Nearly a third, or 31%, of graduates in the UK had more education than was required for the job they were doing in 2017, according to new data published today by the Office for National Statistics as part of its quarterly Economic Review.

For those who graduated before 1992, the number was only 21.7% but this jumped to 34.2% for those graduating after 2007.

The figures show that the incidence of over-education was highest in the 25-34 and 35-49 age groups. The data also show that over-education was not short-term, with 29.2% of graduates still over-educated for their current role five years after graduation.

Senior ONS economist Maja Savic commented,  “While over-education is more prevalent in recent graduates, it is also common for those who left university some time ago. Our findings show that people who studied arts, biology and humanities are the most likely to be over-educated.”

London was found to be the UK region with the highest proportion of overeducated workers. ONS stated that this is partly due to the relatively high proportion of migrant labour in London, a group which ONS says is typically over-educated.