London, Apr 11 : Students are better off and happier in the long-term if they go on the dole after graduation rather than take up a "stop-gap" job, according to a British research.

The study found that graduates who took up stop-gap jobs were more depressed and de-motivated by the dullness of their work that they may ruin their career chances.

Researchers Tony Cassidy, of the University of Ulster, and Liz Wright, of De Montfort University discovered that just after nine months of low-grade work, the British graduates were more distressed, less motivated and more likely to fall into depression than the unemployed.

They monitored psychological state of 248 recently graduated students in the Midlands.

The findings revealed that graduates, particularly those working in restaurants, shops or lower-level clerical work were so distressed that most of them had given up hope of getting into their chosen profession.

Moreover, these graduates attained lower scores on measures, including diet, alcohol intake and sleep.

"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," The Times quoted Professor Cassidy, as saying.

"There is a lot of research on how to get more people into university and not very much on what is happening to them afterwards.

"It may be a waste of resources if these graduates are underemployed and lose their motivation," he added.

ANI