The comparative route of younger and older cohorts through companies forms part of Professor Lindley s on-going programme of research into demographic change in the European Union Link to IER Web Page. Looking specifically at the role of new graduates, Terence Hogarth considered their role in the business process given the massive expansion in higher education. The evidence suggests that such judgements need to be made in the context of changing occupational structures in selected sectors. The banking and finance industry demonstrates how product market change results in the disappearance of what may be termed traditional jobs . This is vividly seen in the banking industry where automation has removed the need for many traditional cashiering jobs, but where the deregulation of financial services has increased the number of financial sales jobs.
Financial sales marks a new area of activity for many banks.
Expansion of higher education appears to provide a rich supply of graduates to meet the demand from the banks for people to fill financial sales occupations. At this stage, it is too early to assess whether such jobs sufficiently utilise graduate skills or whether business processes are able to respond a qualitative improvement of human capital. Ultimately, the capacity of business processes to harness the abilities of graduates will provide key information about the private and public returns to higher education. Looking specifically at the relationship between ageing and productivity, Dr. Gelderblom reflected on earnings patterns by age. Here earnings increased with age until around the age of 50 years when they started to fall away.