Labour Market Outcomes Of Graduates Research Articles

Postsecondary pathways and graduate earnings: does transfer make cents?

ABSTRACT Post-secondary education (PSE) experienced explosive growth and diversification over the past century, affording students a range of increasingly complex pathways that they can travel to acquire a credential. In various jurisdictions, governments have made significant investments to facilitate student uptake of unconventional transfer pathways that involve stops at multiple institutions. But, there has been limited effort to understand the impact of travelling these unconventional pathways on graduate labour market outcomes. Moreover, existing studies across many jurisdictions typically lack access to detailed measures of academic performance, demographics, and other pertinent controls that could explain the relationship between PSE pathway uptake and labour market outcomes. Through this study we model this relationship by drawing on a large custom linkage between student records from the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) and three large administrative datasets housed in Statistics Canada’s Education and Labour Market Longitudinal Linkage Platform (ELMLP). This linkage offers census-level coverage of the population of interest and allows us to longitudinally track students from their Grade 9 year at the Toronto District School Board (TDSB), into and through Ontario PSE, and then as they enter the labour market. Our analyses unearth a series of pathway-based earnings disparities that prove robust to available controls. We elaborate on the implications of these findings for policymakers and draw attention to their relevance for scholars interested in school-to-work transitions in Canada and abroad.

초등 교원양성기관 졸업자의 노동시장 성과 및 영향요인 변화 분석

Objectives This study aims to examine the background of the current social issue of elementary teacher supply and demand, and to analyze changes in the labor market outcomes of graduates from elementary teacher training institutions, and identify influencing factors.
 Methods Data from the Korean Employment Information Institute's 2009, 2019 Graduates' Occupational Mobility Survey (GOMS) of 315 elementary education graduates were used. Weighted variables were applied to the 2019 GOMS data for 170 graduates and the 2009 GOMS data for 145 graduates. Frequency analysis and descriptive statistics were used to analyze labor market outcomes among graduates. Cross-tabulation and logistic regression analysis were employed to identify factors influencing their employment using STATA 15.0.
 Results Compared to 2009 graduates, 2019 graduates experienced an 8% rise in unemployment, a 7% increase in irregular employment, and a 15% drop in regular employment. There was a 10% decrease in regular elementary teaching positions and an 11% increase in temporary teaching positions among 2019 graduates. Factors affecting employment differed: gender for 2009 graduates, while student loan status, participation in job psychology tests, and interview resume program participation were significant for 2019 graduates. Gender, school satisfaction, on-campus job experience, and participation in job psychology tests were influential for 2009 graduates, while graduation grade percentile and school location were significant for 2019 graduates.
 Conclusions Based on these findings, the study emphasizes the necessity of long-term perspectives in elementary teacher training and supply policy and the need for expanding career and employment support programs for current students in the short term.

Competence Proximity to Employers’ Requirements and Labour Market Success of Economics and Business Graduates

Abstract This research concentrates on Croatia with threefold aims: (1) to identify and quantify key competences developed by economics-and-business graduates; (2) to assess the degree of proximity between competences acquired at universities and those required on the labour market; and (3) to investigate how this proximity translates labour market outcomes for graduates. This research is based on primary data, collected through two questionnaires, one for graduates and one for firms. Key competences were identified using factor analysis. Proximity between employers-required and graduates-acquired competences were then used as covariates in explaining differences in graduates’ employability and wage premiums using standard regression model, Heckman selection model and instrumental variables approach. Results show that university education is highly skewed towards the acquisition of economics-and-business practical competences, while employers put greater emphasis on generic competences. Results also point to a penalty of having a competence gap on graduates’ probability of being employed and on their wages.

Labour Market Outcomes of Graduates in Economics in Australia*

The discipline of economics encompasses broad skillsets with diverse applications in employment markets and industries. Studies of labour market prospects for economics graduates are relatively dated particularly in the light of developments such as declining interest in economics in high school and university. This study examines the labour market outcomes of Australian economics graduates, at the bachelor and postgraduate levels, using a national dataset. We observe strong employment prospects for graduates in economics after graduation, in terms of full‐time employment and salaries. Obtaining a postgraduate qualification appears to pay off, with master's and PhD graduates experiencing more favourable employment outcomes than bachelor's graduates. Substantial proportions report being overqualified for their jobs although this proportion is comparable to those reported for the broader Australian graduate labour market. Reassuringly, those initially overqualified transition out and overqualification reduces in the longer term. Most economics graduates become economists, but many others enter a wide array of other occupations. Of those who start out in non‐economist professions, there is a 42 per cent chance that they transition to economist roles after 2.5 years. In summary, an economics degree leads to favourable employment and earnings and should still be considered an attractive choice for prospective students.

