Nearly two-thirds of of those who gained a degree in the UK had not found a job up to six months after leaving university, the poll for management consultants Accenture showed.
The US, France, Germany and Spain all had higher proportions in work but UK graduates were hopeful of getting full-time jobs soon - and were among the most confident about their career prospects.
Yesterday figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency showed almost three out of 10 UK graduates were in lowly secretarial, administrative or sales positions and only a quarter were in fully professional jobs.
And 7% of those who finished their studies in 2003 were unemployed.
The Accenture poll of 1,500 people showed employment rates were highest in the US, where 55% of new graduates were in work.
Optimistic
France followed with 48%, then Spain (42%), while Germany came out just ahead of the UK with 39% of graduates in employment.
Domestic graduates, however, were more optimistic about their chances of getting a full-time job that met their expectations than those from all the other nations apart from the US.
Just 17% did not feel confident about their prospects, compared with 14% in the US, 18% in Germany, 33% in Spain and 35% in France.
The UK, with France, had the second-highest proportion of graduates who said they were "extremely confident" of getting a good job, with 18% predicting this would be the case. The US again led, on 21%.
Six out of 10 hoped to be working full-time, whether or not in their chosen careers, within three months and only 13% thought finding a job would take longer than a year.
By contrast, 41% of French graduates believed it would take them that long to find full-time work.
Popular sectors for those in work and those still job-hunting were media and entertainment, electronics and high-tech and health and life sciences.
The metals and mining sector was the most unpopular area for UK graduates, as it was for those in France, the US and Germany, while the Spanish wanted to avoid ending up in insurance at all costs.
The poll uncovered a pronounced patriotic preference in each country. Asked where they would most like to work, the majority voted for their home nation.
In the UK, Australia was the second most popular choice, mentioned by 11%.
Relaxed approach
Iraq was the least favoured destination for all five nations.
It was by far the least popular among graduates from the countries with Armed Forces still fighting there - the US and the UK - followed by the Spanish, whose socialist government pulled out of the coalition following the Madrid bombings.
Graduates appeared to be taking a fairly relaxed approach to the process of finding a job - 66% of respondents from all five countries said they would spend part of their time watching films or reading, while 58% would work part-time.
More than half wanted to travel and only 23% planned to do further training. About seven out of 10 expected their employer to train them up once they were working full-time.
Peter Cheese, managing partner of Accenture's Human Performance Practice, said: "Companies need to offer a variety of experiences and training in specific areas to develop recent graduates as professionals and future leaders.
"As experienced managers increasingly look to retirement, this need will become even more urgent." Tweet
Comments
Login or Register to comment
The jobless rate for graduates does not surprise me. Employers wants experience not a recital of Shakespeare of a debate about politics.
I only wish I knew this before I graduated!
The government wants a better educated population. This could mean that more and more people leave university with higher expections of finding a job relating to the area of their studies. Whilst, I agree that employers want experience. They also want qualifications. This is a means of reducing the number of applicants which will apply for the job. More people will think their time at university was a waste of time. The only thing it led to was more debt and possible feelings of being a failure. If they do not find a job relating to their studies, or one which means they can start paying their debts. I think more organisations should have packages which are geared to helping graduates find suitable employment relating to their fields of study, or else this problem will get worse.
I am a recent graduate with a 2:1 clasification in human resource management. I have been looking for work since Christmas and I am still not having any luck!
I agree with the other views that employers want experience but also require the qualifications at the same time! This is what really annoys me! Thay can't expect both from a graduate. In my situation I went to university for five years, firstly to do a HND in business and then i decided to top it up with my specialisation in HRM. Throughout my whole time of being at university I worked part time for a holiday company in their commerical dept to get some business experience. But employers still don't seem to want to know!
On leaving university I approached my local council and offered my services within the HR dept to gain some experience - still no come back!
I'm getting to the point now where I wish I'd never gone to university and gone into employment straight after school or college.
Lets just hope that my degree pays off!
I also have just graduated with a 2:2 in Computing. I'm finding it ridiculously difficult to get just an admin or HR job in order to get the office experience which is favoured by most employers. It's highly frustrating and totally degrading to have to apply to dozens upon dozens of jobs that are easily within my range of skills and being basically ignored. I feel severely let down.