The class of 2009 could be facing the bleakest job hunt for a generation now the global financial crisis has taken its toll on traditional graduate employment sectors.

Graduate recruitment has been either suspended or greatly reduced in many sectors of the economy, particularly in the corporate banking sector, leaving students with unprecedented levels of debt but few of the high-paying career options that successive governments have promised.

With graduate numbers increasing on an almost annual basis, any failure in the job market to reflect this increase will create a greater level of competition in an already crowded market. As a result, an increasing number of people are moving back in with parents after finishing university and failing to find a graduate job.

According to graduate employment website Milkround.co.uk, students’ biggest fear for the future is a lack of jobs. Additionally, students are increasingly shunning careers in the financial sector owing to fears over their security.

Spokesman, Mike Bernard said: "There are clear signs graduates will need to be more savvy than ever in their hunt for work and not rely on the usual high numbers of vacancies available in previous years".

Darius Norell, founder of graduate recruitment agency, Real World told The Times last week: “[Recruitment at] a lot of the large professional services, such as PricewaterhouseCoopers and Ernst & Young, is pretty flat, with graduate recruitment neither up nor down.

“But banks that are recruiting are taking on less people, and some banks have just stopped completely. It means the competition is that much more intense.”

As the annual Scottish Graduate Fair gets under way in Glasgow this week, its organiser Barbara Graham said: “I think everyone would acknowledge that the current economic climate is bound to have an effect on graduate recruitment – anyone looking at the facts would admit that.”

While banking organisations such as Northern Rock have suspended recruitment completely, reports are circulating that accountancy organisations will be creating jobs as they struggle to deal with the fall-out from the economic crisis.

Charlie Ball, deputy director of research at the Higher Education Careers Service Unit said: "It is going to be accountants who have to deal with all the financial fall outs and mergers; Lehman's effectively going under and the HBOS and Lloyds merger.

"It is accountants who are going to have to deal with the financial implications of all of that, it’s accountants who are going to have to scrutinise the bottom line, accountants who are going to have to pick up all the pieces."

Carl Gilleard, chief executive of the Association of Graduate Recruiters said that while things may look bleak, graduate recruitment will not grind to a complete halt. He told BBC News 24: “Looking to 2009 there is clearly uncertainty about the state of the market but all the hard evidence suggests that while it might tighten, it will certainly not collapse.”

He explained that graduate recruiters would not completely suspend recruitment, however difficult the economic landscape becomes.

“Employers have learnt from previous stop/start practices where employers who withdrew from the graduate market built up problems with their talent pipeline.

“They would also damage their brand by not maintaining contacts on campus and disbanding expert recruitment teams, leading to a corporate loss of memory and skills. To reduce numbers is significantly more favourable than suspending recruitment even for one year.”