Transnational education, labor market outcomes and graduate employability: a scoping review

PurposeThis scoping review aims to survey literature that covers employability preparation and labor market outcomes for graduates from transnational higher education institutions.Design/methodology/approachThis scoping literature review uses career ecosystems as a theoretical framework and the context-input-process-outcomes model as a conceptual framework.FindingsThis scoping review confirms a limited research base of approximately 50 sources that primarily use qualitative methods and socio-economic theories to center the student voice and focus on international branch campuses in the Middle East and Asia. Notably, there is a lack of focus on staff experiences regarding the process of preparing students for employment. The review also demonstrates the need for more research on career processes and outcomes in transnational higher education.Research limitations/implicationsThis scoping review is relevant to higher education institutions seeking to meet the challenges of preparing graduates for more than one national labor market. It has implications for universities' ability to attract students, develop relevant labor market preparation programming and understand whether the institution is addressing local employment needs. For researchers, it offers insight and impetus into the area of inquiry regarding transnational education, graduate labor market outcomes and employability.Practical implicationsPractical implications are drawn for students, parents, policymakers and transnational and non-transnational higher education institutions, as well as those who are engaged in providing international education and career advice.Social implicationsThis review offers insight into developing labor market-relevant TNE programming, which may be helpful both for host and home country transnational education stakeholders interested in impact.Originality/valueThis is one of the first reviews to systematically address literature about employability preparation and labor market outcomes for graduates from transnational higher education institutions; in using career ecosystems theory, this review offers a bridge between international higher education and career studies.

Variations of Gender Gaps in the Labour Market Outcomes of Graduates across Fields of Study: A (Combined) Test of Two Theories

Unequal gender outcomes in occupational success unravel through different channels in higher education. Using the AlmaLaurea dataset comprised of 80% of Italian graduates and 98 fields of study, this article investigates whether men and women receive similar returns on employment and earnings when choosing the same field of study. Two complementary perspectives are applied – Kanter’s theory of relative numbers and the status theory of gender – to examine the quantitative and qualitative differences between fields. The results show that the most gender ‘balanced’ fields of study are the most gender unequal in terms of earnings and employment. Separate analyses demonstrate that the status of a field interacts with its gender composition, and gender gaps in female-intensive nurturing fields shrink faster with an increasing proportion of women, albeit at higher absolute levels compared with non-nurturing fields. Therefore, nurturing fields of study should not necessarily be considered as levelling gender inequality in the labour market.

Scaling up community college baccalaureates in Washington State: Labor market outcomes and equity implications for higher education

Community and technical colleges in Washington state were early adopters in the growing trend to offer bachelor’s degrees, actively expanding these degrees over the last 15 years. This study describes the evolving state policy landscape on community college baccalaureate (CCB) degrees in Washington in certain programs previously classified as terminal career-technical education and assesses labor market outcomes for graduates of three high-demand program areas conferring these degrees. Comparing bachelor’s graduates of community colleges to regional university graduates, CCB graduates demonstrated slightly higher employment and earnings in the first quarter post-graduation. However, university graduates caught up to approximately the same or slightly higher earnings as CCB graduates by three years post-graduation. Differences in age and prior work experience of graduates in the two groups may help explain these findings but variation in employment and earnings by gender and race were persistent for both groups, with pronounced disparities for female and some racially minoritized graduates. These findings can inform state policy on baccalaureate attainment, CCB degrees as well as university bachelor’s degrees, to help address inequities in higher education. Future studies evaluating the effects of college degrees on employment and earnings may also be enriched by these results.

Graduate labour market outcomes and satisfaction with university education in Spain.

The objective of this paper is to analyze the association between the job placement results of graduates and the satisfaction that, retrospectively, they express about their university education. Despite the fact that, in Spain, 47.0% of the population aged 25 to 34 has a higher education degree, we have little knowledge of the determinants of university student satisfaction. In addition, most studies have focused on evaluating the university experience (teaching activity, study plans, counselling for students, or facilities) and very few of them have taken into account the influence of graduates’ labour market outcomes on their satisfaction. This issue is of particular interest in the Spanish case, considering the dysfunctional nature of the youth labor market, which has high rates of overqualification, excessive job turnover and high unemployment. The sources of statistical information used in this work include the first two editions of the "University Graduate Job Placement Survey", carried out by the Spanish National Institute of Statistics (INE) in 2014 and 2019. The methodology used in the empirical work is the propensity score matching estimator. The results of empirical analysis indicate that graduates’ job placement difficulties have a significant association with their dissatisfaction with their university experience. In particular, educational mismatch (horizontal and vertical) and, to a lesser extent, unemployment and low wages significantly increase the probability of graduates stating that, if they had to start over, they would not return to university or they would not study the same degree.

