UK graduates are enjoying the lowest graduate unemployment rate for five years and earning up to £100,000 more than non-graduates during their career.

The BBC reports the graduate jobs market is strong despite gloomy forecasts of an impending recession, but the impact of the credit crunch is yet to hit.

An annual survey from the Higher Education Statistics Agency revealed 5.6 percent of graduates were out of work six months after graduation in 2007, compared with 6.1 percent the previous year.

The highest rates of unemployment were among computer science and creative arts graduates, and those with the lowest degree grades.

In 2002 the comparable graduate unemployment rate was 6.7 percent - compared to the latest figure of 5.6 percent. However this does not reflect this year’s batch of graduates entering a more competitive jobs market in the wake of the credit crunch its effects.

Graduates from a course leading to a specific career, such as medicine, dentistry and teaching, have very low unemployment rates with medicine having just 0.2 percent unemployment. Computer science, creative arts and design and mass communication degree graduates face potentially harsher employment conditions with between eight and 10 percent not working – the highest rates of unemployment.

Higher Education Minister Bill Rammell told the BBC the HESA survey highlighted the value of getting a degree, which he said represented increased earnings worth more than £100,000 over a lifetime. He said: "These latest figures show that graduate job prospects continue to improve as more and more employers require the wide range of skills that graduates bring to their business."