In cheerier times, high-flying graduates would have passed Aldi by on their way to glamorous jobs in the City. But as the banks have slashed their intakes, the budget food chain has found itself flooded with applications.

Keen to take advantage of the surfeit of talent, Aldi has increased the numbers on its management training scheme – which pays a starting salary of £40,000 – from 100 to 150; and it is not the only employer to take advantage of the shift in the jobs market.

Five leading charities have launched a management training programme aimed at this year's finalists, and the nuclear fuel industry is offering a new, well-paid graduate development programme with the chance to travel.

These are welcome developments for the near 300,000 students about to graduate, around half of whom will want to go into paid employment. They will be doing it with even more urgency than usual: the class of 2009 is the first to have paid top-up fees and, according to High Fliers Research, they will be coming out with an average debt of £20,000.

Finding that first job has never been easy, and students are understandably nervous. Careers officers report an unusually high number of last year's graduates still seeking an opening, even from the most prestigious universities, such as Cambridge and the London School of Economics. But some people think the threat to graduate employment has been exaggerated