Hard going for graduates

Graduates are finding it increasingly difficult to find permanent jobs and many are forced to take temporary employment as a route to a career.

Three years after leaving university one in three degree holders were on fixed-term contracts, almost half of which were less than a year in duration, according to an inquiry by the Institute of Employment Studies.

While the majority were in higher skilled occupations, significant numbers were in clerical, sales and jobs involving personal services. Only 6 per cent were self-employed, but some 40 per cent worked for small firms with fewer than 200 employees - an increasing trend over the last five years.

Only one in four moved straight into a permanent post immediately after graduating. Those with applied science degrees, including engineering, were almost twice as likely than others to be in continuous permanent employment over the first three years.

Helen Connor, project director at the institute, said that temporary work was often a route into a permanent job for less well-qualified graduates. Some three-quarters found employment in the service sector including a third in publicly funded organisations. Teaching was the biggest single category.

Three years after leaving university, graduates were earning a wide range of salaries. Only one in ten was paid more than pounds 20,000 a year with five out of ten receiving less than pounds 14,000. The highest salaries were earned by those with mathematics and information-technology degrees.

Three years after graduation four out of five considered their job to be broadly at graduate level, but only just over a half said that a degree was a formal entry requirement.

More than half considered themselves "under-employed", including one- quarter who thought that they were "very under-employed".

Ms Connor said the survey, which covered 1,000 former students at the University of Sussex, found that the jobs market had become more polarised with some degree holders continuing to find highly skilled, well-paid secure jobs, while large numbers had to make do with lower-skilled, often temporary employment, at least initially.

Richard Pearson, director of the institute, said that the situation was the result of the move towards a mass higher education system with a bigger, more diverse student population.

In some cases graduates were displacing less-qualified candidates and adding new value to the jobs. In other cases, however, they felt "frustrated" because they believed that their university training was not being fully used.