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This year’s race to be number one in the rankings of The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers has been the closest since the league table was first published in 1999. More than 15,000 students who graduated from university this summer took part in the poll to find Britain’s most sought-after graduate employers, and yet just seven votes separate the top two organisations.

PricewaterhouseCoopers, the international accountancy firm, has managed to hold on to the number one spot for the fifth year running, with a total of 8.2 per cent of finalists’ votes.

The firm’s arch rival, Deloitte, increased its share of the vote compared with last year but still finished in second place, ahead of KPMG, another of the Big Four professional services firms, which remains at number three for a third year. In all, almost a quarter of new graduates voted an accountancy firm their “employer of choice”.

Accenture, the consulting and technology company, has moved up to fourth place, its best ranking since 2004, and the NHS has joined the top five for the first time. Aldi, the budget retailer, with its eye-catching £40,000 graduate starting salaries, has risen up the rankings for the sixth consecutive year, this time to eighth place. The hugely successful Teach First scheme has also climbed into the top ten, continuing its rapid rise since entering the top 100 at number 63 just five years ago.

This year’s highest climbers are led by the Co-operative Group, which has leapt an impressive 39 positions, and DLA Piper, the law firm, which moves up 21 places. Another well-known law firm, Clifford Chance, rose from 45 to 26 this year.

The City’s leading investment banks may have suffered one of their worst years on record but they remain the biggest single group of employers in The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers rankings and continue to be a popular career destination. UBS, Deutsche Bank and Barclays Capital have each dropped down the Top 100 rankings but J.P. Morgan is unchanged at 22 and the Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Citi and Credit Suisse have all improved their positions.

There are 13 new entries in this year’s top 100, the highest at 76 being the satellite television company Sky, in which News Corporation, parent company of The Times, has a significant stake. Innocent Drinks, which recruits a decidedly modest five graduates annually, appears at 78, just ahead of Oliver Wyman, the consulting company, and the energy group E.ON. The Met Office joins the rankings in 92nd place and Watson Wyatt Worldwide, the consulting business, reappears for the first time since 2003. Six organisations — Airbus, the defence employer QinetiQ, the Ministry of Defence, Grant Thornton, the accounting firm, and Data Connection, the IT company — have returned after dropping out in 2007.

Martin Birchall is editor of The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers. The 2008-09 edition is published today, priced £16.99. Available from www.timesonline.co.uk/booksfirst

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