Measuring Occupational Mismatch: Overeducation and Overskill in Europe—Evidence from PIAAC

Abstract

Occupational mismatch has been a hot topic in the economics literature in recent decades; however, no consensus has been reached on how to conceptualise and measure this phenomenon. We explore the unique opportunity offered by the PIAAC survey to measure occupational mismatch at the individual level based on both education-(overeducation) and skill-based (overskilling) variables by using both objective and subjective measures. For this purpose, we use data on 17 European countries and compute up to 20 different indicators of occupational mismatch. We find that the conceptualisation and measurement of occupational mismatch are indeed important and that education and skill mismatch do not measure the same phenomenon. In fact, only a small percentage of mismatched individuals are mismatched with respect to both education and skill, whereas the majority are mismatched with respect to either education or skill only. At the country level, we find a negative correlation between the incidence of education and skill mismatch, which has important implications for policies aiming to address this labour market inefficiency.

A Systematic Literature Review and Analysis of Unemployment Problem and Potential Solutions

“…While an increasing number of universities have greater enrolment than in past decades, less attention is paid to their output quality in terms of balancing acquired skills with demanded skills. This has led to increasing the unemployment rate of graduated students, especially since the recession, as only a few graduated students possess required market skills [ [16]. For example, this mismatch contributed to approximately one-third of the recent rise in US unemployment [9], as the greater number of mismatches happen at the educational level.…”

“…In addition, one-ninth of the causes of unemployment during the great recession was due to skills mismatch in the Netherlands [15]. On the other hand, the study of [16] showed that a small rate of mismatch was related to both education and skills, while a larger rate was related to either education or skills only. In addition, it found that the relationship between education and skills mismatch was negative, which plays an important role in tackling this labor skills inefficiency.…”

Wage Losses Due to Overqualification: The Role of Formal Degrees and Occupational Skills

“…Because of improved data, it has become possible to differentiate between formal qualification mismatches and the mismatches between an individual's set of skills and the skills that are required for a certain job. Recent empirical studies conclude that formal qualification mismatch and skills mismatch are not necessarily the same phenomenon (Allen et al 2013;Allen/van der Velden 2001;Flisi et al 2016;McGowan/Andrews 2015). Employees can be formally well-matched but mismatched regarding skills (and vice versa).…”

“…Desjardins/Rubenson 2011;Flisi et al 2016;Levels et al 2014;McGowan/Andrews 2015;Pellizzari/Fichen 2013). Therefore, these studies can only focus on broad skill measures or general human capital.…”

Har innvandrere bidratt til bedre balanse mellom tilbud av og etterspørsel etter arbeidskraft i det norske arbeidsmarkedet – hva kan en enkel indikator fortelle?

“…Det kan også føre til mistilpasset sysselsetting sett i forhold til utdannelse, kvalifikasjoner og ferdigheter, samt i dårligere ansettelsesvilkår, se f.eks. Flisi, Goglio, Meroni, Rodrigues & Vera-Toscano (2017) og Montt (2017) om 'vertikal' og 'horisontal' mistilpasning. Denne artikkelen begrenser seg til mistilpasning som resulterer i manglende sysselsetting, noe som fører til både høyere samlet arbeidsledighet og større variasjon mellom ulike deler av arbeidsmarkedet, som regioner eller yrker.…”