A graduate aged 21 has the same chance of being unemployed as a 16-year-old school leaver with one GCSE, official figures revealed yesterday.
Around one in four of both groups is currently without a job.
The shocking statistics highlight the problems facing graduates leaving university at a time of crisis in the jobs market.
Nearly six unemployed people are chasing every vacancy and economists warn that the jobless total, which has hit 2.67million, will climb even higher.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics show that 25.9 per cent of 16-year-olds who left school with as little as one GCSE at grade C or above are currently unemployed.
The situation is almost identical for a 21-year-old graduate. Despite having A-levels and a degree, 24.8 per cent are unemployed.
The figures will fuel concerns among parents and their children about whether a degree is worthwhile at a time when students face the prospect of leaving university with debts of up to £50,000.
They also raise serious doubts about Labour’s famous pledge to have 50 per cent of school leavers going on to university.
Tanya de Grunwald, founder of the careers website Graduate Fog, said she regularly hears from graduates who are in work but have had to return to their old holiday jobs.
She said: ‘They are pulling pints or doing data entry because they cannot find a graduate job that pays any better.’
Source: Becky Barrow, Dailymail.co.uk, Thursday 23rd February 2012
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