Skill Mismatch of Graduates in a Local Labour Market

E Marelli,M Signorelli,D Sciulli

doi:10.17059/2014-2-17

Abstract

In this paper we first review the (potential and actual) role of the Universities for the local economies in which they operate, especially considering the implications deriving from the degree of skill mismatch (over-education) in a local labour market. Then, in the second part of the paper, we realise an empirical investigation based on administrative information of an Italian University matched with the data of the job centres of the local (provincial) labour market in order to reconstruct the characteristics of the university-to-work transitions of graduates. Our results have important policy implications, since for local development it is crucial, among other things, to make the best use of all human resources and especially those with the highest educational level.

Highlights

The role of education and human capital for economic development has been extensively investigated, both on a national scale and at regional or local levels
A possible cause of high youth unemployment and low quality employment of young people is still the mismatch between the knowledge acquired through formal education and the skills demanded by employers
From a gender perspective, we find that males and females show a similar incidence of good job-matches if they are graduated in Economics and Engineering, while the incidence is higher for males in case they are graduated in Pharmacy

Summary

Introduction

The role of education and human capital for economic development has been extensively investigated, both on a national scale and at regional or local levels. Data from the job centres of the province of Perugia — since January 2004 to July 2009 — are matched with university’s data to reconstruct the features of the university-to-work transitions of graduates at the University of Perugia[3] in the provincial labour market. By using this statistical information, a previous paper (Sciulli and Signorelli, 47) focused on some characteristics of University-to-work transitions (UTWTs). After the literature review (Section 2), we shall illustrate the data base used and the key results of our investigations on Perugia’s graduates (Section 3); Section 4 concludes

Literature Review

Data and Descriptive Analysis

T-test

Findings

Conclusions and policy implications