STOP PRESS! "Stop-gap jobs rob graduates of ambition"

STOP PRESS!! Research findings in today's Times newspaper include the startling revelation that graduates in "stop-gap jobs"* "can get so depressed by the boredom of their work that they damage their proper career chances".

NO! Really? There's more to come:

"Those in stop-gap jobs achieved lower scores on every measure, including diet, alcohol intake and sleep."

Joy.

"Most of the underemployed graduates had given up the idea that they were going to get into the sort of jobs their education predicted they should get into. They were too tired or busy to take steps to get a proper job and their distress grew."

Let's talk after four years and ten, LONG months of it, pal.

According to Tony Cassidy, of the University of Ulster, and Liz Wright, of De Montfort University, graduates were "more distressed, less motivated and more likely to fall into depression than those who were unemployed", AFTER JUST NINE MONTHS of "low-grade work".

The study concluded that graduates "would be better off staying on the dole".

I shit you not.

*So THAT'S what we're calling them these days. I've always preferred to describe MY particular role as "that soul-destroying activity I spend most of my waking hours engaged in, where my combined low-status of being female and the admin dogsbody provides sufficient justification for colleagues to treat me like shit, resulting in my frustration, depression, adverse bank balance and rage."

But that's just me...