Usually, banks close the graduate recruitment application process around December. This year, banks such as Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (DrKW), HSBC and some US investment were still recruiting graduates in early July to begin in September.
Lorraine Little, head of graduate recruitment at DrKW, which recruited an additional 10 graduates for information technology (IT) roles in July, said the new hires reflected an upturn in industry sentiment.
They will not join the bank's standard graduate recruitment programme: 'It will be a different route: we are looking for people who can move straight into entry-level IT jobs from day one.'
Little said academic criteria for the new IT recruits were lower than for other graduate trainees: the bank accepted people with a UK 2.2 degree, despite usually specifying a 2.1 or above.
HSBC has also been conducting a late recruitment campaign. Last week, the bank closed applications for a new 10-15 place corporate finance graduate training programme. It began advertising the places in May, although in most years applications for its graduate programme close in February.
HSBC has been building its mergers and acquisitions division under John Studzinski, who joined from Morgan Stanley as co-head of corporate and investment banking in April last year.
Deutsche Bank is still recruiting graduates for corporate finance, corporate banking, IT and accounting roles. Sally-Ann Birchall, head of graduate recruitment at the bank, said some extra hiring at this time of year is normal at Deutsche, however: "There is usually a small pool of strong candidates who finish their degrees and come on to the market at this time of year. There can be extra business demand late in the season and this is filled by students that complete their studies and then look for their career."
As well as an increase in optimism after original graduate hiring totals were decided last year, banks said late hiring reflects a shortage of high quality applicants. The head of graduate recruitment at a European bank said: 'The calibre of applicants has been slightly down this year.'
Other recruiters said applications had fallen for corporate finance positions, which they thought suffered from the perception that corporate financiers work long hours and have a poor quality of life.
A survey of nearly 16,000 UK undergraduates by High Fliers, a research company, showed that only 35% of final year students plan to enter the graduate job market this year, the lowest percentage for a decade. A further 26% planned to go into postgraduate education, while the remainder planned to take time off for travel, or had yet to confirm their plans.
The survey suggested that graduates are gloomy about this year's job market, with only 12% thinking there would be enough jobs to go around. Nevertheless, it found that the number of graduates applying to investment banks rose 17% between 2003 and 2004.
A survey this week by the UK Association of Graduate Recruiters found that investment banks in the City of London increased graduate hiring by more than 50% in 2004 compared to 2003. At £35,000, the survey found banks paid the highest starting salaries, substantially above the median £21,000 across all industry sectors.
Banks said graduate starting salaries remained static this year. However, many expect them to rise in 2005.
