Graduates with the lowest degree classification are two and a half times more likely to be unemployed six months after graduating than those with firsts.

The Higher Education Statistics Agency's Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education 2005/06, published this week, reveals levels of unemployment vary by degree classification.

It states 4.4 percent and 5.7 percent of students awarded first and upper second class honours respectively are "assumed to be unemployed", meaning they have finished full time study and reported themselves as unemployed and looking for employment, further study or training, or due to start a job in the next month.

In comparison, 8.1 percent of students with a lower second degree and 11.3 percent of those with a third were "assumed to be unemployed". For those qualifying with a third, the figure indicates they are a little over two and a half times more likely to be unemployed compared to those with a first and nearly twice as likely compared to the overall rate of 6.4 percent.

Graduates with degrees not subject to classification such as medicine, dentistry and veterinary science have the lowest unemployment rate: just 3.5 percent. The data shows only 0.2 percent of first degree qualifiers in medicine and dentistry were assumed to be unemployed, while the figure for their counterparts in veterinary science is 2.1 percent.

The results based on nearly 190,000 UK and EU graduates also revealed a gender unemployment gap with 5.1 percent of women and 8.1 percent of men assumed to be out of work six months after graduating.

Where graduates had taken their next step, the most popular choice was work with 63 percent, followed by 8.4 percent taking on work combined with further study and 16.1 percent starting further study only.