Vocational training and labor market outcomes in the Philippines

The paper analyzes the labor market outcomes of graduates of post-secondary technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in the Philippines. Using household data for 2015–2016, the results show significantly higher wages for TVET graduates relative to those who entered the job market with a secondary school education or below. However, individuals who both trained in TVET and pursued tertiary (university) education tend to have a lower wage than those with secondary school education or below. This counterintuitive result may be partly explained by the tendency for such dual-level individuals to complete the lowest level of TVET. Graduates of TVET are found more likely to be employed compared to individuals who only studied at secondary school or below as well as those who studied at the tertiary level.

The Impact of Vocational Training on Labor Market Outcomes in the Philippines

The paper analyzes the labor market outcomes of graduates of post-secondary technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in the Philippines. Based on human capital theory, our guiding assumption is that investment in education is rewarded through higher wages and a greater likelihood of being employed. Using household data for 2015–2016, the results show significantly higher wages for TVET graduates relative to those who entered the job market with a secondary school education or below. However, individuals who both trained in TVET and pursued tertiary (university) education tend to have a lower wage than those with secondary school education or below. This counterintuitive result is explained by the tendency for such dual-level individuals to complete the lowest level of TVET. Another result is that TVET graduates are more likely to be employed than both those who only studied at secondary school or below and those who studied at the tertiary level. The results are generated from a linear regression model that corrects for sample selection into employment and from the use of propensity score matching which addresses selection into TVET.

Proposal to Improve Employability and Facilitate Entrepreneurship among Graduates of the Master’s Degree in Institutional Translation of the University of Alicante


 The aim of this article is to describe the strategies included in our proposal to improve employability and facilitate entrepreneurship among graduates of the Master’s Degree in Institutional Translation. Firstly, this paper takes as a starting point the survey data collected by the Technical Unit for Quality Assessment (UTC) at the University of Alicante. This data shows the evaluation done by the graduates of the Master’s Degree in Institutional Translation on the competences preparing them for graduate labour market outcomes and entrepreneurship. Secondly, it explains the different curricular and extracurricular activities, as well as elective subjects, which are either being carried out at the moment or to be implemented in the future, so that students can develop the competences that the translator’s profession requires. The paper also mentions the role played by each institutional party involved in this collaborative action and proposes measures to consolidate and further develop the initiative.

Student Skills and Employability: A Study from Students’ Perspective

Student Skills and Employability: A Study from Students’ Perspective

Exploring ethnic differences in the post-university destinations of Russell Group graduates

The high aspirations of British ethnic minorities are evident in their high rates of participation in higher education. However, some ethnic minority groups remain strikingly under-represented in the most selective universities, and recent studies have shown that university graduates from ethnic minority backgrounds are less likely than otherwise comparable white graduates to gain employment in a higher salary, graduate-level job after their degree. This is likely to be due partly to the effects on graduate labour market outcomes of subject studied and university attended. However, no study to date has explored the graduate labour market outcomes for ethnic minority students in the UK’s most ‘prestigious’ universities, defined here as one of the 24 member institutions of the Russell Group. This article draws on data for recent graduates (2009–2013) from the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education survey compiled by the UK’s Higher Education Statistics Agency. We explore ethnic differences in attainment in five distinct graduate destinations (employment in professional occupations; further study; employment in non-professional occupations; inactivity; and unemployment), controlling for educational and social background. Our results suggest that ethnic minority graduates of Russell Group are less likely than their white counterparts to fare well in the labour market and are more likely to adopt a compensatory strategy of further educational investment, that is a strategy of entering postgraduate education to avoid short-term unemployment or underemployment in a non-graduate job. Our findings challenge a key assumption of the government's social mobility policy agenda that graduating with a good degree from a highly selective university enables ethnic minorities to realise aspirations for upward social mobility.

Against the Grain? Assessing Graduate Labour Market Trends in Germany Through a Task-Based Indicator of Graduate Jobs

Applying work by Green and Henseke (in IZA J Labor Policy 5(1):14, 2016a), this study examines changes in the German graduate labour market in the twenty-first century. To do so, it deploys a new statistically derived indicator of graduate jobs, based on job skill requirements obtained from worker-reported task data in the German Employment Surveys 2006 and 2012. As in previous work, the resulting classifier explains differences in graduate labour market outcomes better than existing methods and can be applied in a range of contexts where intelligence on graduate destinations is desired. It is supplied in the appendix of this study. Despite the expansion of higher educational attainment between 1999 and 2012, my analysis indicates a rising excess demand for graduate labour. Following key findings emerge: Graduate skills are required beyond the narrow range of professions. Work tasks associated with cognitive skills use are key determinants of higher education requirements on the job.The proportion of graduates in the age bracket 25–34 has risen among men from 14.7 to 18.9% and from 13.3 to 22.5% among women between 1999 and 2012. Young women have become the group with greatest level of higher education in the labour market.The growing supply of graduate labour in the age bracket 25–34 was surpassed by the expansion of employment in graduate jobs. The employment share of graduate jobs shifted by 17 percentage points to almost 30% among young women and by 11 percentage points to 28% among young men.Among young female graduates, the incidence of underemployment fell to 22% between 1999 and 2012; roughly comparable to the level among males at the same ages. Prime aged female graduates, however, experience above average rates of underemployment.A sharp rise of the pay premium associated with higher education among men contrasts with stagnating wage differentials among women.The pay penalty associated with underemployment has not changed statistically significantly.

