Entry-level Jobs Research Articles

THE EXPERIENCE GAP IN HIRING NEW GRADUATES: EXPECTING TOO MUCH FOR ENTRY LEVEL POSITIONS

ABSTRACT College graduates are faced with many challenges during their job search. This is often due to their lack of real-world experience in their field of study. College graduates are willing and able to accept entry-level positions; however, they are often shut down if the experience requirement is not met. This paper will address this issue as well as the need for hiring managers to evaluate the requirements and expectations for the specific entry-level job. Both the graduate and the hiring manager sides will be discussed and potential solutions provided. Keywords Hiring Graduates, Experience Gap, Entry Level Positions, Recruitment, Job Search, Careers

Identifying English Language Use and Communication Challenges Facing \u201cEntry-Level\u201d Workplace Immigrants in Canada

Canada has one of the world’s largest immigrant populations, with one in five people in Canada born outside the country. Among these immigrants, a great majority started their lives in Canada working in entry-level jobs. This study examined the English language use and communication challenges among these new Canadian immigrants in entry-level workplace settings. Fourteen participants were interviewed. The results showed four distinct patterns of categories: topical knowledge, language knowledge, personal attributes, and communication strategies. These patterns of language use and communication challenges were narrated in each workplace where these immigrants survive and thrive using English. This study addresses the research gap of entry-level workplace immigrants in Canada and provides a nuanced understanding through work and life stories in reference to their English language ability.

Which Jobs Are Lost during a Lockdown? Evidence from Vacancy Postings in India

We rely on real-time data from one of India’s largest job portals (Shine.com) to study how COVID-19 (and the associated lockdown measures) impacted the Indian labor market. Detailed firm-level vacancy postings reveal a dramatic contraction in hiring: the number of firms posting jobs, and the number of new vacancies they list decline by 60% and 34%, respectively. Firms react to the lockdown by advertising more jobs that can be completed from home and fewer positions in occupations that can be easily automated. Furthermore, certain job-seekers are more affected than others, as employers post fewer entry-level jobs, and require higher levels of experience and education. Finally, we find that female-dominated industries and occupations are most severely impacted, suggesting the pandemic has a higher burden on women.

Digital Badges and Employer Interest

Digital badges are becoming more prevalent in the credentialing sector yet there is limited understanding of how digital badges influence the hiring process. The researcher conducted a type of field experiment called a résumé audit study. In the late Spring of 2019, the investigator applied to 1,848 unique entry-level jobs using one of three versions of a fictional résumé. One résumé displayed badges in business skills, another résumé showed identical skills but without badges, the third résumé was a control with no added business skills. The results show that a recent college graduate without a business degree significantly increases the likelihood of employer interest if digital badges associated with business skills appear on the applicant’s résumé.

Analyzing Cataloging Job Descriptions: Are Cataloging Jobs Disappearing, Changing, or Merging?

To determine the state of the cataloging job market, this study compares job advertisements from August 2016-August 2018 advertising for jobs with cataloging in the title, metadata in the title, and cataloging and metadata in the title. Given ongoing concerns about the impact of metadata jobs on the cataloging job market, this study asks the questions: Are cataloging jobs in fact “disappearing” and becoming metadata jobs? Are entry-level jobs disappearing, perhaps contributing to the idea that there is a lack of qualified catalogers? Is there a difference in position level between cataloging and metadata job advertisements that can account for a lack or perceived lack of available cataloging jobs? Are there more entry-level or mid/supervisory positions advertised? Are cataloging and metadata jobs really separate, or should they be considered one position called cataloging and metadata?

Upskill/Backfill Model of Career Pathways Advancement: The Nebraska Vocational Rehabilitation Approach

Current trends in vocational rehabilitation (VR) increasingly value career pathways and career advancement as important components for success. Simultaneously, employers and businesses have great needs for retaining and advancing incumbent workers in order to better meet their workforce demands. This article describes the Career Pathways Advancement Project (CPAP), the first state VR agency use of the upskill/backfill model for advancing former clients in specific career clusters in Nebraska VR by providing them access to additional training, certification, or specialized skills necessary to advance within that career sector. The model also provides access to entry-level jobs in the same businesses for current VR clients by “backfilling” the vacated positions left by the worker who is advancing. The upskill/backfill model appears to be an effective means for advancing former VR clients in their careers and providing substantial gains in income and employer-provided benefits. The model may require additional modifications in order to better serve new clients with backfill positions that were created by those who successfully advanced. Policy considerations for embedding this model in VR are addressed in light of evolving workplace dynamics and employer needs.

