That the current job market is tough hardly needs to be pointed out – as over 50 graduates battle for every entry level position, unemployment amongst 18-25 year olds remains depressingly high. It’s a commonly known fact that bagging a graduate job is extremely tough, and that those without sufficient amounts of work experience are likely to flounder.

Statistics don’t have to mean everything, though – job search engine Adzuna knows that Britain’s graduates are a talented bunch, and as a result launched a nationwide campaign to find its Graduate of the Year 2012.

With graduation rolling round again, it’s more than likely that a lot of you (especially final years) will be wondering how best to make yourself employable.

Bagging a job is understandably one of the biggest concerns for soon-to-be grads. There is help available, though, and today it comes from the experts at LinkedIn, who have compiled a quick list of things you can do to put yourself in the best position possible – each of them only taking nine minutes.

The steps to building a career are under more scrutiny than ever before. In a job market saturated with qualified applicants, employers are turning to social media sites to sort the worthy candidates from those who are providing misleading CVs.

Recruitment agency Hays has revealed that employer concern over exaggeration or dishonesty in CVs is on the rise. It is becoming increasingly common for HR departments and recruitment firms to check the social media and LinkedIn profiles of candidates, in order to expose any fabrication in their applications. In addition to this, the companies are running background checks on the applicants themselves.

There is no doubt that job interviews can be nerve-racking – especially at the moment, when many (maybe even hundreds) of graduates are going for the same jobs.

You obviously want to give yourself the edge over other candidates, and make the interviewer think of you as a person they want to immediately hire. But even huge amounts of company research, excellent presentation skills and months of work experience can go out of the window if you accidentally let slip with something stupid.

One third of graduates have been forced into claiming Jobseekers Allowance after being out of work for six months or more, according to figures released by Totaljobs.

Salary expectations are lower for graduates than for those still in education, too – graduates expect to earn £19,800 per year, £800 less than those still at university.

The figures for unemployed graduates don’t look promising – almost 16% have applied for over a hundred jobs, a quarter of those failing to score a single interview.

Three out of five black students do not expect to be employed within six months of graduating says research by London based charity, Elevation Networks.

The new research ‘Race to the Top: the Experiences of Black Students in Higher Education’; which was conducted to understand the perceptions of Black undergraduates revealed that:

• Black students felt they would face discrimination when attempting to pursue a career in the legal services, media, fashion and financial services industries.

• 68% of Black students expect to be earning less than £25,000 in their first graduate role.

Entrepreneur Simon Dolan stoked controversy last month by calling university “a waste of time” and “completely pointless”, boasting about how he turned an initial investment of £10 into a business making £6million profit a year.

Many graduates and students start looking for a job when they leave school or uni and do careful research into the type of company or industry they want to work in. However, they often forget to first stop and think about their own values, personality and what type of work might ideally suit them in relation to this.

Whether you realise it or not, different companies tend to have a set of cultural values by which they are defined.

Three of the licensed hospitality industry’s top organisations are joining forces to a one-day apprentice event.

The event to be held on 26th June 2012 at the Sketchley Grange Hotel, Burbage, Leicestershire aims to bring apprentices, employers and training providers together to learn more about the potential of apprenticeships.

Hotel chain, Travelodge, have announced that this spring, the company will be looking for a further 40 apprentices to join their Junior Management Programme (JuMP).

JuMP provides A-Level students an alternative route into education, where they will be given opportunities to gain work experience and potentially become a manager by the age of 21. From training to graduation the JuMP apprentice will be able to earn £25,000 to £30,000 over the three year period. The clever concept will provide apprentices’ with an income as well as the skills needed for Hotel Management.