Prague takes second place in survey of best cities for new graduate jobs

An expat sector mostly ignored in articles on emigrating is that of newly graduated students searching for jobs overseas.

Nowadays, many young people choose overseas universities for their graduate study years. Reasons vary from the cost of a university degree in the home country, a better choice of specialties and the expat student experience itself. Another positive is learning a new language in the knowledge that being bilingual can help when searching for the perfect job after graduation.

A university education is an important part of the transition to full adulthood, and a highly-ranked degree is an important part of every expat’s resume. Some expat students decide to go for a Master’s degree, with others eager to begin their working lives. For this group, Prague offers a record number of jobs for newly-qualified expat graduates and is second only to Glasgow as regards European opportunities, according to a recent survey.

The study involved a comparison between 32 already popular cities across Europe as regards numbers of jobs available, comparative costs of living, average wages, numbers of new graduates and available entertainment and cultural offerings. Prague’s second place in the survey took into account its soaring rental costs, a negative for expat graduates with limited incomes. In fact, the Czech city scored well in all categories but didn’t make it into the top three in any, in spite of claiming second place overall.

As regards the cost of living, the city was placed sixth out of the 32 countries represented but only made it to 14th in the rental costs category. One strong category for Prague was the economy and, as regards rental costs, its ranking was the same as top city Glasgow’s and very similar to Glasgow’s results in the culture and entertainment sector. The city has fewer expat graduates than has Glasgow, and the Scottish city won out on the availability of sport and fitness opportunities.

Unsurprisingly, Munich won top raking in the economics category, and Sofia, Budapest, Zagreb and Krakow were favourites for affordable rents. Also unsurprisingly, London was placed at the bottom of the list, below even Naples, Rome and Milan, perhaps illustrating yet another reason for its poor show – the cost of its universities as well as just about everything connected with living in the city. In addition, with the threat of Brexit already seeing many multinationals relocating outside the UK, London's jobs market is shrinking and is expected to continue along that path.