The effect of fields of study on the waiting time to employment: evidence from the National Graduate Survey of Canada 2005 and 2009/10 cohorts

Abstract

ABSTRACT By utilising the National Graduate Survey (NGS) – class of 2005 and 2009/10 – this paper examines the effects of fields of study on the time it takes to find full-time employment that lasts at least six months among graduates of Canadian Universities. Within cohorts, the results suggest considerable differences in the duration to first job after graduation for various fields of study – with ‘Agriculture, natural resources and conservation’, ‘Health and related fields’, and STEM fields like Math, Computer Science, and Engineering landing jobs the quickest, respectively. In contrast, the graduates of ‘Humanities’ and ‘Education’ had the longest duration of finding employment. The results also show large differences between cohorts, with the 2009/10 cohort taking much longer to find employment. Lastly, this paper did not find clear evidence that the effects of fields of study on the duration to exiting unemployment changed across the cohorts.