Education–job match among recent Canadian university graduates

Abstract

This study uses data from the 2005 Follow-up of Canadian Graduates – Class of 2000 – to look at the determinants of education–job match among university graduates. The question of education–job match is relevant given the substantial investment society puts into its postsecondary institutions and the role devoted to human capital in economic development. We find that 35.1% of graduates are in a job that is not closely related to their education 5 years after graduation. The education–job match strongly depends upon education characteristics, with fields that focus on providing specific skills for the job market (such as ‘Health sciences’ and ‘Education’) being associated with the highest likelihood of obtaining an education–job match. In addition, the level of education, good grades and time devoted to studying strongly affect the match. Employment characteristics also affect the match, but to a mixed extent. One of our main findings is that predetermined characteristics (age, gender and family background) do not significantly affect the match. However, immigrants are significantly disadvantaged even if they hold Canadian degrees.

Keywords:

• education–job match
• university graduates
• determinants
• Canada

JEL Classification:

• C35
• I21

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful for valuable comments and suggestions from Jean-Michel Cousineau, Vincent Rousseau and participants of the International Conference on Social Statistics and Higher Education (Montreal, 7–9 December 2009). They thank Statistics Canada and the Quebec Inter-University Centre for Social Statistics for granting access to data.