Exploring Mismatches Between Higher Education and the Labour Market in Greece

Abstract

In the last two decades, the labour markets of many OECD countries have witnessed major changes in the relative position of low-and highly-skilled workers. On the one hand, inequalities between the earnings of the low-and the highlyskilled have increased. On the other, the less skilled workers were much more vulnerable to the risk of unemployment than the highly-skilled ones. Amongst the theories that have been developed to explain the deteriorating position of the less educated workers, the hypothesis of a skill-biased technical change (Machin & Van Reenan, 1998) seems to find the most support in the relevant literature.

The relationship between higher education and labour market in Greece: the weakest link?

“…The Center of Planning and Economic Research (KEPE 2003) questions the aim of many recent changes in the educational system and suggests that there has been a tendency towards the provision of more education without scanning the needs of the society and economy 4 (p66). In fact according to data published by the Ministry of Education, the number of academic departments between 1993 and 2002 has increased by 40% and the number of students entering higher education has increased by 115% during the same period (Liagouras et al, 2003).…”

Degrees of precariousness : the problematic transition into the labour market of Greek higher education graduates

“…During the crisis, the availability of highly skilled graduates intensiied competition for the fewer jobs that were on offer as the public sector shrunk and the private did not recuperate the job losses it sustained due redundancies imposed by the lack of investment and reduced proitability. However, the traditional orientation of higher education towards the public sector (Kanellopoulos et al, 2003) did not alter accentuating therefore the mismatch between the production of graduates and the labour market capacity to absorb them (Karamessini, 2008;Liagouras et al, 2003). What is more, the crisis dismantled the foundations of the Greek labour market and created an attendant social crisis, which severely affects its highly educated youth and curtails their employment prospects.…”

“…Transition issues facing Greek graduates are explained through the traditional orientation of higher education towards the public sector (Kanellopoulos et al, 2003) but also through the mismatch between the production of graduates and the labour market capacity to absorb them (Karamessini, 2008;Liagouras et al, 2003). Using aggregate data from various sources, but mainly from Eurostat and OECD, this paper explores these key issues and their ability to account for transition dificulties especially among young graduates.…”

The early career paths of UK-educated intra-European mobile graduates

“…Norwegian (Wiers-Jenssen, 2008, 2003, Støren and Wiers-Jenssen, 2010 and Greek (Liagouras et al, 2003) returners; and on a European-wide study about the labour market activities of graduates (Teichler, 2011). In this review, the term 'movers' is used for those who were mobile after graduating in their home countries; 'returner' for those who, after undertaking their undergraduate studies in a different European country (degree mobility), had returned to their home countries; and 'other mobile graduates' for those who had studied and graduated in a foreign country and, following that, had moved to a country different to their home countries.…”

“…Most previous studies looked either into the employment of highly-educated migrants (Recchi and Favell, 2009); of foreign-educated returners (Wiers-Jenssen and Try, 2005, Wiers-Jenssen, 2008, Liagouras et al, 2003, Lianos and Asteriou, 2004; or of those mobile after graduating in their home countries (Teichler 2011). A coherent picture to capture the phenomenon of mobility after graduation, however, should include both, foreigneducated returners and home-educated mobile graduates and add foreign-educated mobile graduates who moved to a third country.…”