began, vacancies have shrunk by nearly 25%, as the table below shows.

Despite this, investment banking remains the best paid industry to work in, offering a median starting salary of 42k. This is a 10% uplift on last year, and is down to a combination of banks shaking up their remuneration structures to focus more on base pay rather than bonuses, and a general increase in employment across the sector, suggests High Fliers.

Two of the top investment banks are offering at least 50k to graduate recruits, it adds.