Graduates Facing Unemployment Concerns

Fri, 12 Jun 2009

Up to 40,000 of this year’s university graduates could still be unemployed in six months time because of the economic recession, new research has revealed.

The Higher Education Careers Service Unit (Hecsu) predict that the number of new graduates struggling to find work this year will double compared with last year if unemployment trends follow those of the last recession.

Figures complied by the careers experts suggest that one in 10 of this year's graduates will be out of work, and many more will be working in bars and retail to make a living, or leaving the country.

As a result, the number of unemployed under-25-year-olds could exceed the one million mark.

A separate survey of 55 UK universities, carried out by the Guardian newspaper, revealed a large increase in applications for postgraduate courses and a surge in demand for careers services from jobless graduates .

Charlie Ball, deputy director of research at Hecsu, said: "If this follows the last recession we could see up to four years of depressed jobs for graduates . We think it's going to be at least as bad next year."

David Willetts, the shadow universities and skills secretary, said the government should be focusing on boosting the number of places available on university masters courses .

He commented: "Universities need emergency help this year to take on more graduates and a Conservative government would fund an extra 25,000 places."

"Young people are the biggest victims of this recession. It's up to us to become imaginative about ways of helping them through."

David Lammy, the universities minister at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, insisted a university degree was still worthwhile, despite the tough jobs market.

"It will be harder for some to go into the exact career they wanted. But over a lifetime it will help them get where they want to be," he said.

As well as facing the highest levels of graduate unemployment in a generation, this year’s university leavers will also be the most indebted in history as a result of being the first students to have paid the £3,000 a year tuition fee .
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