Abstract
Overeducation is indicative of a suboptimal education–job match and is related to several negative consequences for workers. Despite extensive research explaining the overeducation phenomenon, previous studies have not simultaneously analyzed educational background (i.e., educational degrees) and social background effects, or have failed to consider both the vertical and horizontal dimension that educational degrees entail (i.e., level and field). This article seeks to overcome these limitations by examining whether overeducation varies (1) across educational background (considering both level and field of educational degrees), (2) across social background, and (3) by social background among workers with the same degree. Based on the German BIBB/BAuA Employment Survey 2018, results suggest that highly educated workers are more likely to be overeducated for the jobs they hold, implying the supply of this workforce exceeds the available adequate jobs on the German labor market. The field of education determines the risk of overeducation as well, with some occupationally specific fields of education (IT, natural sciences, and health) making for lower overeducation risk for both vocational and academic education. The results also indicate social background directly influences education–job matches (controlling for level and field of education), i.e., a social gap in overeducation. This evidence suggests an effect of social background on job allocation processes, beyond the effect of education, so that the offspring of privileged classes (i.e., high salariat) use the same degrees on the labor market more profitably than the offspring of less privileged classes. Given the low attention paid to education–job matches in social stratification analyses, the present article makes a noteworthy contribution to the literature on social stratification and inequality. In addition, the present research will serve as a base for future studies on overeducation including both the vertical and horizontal dimension of educational degrees.
Highlights
Hypothesis 3 (H3) explores whether a social gap in overeducation when controlling for education exists, i.e., whether there is a social gap in overeducation when controlling for education exists, i.e., whether there is a direct effect of social background on overeducation risks or if, on the contrary, the effect direct effect of social background on overeducation risks or if, on the contrary, the effect is mediated through education
The analyses included several control variables; namely, gender, migration background, marital status, part-time work, experience with the employer/firm, region (Bundesland) of residence, residence relocation after finishing educational degree, age, children living in the household, career aspiration, and horizontal mismatch
In the vocationally oriented German labor market, vocational degrees perform better than academic degrees in preventing overeducation, net of specific fields effects, suggesting that the average demand for high-skills jobs cannot sufficiently accommodate the average supply of highly skilled workers
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. A direct effect of social background means that privileged parents transmit class advantages to their offspring through means other than education and that equivalent degrees do not lead to equivalent jobs, contradicting the thesis of “education as the great equalizer” (e.g., Bernardi and Ballarino 2016) Drawing on these considerations, the present article considers overeducation (i.e., holding a job that requires lower education than the attained education) as the destination dimension and investigates this for the German labor market. We expand on previous work in other countries focusing on social background inequalities in higher education (Hansen and Mastekaasa 2006; Torche 2011) and suggesting that the effect of social background on labor market outcomes differs across educational levels Given that the existing evidence has focused on the group of academic workers, this article provides first evidence for workers who are vocationally educated, a group that is of particular relevance in the German labor market
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