Mismatch: how many workers with a bachelor's degree are overqualified for their jobs?

Conventional wisdom holds that recent college graduates have a harder time finding jobs today than in the past. But a new approach to assessing job suitability suggests otherwise. To bridge the chasm between competing viewpoints on college's utility, this study uses statistical and earnings tests to measure how many college graduates were overqualified for their positions. The approach can be applied in different years to identify whether an occupation is a good fit for a college-educated worker based on each year's conditions. By using this technique, the author finds a higher percentage of college-educated workers in good-fit jobs than other approaches do.

All occupations can be divided into good-fit bachelor of arts (BA) jobs and overqualified BA jobs. In 1980, 39 per cent of employment was good-fit, but this figure rose to 45 per cent in 2014. Several external factors affected the rising level of education-based earnings inequality during this time. The share was 24 per cent in 1980, when many new college-educated baby boomers entered the labor force. After declining to 21 per cent at the end of the Clinton boom in 2000, it rose during the economic troubles sparked by the 2008 financial crisis and reached 25 per cent in 2015.

Edited excerpts from publisher's website. Show less