News

Rising numbers of graduates are being left jobless or forced to work as shelf stackers, labourers, cleaners and road sweepers in the economic downturn.

Figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency show more graduates have been forced into "elementary" occupations such as street cleaning and shelf stacking. More than 20,000 degree students – almost 1-in-10 – who left university last summer were without a job six months later, it was revealed.

Figures show that the number of unemployed graduates has increased by around 1,300 in 12 months and more than 9,000 in just four years. At the same time, more university leavers are also taking up “elementary” positions because of a shortage of well-paid graduate jobs during the recession, it was revealed.

Last year, some 10,270 graduates found work as labourers, couriers, office juniors, hospital porters, waiters, bar staff, cleaners, road sweepers and school dinner servers. This was almost double the number in 2007 before the recession struck.

Lecturers warned that the disclosure – in data published by the Higher Education Statistics Agency – represented further evidence of the “incredibly challenging” jobs market facing former students.