An exploratory investigation into the experiences of unemployed university graduates with common mental health issues (i.e., depression and anxiety) was conducted using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Analysis of semi-structured interviews with 12 graduates in their twenties, all of whom had been unemployed between five and 24 months with common mental health issues, generated themes relating to "Loss of Expectation and Disorientation", "Waste, Failure and Blame", and "Stigma and Shame". Participants had experienced a "Fall from Grace"-a descent from a vaunted position of high-esteem and importance as university graduates, with seemingly bright prospects for a privileged future, into a lowly state of unemployment with mental health issues, leaving them feeling tarnished. These findings are discussed in relation to the literature on graduate unemployment, crisis and stigma, raising some practical issues for universities, including counselling services, and how they can better manage the transition to employment for their graduates.

We investigated the experiences of unemployed university graduates with common mental health issues. After conducting\ud semistructured interviews with 12 unemployed bachelor’s degree graduates with common mental health issues, we used\ud interpretative phenomenological analysis to generate three superordinate themes: “fall from grace,” “vulnerability,” and “life on\ud hold.” Our focus in this article is life on hold and its constituent themes: “stagnation,” “moving backward,” and “feeling left\ud behind.” Graduates struggled to complete the broader structural life transition from university student to the adult world of\ud work, experiencing a nebulous state of straddling adolescence and early adulthood. This undermined their sense of adult maturity,\ud leaving them vulnerable to becoming entrenched in their mental health-related difficulties. We discuss these findings in relation to\ud the developmental perspectives of life-course theory, status passages, and separation–individuation in early adulthood, which raise\ud important issues for the applicability of life-course frameworks for these graduates, who are a disadvantaged minority group