Figures published this week show graduates with the lowest degree classifications are about two and a half times more likely to be unemployed six months after graduating than those getting firsts. The Higher Education Statistics Agency's figures show only 4.4 per cent and 5.7 per cent of students with first and 2:1 honours degrees respectively were "assumed to be unemployed" compared with 8.1 per cent with a 2:2 and 11.3 per cent with a third. Leavers with degrees not subject to classification, such as medicine and veterinary science, had the lowest unemployment rate, at 3.5 per cent.