Graduates 'better off on dole'

New research shows that "under-employed" graduates suffer high levels of poor health and low motivation that can impair their future career prospects.

The effects of getting into a rut in a menial job are worse for bright graduates than those caused by having no job at all, said study leader Professor Tony Cassidy.

Each year large numbers of graduates leave university with high hopes of glittering careers. The immediate reality for many of them was poorly paid work in unchallenging jobs, such as serving in fast food restaurants, stacking boxes in supermarkets, or filing papers in back-room offices.

Although the jobs were meant to be temporary, they could end up dragging graduates down and preventing them pursuing their ambitions, said Prof Cassidy, from the University of Ulster.

He studied a total of 248 new graduates whose psychological and physical health was monitored over 18 to 24 months. Nine months after graduating just over half were in jobs, 20% were unemployed, and the remainder were undergoing post-graduate education courses.

"We found that of the employed group almost 70% were not in jobs they wanted to be in; they were stop-gap jobs that did not utilise their skills," said Prof Cassidy.

Being unemployed was related to increased levels of depression and anxiety, loss of optimism, unhealthy behaviours such as drinking to excess, and lack of achievement, he said. But graduates who were under-employed suffered the same problems to an even worse degree.

"They are moving out of the normal range of levels of psychological well being into the area of clinical depression," said Prof Cassidy, who presented his results today at the British Psychological Society's annual meeting in Dublin.

Often these young people ended up in "a rut", he said. They became trapped in dead-end jobs without the motivation to leave, and lost confidence and self esteem. He said on balance being out of work might be better for career-minded graduates than taking a menial job.