The percentage of law graduates signing up to full-time vocational law study fell last year, with 26.4% of 2010 graduates embarking on further study or training in the UK within six months of leaving university, according to new research.

The number of graduates signing up for the Legal Practice Course, Bar Professional Training Course and ILEX courses was down 3.7% on the previous year, according to an annual survey of graduate destinations from the Higher Education Careers Services Unit (HECSU).

Figures contained in the What Do Graduates Do? survey showed that one third of law graduates (33.9%) opted for further study of some description, the bulk choosing professional law courses, with the remainder signing up for higher degrees or teaching. This figure compares with 38.7% the previous year.

Two in five (39.8%) law graduates had secured employment either in the UK or overseas within six months of graduating, with a further 10.7% combining work with further study.

Nearly 7% of the law graduates were believed to be unemployed six months after graduating, compared with 8.5% of all social science graduates. However, given the number undertaking further study, the percentage of law graduates with jobs was significantly lower than the average across all social sciences graduates, which stood at 62.2%.

Of the law graduates securing work in the UK, 14.4% were working in the legal profession in roles including paralegals, while 9.4% went into the commercial, industrial and public sector and other business and financial professions.

One in five of those employed at the time of the survey were working in retail catering and bar jobs, while 14.4% were engaged in secretarial work.

HECSU figures show there were 12,515 first degree law graduates in 2010, of which 81.4% responded to the survey. Nearly two-thirds (63%) of the law graduates responding to the survey were female.

The figures come against the backdrop of a huge shake-up in university funding in the wake of last year's Browne review, which is controversially set to allow universities to charge far higher tuition fees and at a time when the number of training contracts on offer has fallen.