Male graduates are now 60% more likely to end up unemployed six months after graduating than female graduates.

The latest data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) reveals that as well as being more likely to attend university, women in all but one subject area are less likely to be out of work once they qualify.

According to HESA, 8% of all 2012/2013 male university leavers whose destinations were known were unemployed, compared with 5% of females. The corresponding figures for 2011/2012 were 9% for men and 6% for women, a gap of 50%. The biggest gender unemployment gap is found amongst graduates who study maths, with men being twice as likely to find themselves without a job.

Men’s increased risk of becoming being unable to find work after graduation is repeated across numerous subjects including: history and philosophy (73% more likely to be unemployed); medicine and dentistry (50%); engineering and technology (42%); creative arts and design (40%); media studies (40%); law (34%); education (28%); business studies (27%); architecture (10%) and computer science (7%).

The only subject area where male graduates buck the trend is agriculture, with women 14% more likely to be jobless once they complete their studies.

Medicine and dentistry are the degrees least likely to lead to unemployment with just 0.2% of male graduates and 0.3% of female graduates being out of work.

At the other end of the employability scale, there are half a dozen subjects where at least one-in-10 male students are not working six months after their university course finishes. These are media studies (12.7% of male graduates are unemployed); maths (10.8%); creative arts and design (10.8%), history and philosophy (10.4%): social studies (10.2%) and languages (10.1%) and physical sciences (10%).

Why do you think male graduates are more likely to be unemployed than their female counterparts? We'd love to hear your thoughts on this subject so if you have a theory then please leave a comment below this article.

---Photo Credit: flickr/bensonk42