Dynamics Of Overqualification: Identification Of Graduates At The Beginning Of Their Careers On The Labour Market In Côte d’Ivoire

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This paper summarizes the arguments and counterarguments within the scientific discussion on the transition to adequate employment of overqualified graduates in their early career jobs. The main purpose of the research is to analyse the persistence of overqualification of early career graduates in the labour market in Côte d’Ivoire. The systematization literary sources and approaches to solving the problem using panel data and probit random effects models’ capturing unobserved individual specific effects was used as an econometric approach. The relevance of the decision of this scientific problem is that the choice of an overqualified job at the beginning of a career allows graduates to have work experience that would improve the opportunities for internal or external upward mobility in the future. Overqualification would therefore be a transitory phenomenon. Data from the survey on the sources of skills mismatch in Côte d’Ivoire were used to carry out this study. This survey covered 974 general, technical and vocational education and higher education graduates in the labour market over the period 2011-2017. The object of research is to analyse the persistence and real dependence of early career overqualification on future overqualification in the labour market in Côte d’Ivoire. The research empirically confirms and theoretically proves that overqualification persists among graduates during the first six years of their professional careers. The experience of previous overqualification and overqualification at the beginning of the period strongly explain the risk of future overqualification. The results of the research can be useful for the government to put in place or strengthen public measures to help graduates leaving the education system gain work experience and improve the quality of information on job vacancies in the labour market. Keywords: Dynamic Probit, career, underemployment, overqualification, employment, youth.