Graduates working in banks have been largely unaffected by substantial job cuts across the financial services sector during the financial market turmoil.
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) said its graduate program remains unchanged.
“There have been no wholesale redundancies within the bank’s graduate program throughout the year and we will honour the program against the current economic climate,” a CBA spokesperson said.
ANZ said its 2008 graduates also remain unaffected and that no changes to its 2009 program have been made.
ANZ has not finalised graduate numbers for its 2010 program, but said it would focus more heavily on recruiting talented graduates and investing in the program offered.
“It is likely that intake will decrease slightly to enable us to recruit and invest in highly-talented graduates … but this [the slower economic environment] is not the motivation for tightening the program,” a bank spokesperson said.
Westpac’s 2008 graduates also missed being hit with the redundancy stick.
“We have not reduced our 2009 intake and while it is too early to confirm what will happen in 2010, we remain committed to our graduate program,” a spokesperson said.
Macquarie Bank was unable to confirm if any of its 2008 graduates had been made redundant as graduates were included in the group’s total global headcount of employees.
“While we can’t strip graduates out of the total number, our decision to employ a significant number of grads in 2009 is a good indicator of how much we value this group,” a Macquarie spokesperson said.
National Australia Bank said its graduate numbers did not decrease in 2008, that it is investing in its 2009 graduate intake and expects 2010 numbers to be consistent with this year.
