Britons getting under-merit jobs

London, Nov 6 (UNI) Thousands of graduates in Britain are ending up working in call centres and restaurants, failing to get jobs matching their qualification, a report has revealed.

Around 40 per cent graduates are still in stop-gap jobs and as many as 100,000 have failed to find jobs suiting their merit, according to Government-backed research tracking the ''class of 2003''.

The report based on a poll of nearly 20,000 graduates found that 2 per cent of students who left university in summer 2003 were jobless at the time of the follow-up survey in November last year.

Some 80 per cent were in work with the rest in further study, but 16 per cent had had at least one spell of unemployment since completing their undergraduate degrees.

An analysis of job scenario revealed that the majority are in ''graduate'' jobs including traditional professions such as law and medicine.

However, the graduate jobs label also includes ''niche'' roles such as hotel and shop managers that do not necessarily need a degree.

According to the report prepared by Higher Education Statistics Agency, media studies students are most likely to be recorded as having ''non-graduate'' posts, with 40 per cent languishing in call-centre posts or working in restaurants.

Across all degree disciplines, 23 per cent of first-time students are in jobs that fail to justify the expense of doing a degree some three-and-a-half years into their working lives.

Nine per cent of those with a bachelor's degree are earning less than 10,000 pounds according to the survey.

The data also shows that 7 per cent of students with post-graduate qualifications also report being in non-graduate jobs, Daily Mail reported here.

Overall, 38 per cent of 2003's graduates have had a spell in a non-graduate role , according to the report.

The result behind this lopsided result is attributed to Britain's current trend of producing too many graduates in the wrong subjects.

UNI