Too Many Graduates? An Application of the Gottschalk-Hansen Model to Young British Graduates between 2001-2010

A model of supply and demand is applied to UK data over the period 2001–2010 to define graduate jobs in terms of the proportion of graduates and/or the graduate earnings mark-up within occupations. Within such a framework it is found that there has been an upward shift in the likelihood of young British university graduates being employed in non-graduate jobs over the course of the past decade. Such a period has coincided with a continued (and rapid) expansion of the UK higher education sector, and the findings presented here highlight the need for government policy in this area to be set in consideration of labour market needs.