About 75 per cent of new graduates had nursing jobs by March down on last year’s 85 per cent employment rate, according to the latest graduate survey.
It showed that at least 185 new nurses were still looking for a nursing job four months after graduation.
But it also showed that the number of new graduates finding jobs on new graduate programmes has risen strongly, the number heading overseas has declined, and the total number in work – about 900 – is the same as last year.
Jane O’Malley, the Ministry of Health’s chief nurse said having 75 per cent of graduates nursing four months after completing their degrees was ‘pleasing’ given the current international fiscal situation. She said it compared favourably with other countries, including Australia and the United States. There have been reports of very low numbers of new graduates being offered state health jobs in Queensland and Tasmania, and a survey by the American Society of Registered Nurses indicated 43 per cent of Californian graduates had not found jobs 18 months after graduation.
The annual snapshot of November graduate’s job destinations, coordinated by nurse educator group NETS, was responded to by 94 per cent of last November’s graduate cohort of 1209.
That bumper cohort of 1209 was 15 per cent more than the previous year’s 1050 graduates but the job numbers available to them stayed steady at around 900.
O’Malley, who has been calling for district health boards to ring-fence dedicated new graduate positions, said it was “not surprising” that the job numbers were very similar with most DHBs using a vacancy-driven model and staff turnover continuing to be low.
Cathy Andrew, a NETS survey spokeswoman, said for the first time in the survey it asked graduates without jobs whether they were actively looking for working as it was thought this was important data to be “capturing”.
It found that 185 graduates (15 per cent) were still actively looking for work, 44 (3.6 per cent) were not looking and the job status of 78 graduates who didn’t respond to the survey (6.4 per cent) was unknown.
Andrew, head of CPIT’s nursing school, also believed the 75 per cent employment rate was a “great result” given the current economic conditions.
The survey found that the number employed in new graduate programmes had grown from 637 last year (72 per cent of those nursing) to 744 (83 per cent) this year which was seen as a positive step by O’Malley.
The number of graduates heading overseas to work had also fallen from 53 (5 per cent) last year to 38 (3 per cent) in 2013.
