LIVERPOOL is praised today for its success in attracting more of Britain’s most talented workers to the city – closing the gap on the likes of Manchester and Leeds.

The proportion of university graduates in the workforce leapt by nearly ten percentage points between 1995 and 2008, according to a new study.

It means Liverpool now boasts more graduates than Birmingham, and enjoyed a bigger increase over the 13-year period than any city outside London.

Warren Bradley, the city council’s Liberal Democrat leader, hailed the research as proof that its efforts to create “a high-skilled and well-paid economy” were bearing fruit.

But the researchers, from the Centre for Cities think tank, warned that Liverpool still needed to do more to attract graduate-level jobs in the private sector.

And it urged the city to drop its planned target to encourage its own university leavers to stay on , arguing cities had “little influence over whether graduates stay or leave”.

Furthermore, they also warned that graduates everywhere were about to suffer a sharp downturn in their prospects, with up to 290,000 jobs set to disappear in the public sector by 2014.

The Centre for Cities found that the proportion of graduates among Liverpool’s workers rose from 13.8% to 23.4%, over the 13 years to 2008.