Charlie Ball, deputy research director at Hecsu, said the number of graduates out of work was likely to have peaked with job prospects looking better for next year. He said: “Graduate unemployment hasn’t risen as high as we feared and is some way off the levels of the last recession in 1992, when it reached 11.6pc. Prospects for graduates in the short-term look brighter, with unemployment likely to have peaked. Next year we expect to see a decline.”