New research from the graduate jobs forum WikiJob suggests that today’s graduates expect to apply for twenty jobs – or more – before they secure a work placement.

WikiJob surveyed over 1,000 of its forum users, who are all graduate job-seekers, and discovered that 45 percent of them believe that they will need to submit applications for at least twenty graduate schemes before they receive a job offer. A previous survey by LinkedIn in 2014 found that the average graduate had to apply to 12 roles before landing their first job, so competition appears even more fierce today.

That pessimism about their job prospects contrasts sharply with recent research from High Fliers, which found that the 100 leading employers in the UK plan to increase their graduate vacancies by 8.1 percent in 2015. The same report suggested that the average starting salary for graduates would reach £30,000 this year – a new record.

WikiJob’s survey found that only 20 percent of graduates believe they will have to apply to five or fewer graduate schemes before securing work, despite the rise in vacancies offered in the market. According to research from The Marketers’ Forum, the average graduate only stays in their first role for 18 months, and 20 percent leave within six months. James Rice, Head of Digital Marketing at WikiJob, said: “These findings surprised us a little. It seems that despite the buoyancy of the graduate recruitment market at present, graduates themselves are feeling that the competition for placements is tougher than ever.”