Who moves from fixed-term to open-ended contracts? Youth employment transitions in a segmented labour market

This article explores the career effects of fixed-term employment among Polish youth, taking into account specific legal and institutional arrangements affecting both the incidence of temporary jobs and the chances of moving into more stable employment contracts. The aim of the analysis is twofold. First, it seeks to assess whether temporary contracts serve as a stepping-stone to stable employment or a trap leading to fragmented careers consisting of recurrent short-term jobs. Second, it identifies the factors which increase the chances of successful labour market integration. Both issues are addressed through a quantitative analysis of retrospective career data for a cohort of respondents aged 21–30 from two waves of the Polish Panel Survey (POLPAN), 2008 and 2013. Results suggest that temporary employment is not restricted to entry-level jobs and acts as a trap rather than a stepping-stone. In addition, the opportunities for moving from fixed-term to open-ended contracts appear to have deteriorated over the years. However, gaining early on-the-job experience, especially in occupations involving highly complex tasks, may improve the chances of attaining job stability.

Challenge-seeking and the gender wage gap: A lab-in-the-field experiment with cleaning personnel

The present research examines gender differences in challenge-seeking behavior in different work environments. We address the bottom end of the job spectrum with typical low-skill entry-level jobs, where the willingness to embrace new challenges is an important driver for professional advancement. The experimental results are based on a lab-in-the-field experiment with workers from a Swiss commercial cleaning company. Women are 43 percentage points less likely than men to accept a high-paying challenge in the control treatment with two levels of difficulty. In a slightly re-framed decision environment that offers a third, even more extreme, challenge to choose, female challenge-seeking increases by nearly 80%, while men’s challenge-seeking remains at very high levels. This significantly reduces the gender wage gap in our setting. We discuss anchoring and the compromise effect as potential reasons for our result. This study contributes to the present debate on affirmative action, and suggests that minimally invasive interventions, like the presentation of challenges, may be a fruitful option to promote the success of women in the workplace.

Globalization, the jobs ladder and economic mobility

Globalization affects the mix of jobs available in an economy and the rate at which workers gain skills. We develop a model in which firms differ in terms of productivity and workers differ in skills, and use the model to examine how globalization affects the wage distribution and the career path of workers as they move up the jobs ladder. We calibrate the model using many of the same parameters and targeting the same moments of the US economy as Melitz and Redding (2015) and then investigate the impact of globalization. Our results indicate that although falling trade costs results in greater wage inequality, it also leads to a wider path up the jobs ladder and less time spent in entry level jobs.

Reality check: Helping students recognize, evaluate, and pursue realistic entry-level jobs in business

The purpose of this experiential exercise is to help undergraduate business students grow as future professionals by learning about, researching, and practicing pursuing realistic entry-level jobs in business. This type of job researching and evaluating exercise is extremely valuable for the professional growth of students in that it helps set realistic and attainable goals before graduation, and in addition, provides clear direction on what kinds of educational backgrounds, work experiences, professional qualifications, and personal intangibles are needed to obtain positions in areas of management. This exercise is intended to be conducted ideally within a face-to-face classroom environment and is designed for undergraduate students in their second or third academic year in a business principles type course. This exercise can also relate well to a “Human Resource Management” course or “Professional Development Seminar”.

Games Education Within the Broader Liberal Arts

According to the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), there are currently 519 games programs at higher education institutions in the United States (Entertainment Software Association 2019). The Higher Education Video Game Alliance (HEVGA)’s 2019 “Survey of Program Graduates” finds that ‘520 institutions offered 1200 + game-related programs and degrees in 2018’ (Phelps et al. 2019, p. 14). Although some of these programs are professionally oriented undergraduate and graduate game design, game studies, game arts, and/or game development programs, others are situated within broader disciplines like computer and information sciences, engineering and engineering technologies, and visual and performing arts programs (Steinkuehler et al. 2015, p. 3). Given the geographic distribution of the institutions that offer games programs, the geographic concentration of game industry jobs, and the distribution of the respondents to the survey, I believe it is a fair assumption that there are more students enrolled in academic games programs in the U.S. than there are available entry-level jobs in the games industry. Given that situation, this paper attempts to answer the question: “What are games courses for in a broader interdisciplinary media arts program at a liberal arts college?” It is part autoethnography, part case study, and part position paper, as it acknowledges the specific circumstances of my own game design education and experience. As such, it is a story of my open-ended games education followed by my tacit acceptance and self-imposition of the hegemonic culture of games as primarily economic production. Then, as I went into teaching, a story of my subsequent burnout, eventual reflection on, and acceptance of my academic origins and the origins of my current academic program. I conclude by offering a possible framework for situating a games curriculum as a liberal art by using William Cronon’s essay “Only Connect…: The Goals of a Liberal Education” (1998) as a framing device.

