The Unemployed Class of 2011

According to new figures released by the Higher Education Statistics Agency more than
20,000 graduates of 2011 were still unemployed six months after they graduated from
university. The dooming figures do not stop there - a further 10,720 graduates were forced
to snap up menial jobs such as care-taking, cleaning or administrative work in schools due to
lack and difficulty of gaining graduate jobs.

In addition there has been a major increase in the number of graduates working for no pay -
either volunteering, working for charities or on work experience.

In total, 4 percent of those who said they were in employment (around 6,000 graduates)
were in voluntary or unpaid work – a 23 percent increase on the previous year. This trend
was described as "worrying" by Brian Lightman, general secretary of the Association
of School and College Leaders. "If it continues it will make it even more difficult for
disadvantaged young people to justify staying in education after 16," he said. "At a time
when university fees are increasing, this is yet another dis-incentive for students from
poorer backgrounds to aspire to university."

Overall, the figures showed that of the 224,045 graduates in 2011, just over 140,000 went
into full-time employment. Far more women (82,655) than men (57,425) secured full-time
jobs. Men, however, were more likely to be unemployed than women (10,860 compared
with 9,760), suggesting they may have been fussier about the type of employment they
were prepared to take up.

In terms of those deciding to remain in full-time study, women were again in the
ascendancy – 19,260 compared with 16,100 men. Of those in employment, 69 percent were
in full-time paid work, 22 per cent were employed part-time, 5 per cent were self-employed
or freelance and 4 per cent were doing unpaid voluntary work.

Most of those who found jobs were in professional or managerial occupations, but 10,720
were in what was described as "elementary occupations" while a further 755 were involved
in working as plant or machinery operatives.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/class-of-2011-20000-struggling-
to-find-paid-jobs-7979661.html