The number of graduates in jobs that don’t require them to have a degree is at an all time high according to recent statistics from the Higher Education Statistic Agency (HESA).  The results show that over a third of graduates are stuck in stop-gap jobs in an effort to gain experience and make some money as they try to adapt to life after university.

Of the full-time, first degree graduates who entered employment in the UK in 2009/10, associate professional and technical occupations represented the largest proportion, with professional occupations having the second largest proportion.  Combined, these occupational groups accounted for 56 per cent of all jobs undertaken by graduates during the period.  This left a huge number of graduates to enter low level employment or no employment at all.

Together with nearly 10 per cent of recent graduates who are unemployed a year after graduation, students are struggling to make a productive step on the job ladder.

As the £9k tuition fees loom, concerns among both students and parents mount with every new statistic released by research agencies illustrating ever bleaker prospects.

Researchers analysed the destinations of 213,390 full-time first degree graduates who left university last summer. The results showed only 133,940 were in employment – equivalent to nearly two thirds. This is up from 59 per cent the year before.

The average salary for last year’s graduates was £20,500, the figures show – just below the £21,000 threshold at which they will have to start repaying their tuition fee loan from next year.

The government says it aims to produce as many graduates as possible but students are having to make a real decision whether to go to university or not, especially to study broader subjects like history and sociology which have no specific destination in the graduate job market.