How skin color, class status, and gender intersect in the labor market: Evidence from a field experiment

This article examines skin color discrimination in two Brazilian labor markets using a field experimental approach. Fictitious resumes including photographs of job candidates were randomly assigned one skin color category via photo manipulation and submitted to entry-level job openings. In addition to assessing the extent of skin color discrimination, this article adopts an intersectional framework to examine how the effect of skin color in employment is moderated by class status and varies by gender. I found mixed results about the role of skin color in predicting the employment outcomes at the initial stages of the hiring process. Results from logistic regression and Linear Probability Models show that skin color is a weak predictor of hiring outcomes (e.g. receiving a callback from employers) among male applicants and for female applicants with brown skin. However, I find strong evidence that having dark skin is causally associated with hiring outcomes among female applicants. I also found that having a higher-class status erases skin color differences, thus identifying a potential mechanism that mitigates the effects of skin color in hiring.

Higher education massification and the changing graduate labour market in the Spanish retail banking industry: a case study

ABSTRACT The expansion of higher education in Spain has not been accompanied by a similar shift in labour market demand for graduate skills. This mismatch between education supply and labour market demand has accentuated policy concerns that without a parallel shift in the occupational structure, higher education massification is leading to an increased share of graduates occupying positions that traditionally did not require university qualifications. It is unclear, however, whether in occupying traditionally non-graduate jobs, graduate skills are underutilised, particularly given changing skill requirements in the knowledge economy. This research uses the case study approach to investigate changes in educational and skill requirements for entry-level jobs in Spanish retail banks. The case study provides a potentially valuable framework for exploring the causes for changes in job content at the sectoral level that are more difficult to explore using quantitative methods alone. This paper draws on 33 in-depth interviews with senior managers and young bank employees, conducted in 5 leading banks in Spain between January 2015 and March 2016. The study argues that even though automation has reduced the demand for routine clerical tasks in retail banks, interviews with university graduates and employers suggest graduate skills are underutilised in entry-level jobs.

Employment and Labor Market Outcomes of College and Vocational School Graduates

Data obtained in a 2016 survey of college and vocational school graduates produced in 2010–2015 is used to analyze the characteristics of entry-level jobs and labor market outcomes separately for graduates in higher education and vocational training (the latter featuring mid-level specialist programs and skilled-worker programs). Graduates who combined work and study tend to enjoy a competitive advantage in the labor market, the effect being the strongest for college graduates and the weakest for skilled workers. Most graduates found their first jobs rather quickly, mainly with the help of their immediate community, whereas institutions were found to play a very insignificant role in graduate employment. Supply and demand imbalance in the labor market results in about two thirds of college graduates and two fifths of vocational school graduates being mismatched to their jobs. Over one third of college graduates and over two fifths of mid-level specialists found themselves overeducated in their first jobs. Among the employed graduates of skilled-worker programs, 63% were employed as skilled workers, clerks, service and retail sale workers, i. e. their entry-level jobs were well-matched to their level of qualifications.Employment is higher among vocational graduates of both types and significantly higher among college graduates than the national average. Graduates in higher education also demonstrate the lowest unemployment rate.

Gray University Degrees: Experimental Evidence from India

Scams involving university degrees are flourishing in many emerging markets. Using a resume experiment in India, this paper studies the impact of gray degrees, or potentially bought academic credentials from questionable universities, on callback rates to job applications. The experiment varied the type of degree (no, gray, and authentic) in online applications to entry-level jobs that require no university qualification. We find that gray degrees increase callback rates by 42 percent or 8 percentage points relative to having no degree. However, we also document that gray degrees fare on average worse than authentic degrees. These empirical patterns are consistent with a model where employers have beliefs about the authenticity of degrees and are discounting gray-degree universities probabilistically. We discuss our findings with respect to the Indian context.

