Almost one in eight recent graduates was unemployed in the third quarter of 2020, according to official data showing the toll the pandemic has taken on new entrants to the UK labour market.

The Office for National Statistics said 12 per cent of recent graduates were unemployed in the third quarter of 2020, almost double the average rate for this group over the past three years, before adjustment for seasonal effects. This compared with an unemployment rate of 4.6 per cent for the wider graduate workforce of 14m and 5.1 per cent for the working age population overall.

The figures show the divide that is opening up between people who were already established in jobs before Covid-19 hit — many of whom have been shielded from unemployment by the government’s furlough scheme — and those struggling to begin their careers while hiring remains depressed and large swaths of the economy closed.