Peter Fennah, director of career development at the Cranfield School of Management, said procurement and supply chain graduates were doing markedly better than other professions.

"In a recession, companies are looking to make efficiency savings through their supply chains, therefore, the procurement components within those domain areas tend to be areas that can create efficiencies and savings," Fennah explained.

He said the school had witnessed a slowdown in graduate recruitment of about 12%, with 83% of graduates finding jobs since leaving in October.

However, Fennah added: "When you compare that to other industries, students in procurement and supply chain are doing better by comparison."

Fennah's comments came amid concerns from the Chartered Institute of Personnel that UK unemployment could reach 3m before the job market started to recover.

Mike Coveney, operations director at print management firm AccessPlus, agreed the sector remained strong: "Clearly all skills give a degree of resilience but the reason procurement is more resilient than others is that for business leaders, the easy solution is to cut costs."

Coveney, who lectures on print buying at the Institute of Direct Marketing, added that procurement tended to give more measurable and tangible results.

"It's not dependent on marketing or sales growth, so it's going to be resilient," he said.

However, Matthew Parker, director of consultancy Print and Procurement, warned that some companies were making drastic cutbacks to spending without thinking about what it might cost them in the medium to long term. 

"A good purchasing department will help save by using the right supply base," said Parker. "It's not just about hammering suppliers down on price, but about having a sustainable and cost-effective supply base."