Who gets a job after graduation? Factors affecting the early career employment chances of higher education graduates in Poland

The massification of higher education in Poland means that many students choose this educational pathway to improve their chances for a good job. Therefore, the labour market outcomes of graduates provide an important perspective for future students, higher education institutions, as well as decision makers at the national level. The Polish Graduate Tracking System (ELA), based on administrative data, is designed to monitor graduates’ outcomes in the labour market by type of studies, higher education institution, as well as individual curricula. Results of the first two years of graduate tracking show that the outcomes vary by study area, but also change over time. While in the first months after graduation, aspects such as prior experience in the labour market and place of residence have a substantial effect on employment chances, in the longer run, they lose their importance relative to other factors.

Equity in higher education and graduate labour market outcomes in Australia

ABSTRACTThe rate of higher education participation in Australia has increased over the past decade for individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds. This study contributes to the knowledge on the outcomes of disadvantaged individuals who complete higher education by looking at the labour market outcomes of university graduates from equity groups. The number of Indigenous graduates and graduates with disabilities was found to be very low, suggesting that more needs to be done to improve higher education completion for these two groups. The labour market outcomes for other equity groups are mixed, with those from low socio-economic status backgrounds and regional and remote Australia performing well in the labour market, while graduates from non-English-speaking backgrounds and female graduates in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields experience substantial disadvantage in the labour market. The findings suggest that selection processes prior to the graduates’ entry into the labour market are important.

Does the type of higher education affect labor market outcomes? Evidence from Egypt and Jordan

In Egypt and Jordan there is a substantial mismatch between the output of the higher education system and the needs of the labor market. Both demand and supply-side factors could be driving this mismatch. This paper tests a key supply-side issue, whether differences in the institutional structures and incentives in higher education affect the labor market outcomes of graduates. Specifically, we ask if the stronger alignment of incentives in private relative to public higher education institutions produces more employable human capital and better labor market outcomes. We examine the impact of the type of higher education institution a person attends on several labor market outcomes while controlling for his or her pre-enrollment characteristics. The results demonstrate that supply-side issues and institutional incentives have little impact on labor market outcomes while family background plays by far the largest role. Proposed reforms for higher education often suggest increasing the role of the private sector in provision of higher education. Our findings indicate that this approach is unlikely to improve labor market outcomes.

Does Private Higher Education Improve Employment Outcomes? Comparative Analysis from Egypt

Private players are often perceived as powerful drivers of innovation and efficiency. This argument remains untested in the field of higher education. This paper examines whether there are differences in the labour market outcomes for graduates of public and private higher education institutions in Egypt. Relying on a unique data set tracing graduates, the analysis shows that the type of higher education institution has no statistically significant effect on graduates’ job security and earnings. Ascribed characteristics of gender and parental socio-economic background, along with the sector of employment, were the key predictors of these labour market outcomes.

Better safe than sorry? The role of stratification and quality of higher education in the labour market outcomes of graduates across Europe

This article assesses the impact of higher education and academic field of study on young people’s labour market outcomes across Europe. A sequential logit approach is adopted to analyse transitions into (a) labour market participation, (b) employment and (c) permanent contracts. Three waves (2003–2005) of the European Union Labour Force Survey are pooled capturing data on over a million individuals across Europe. The results show that higher education has indeed a positive impact on securing employment, but a more limited effect on assuring permanent contracts. Furthermore, strong differences across countries and academic fields are found, which are explained in the light of the stratification level and quality of the higher education systems across European countries.

Employability skills initiatives in higher education: what effects do they have on graduate labour market outcomes?

The present paper makes use of detailed information gathered at university department level, combined with graduate survey data, to assess the impact of different kinds of employability skills initiative on graduate labour market performance. We find that structured work experience and employer involvement in degree course design and delivery have clear positive effects on the ability of graduates to secure employment in ‘graduate‐level’ jobs. However, a measure of departmental involvement in explicit teaching and assessment of employability skills is not significantly related to labour market performance.