Impact of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) on Employability

Technical education becomes the need of the hour as organizations are looking for employees who are technically sound and has the capacity to accommodate themselves in any kind of changing business environment. Flexibility comes first followed by the knowledge and expertise. There is need for educational sector reform to address the gap between existing employability skills and skill levels at entry level job. Most of the literatures observed the gap that exists in the present scenario. There is a specific need from the employer that they are looking for people who do not have basic skills but a diversity of knowledge that helps them to achieve business optimization. The present paper is an effort to understand the importance of ICT and employability. This paper is a kind of review and the objective of the paper is to understand the role of ICT in employability and to undertake an intensive empirical study based on the various research gaps identified from such reviews. Only secondary data included, for which the information collected by visiting various libraries and with the help of online journals for this paper. The present study will definitely give new dimension to all existing literatures.

PERCEPTUAL GAP AMONG CORPORATE WORLD, ACADEMICS AND STUDENTS: PERSONAL QUALITIES AND EMPLOYABILITY COMPETENCIES OF STUDENTS

Personal qualities and employability competencies influence how an individual interacts with others. Employers value employability skills because they are linked to how employees get along with co-workers and customers, job performance, and career success of the employee. Hence personal qualities and employability competencies are considered as one of the essential components for an individual’s career development. This study aims to understand the perceptual gap among the corporate world, business school academics and business school students. This study is quantitative in nature and primary data was collected through survey method. The primary data was collected from 377 Master of Business Administration (MBA) students, 276 Business School faculties and 98 managers representing 100 different companies in Bangalore, India. Three different questionnaires were prepared for three groups. All three sets of respondents were asked to rate their perception towards the requirement of personal qualities and skill/competencies required at the workplace in an entrylevel job. The study highlights that there is a significant difference in the perception of students, business school faculty and managers towards listed personal qualities and competencies. These perceptual differences result in different types of costs to the company in terms of time, money and energy. The results will help the business schools to develop an innovative business curriculum that can fill the current industry needs.

PERCEPTUAL GAP AMONG CORPORATE WORLD, ACADEMICS AND STUDENTS: PERSONAL QUALITIES AND EMPLOYABILITY COMPETENCIES OF STUDENTS

Personal qualities and employability competencies influence how an individual interacts with others. Employers value employability skills because they are linked to how employees get along with co-workers and customers, job performance, and career success of the employee. Hence personal qualities and employability competencies are considered as one of the essential components for an individual’s career development. This study aims to understand the perceptual gap among the corporate world, business school academics and business school students. This study is quantitative in nature and primary data was collected through survey method. The primary data was collected from 377 Master of Business Administration (MBA) students, 276 Business School faculties and 98 managers representing 100 different companies in Bangalore, India. Three different questionnaires were prepared for three groups. All three sets of respondents were asked to rate their perception towards the requirement of personal qualities and skill/competencies required at the workplace in an entrylevel job. The study highlights that there is a significant difference in the perception of students, business school faculty and managers towards listed personal qualities and competencies. These perceptual differences result in different types of costs to the company in terms of time, money and energy. The results will help the business schools to develop an innovative business curriculum that can fill the current industry needs.

Employer-Employee Perceptual Differences in Job Competency: A Study of Generic Skills, Knowledge Required, and Personal Qualities for Accounting-Related Entry-Level Job Positions

Employer-Employee Perceptual Differences in Job Competency: A Study of Generic Skills, Knowledge Required, and Personal Qualities for Accounting-Related Entry-Level Job Positions

Brain Remain

Volumes of research studies, surveys, and census data document the “brain drain,” the phenomenon of highly educated and highly skilled workers migrating from their hometown to an urban or metropolitan area that promises a better life. Early indications of brain drain begin with high school graduates determining where to attend college. There is a pervasive belief that it is a measure of success and part of a process of upward mobility to go away to college, and therefore an implied failure if one remains in their hometown or region while earning a degree. This mentality and encouraged brain drain behavior is reinforced by a K-12 education system that sorts students early in their academic careers and invests in the best and brightest, while paying little attention to the majority of students (Harmon, 2010). This is a skewed approach and leaves many individuals, and their hometowns, with few opportunities and stifled upward social and economic mobility.
 
 The needs of the workforce are rapidly changing. Some form of post-secondary education is required for the majority of entry-level jobs in the United States (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2017). Yet, higher education is being faced with increasing competition and growing skepticism regarding the value of a college degree. By collaborating and partnering with the region in which an institution exists, urban, suburban, or rural, colleges and universities can cut through higher education’s competitive noise and growing skepticism, while addressing the changing workforce needs and redefining students’ pride about where they earn a degree, and begin their careers, close to home.
 We call this paradigm shift the “Brain Remain,” and it has the potential to significantly alter the way higher education, K-12 districts, businesses, and community leaders work, operate, and collaborate in the new economy. This, in turn, can create bold new opportunities for students where they least expect them: right in their own backyards.