{
 "institution":"Deloitte UK","series":"EARLY_CAREER_INTAKE_AND_CAPABILITY_CONTEXT","status":"VERIFIED_PRIMARY_LONGITUDINAL_SERIES","as_of":"2026-09-19",
 "scope_rule":"Use like-for-like September intake announcements as the primary comparable series. Broader annual-report hiring counts are retained separately because their population/window differs.",
 "observations":[
  {"date":"2023-09-04","population":"graduate + BrightStart apprenticeship + Industrial Placement","value":"over 1,700","capability_context":["confidence","mindset","networking","skills for an ever-changing world of work"],"source":"https://www.deloitte.com/uk/en/about/press-room/seventeen-hundred-graduates-and-apprentices-start-their-careers-at-deloitte.html"},
  {"date":"2024-09-03","population":"graduate + BrightStart apprenticeship + Industrial Placement","value":"approximately 1,400","detail":"approximately 1,200 September + 200 December","source":"https://www.deloitte.com/uk/en/about/press-room/fourteen-hundred-graduates-and-apprentices-set-to-kick-off-their-careers-at-deloitte.html"},
  {"date":"2025-09-01","population":"graduate + BrightStart apprenticeship + Industrial Placement","value":"1,498","detail":"1,400 September + 98 December; firm states this is in line with 2024 intake when over 1,400 joined","capability_context":["communication","adaptability","resilience","analytical ability","induction introduces firm GenAI platform PairD"],"source":"https://www.deloitte.com/uk/en/about/press-room/deloitte-welcomes-next-generation-of-talent.html"},
  {"date":"2026-09-01","population":"early careers including graduate + apprentices + Industrial Placement + technical academies","value":"more than 1,500","detail":"1,353 graduates/apprentices/industrial placements + 130 academy participants progressed into technology teams + 20 academy entrants later in month","capability_context":["good judgement","creativity","empathy","adaptability","technology change","technical academies recruit for potential including people without prior technology experience"],"source":"https://www.deloitte.com/uk/en/about/press-room/deloitte-opens-doors-for-1500-new-graduates-apprentices-and-early-careers-talent.html","comparability_note":"2026 headline population includes technical academies, so do not compare the >1,500 headline mechanically with the narrower 2023-25 programme populations."}
 ],
 "supplementary_observation":{"date":"2025-09-30","population":"all FY2025 new UK colleagues; includes more than 1,900 graduates, apprentices and interns","value":"3,160 total new colleagues; >1,900 graduates/apprentices/interns","source":"https://www.deloitte.com/uk/en/about/press-room/deloitte-uk-publishes-2025-financial-results.html","comparability":"NOT_DIRECTLY_COMPARABLE_TO_SEPTEMBER_INTAKE_SERIES"},
 "bounded_finding":"Deloitte UK provides a verified multi-year early-career intake series showing a fall from the 2023 announcement to 2024, broadly similar announced intake in 2025, and a 2026 early-career headline above 1,500 with an expanded population including technical academies. The sources do not establish AI as the cause of the 2023→2024 change.",
 "talent_definition_change":"By 2026 Deloitte explicitly describes technical academies for junior technology roles that can recruit people without prior technology experience and train for software development, cloud engineering, cybersecurity or data analytics; this is verified pathway/capability evidence, not proof that academic credentials have been displaced across Deloitte.",
 "causal_state":"AI_CAUSATION_NOT_ESTABLISHED"
}