Overeducation And Skills

"Overeducation is one of the most important mechanisms for labor market adjustment when there is an excess supply of high-skilled workers. However, there is much debate about the consequences of this phenomena and the short and long term effects for both the overeducated worker and the economy as a whole. This book contributes to our understanding of recent developments in the research on overeducation by providing a detailed overview of the pertinent theoretical and policy issues."

Economists and social scientists consider the two views of people working at jobs that do not require as much educations they have. One faction contends that the practice wastes skills and worsens the labor market position of less educated workers. The other faction emphasizes the importance of knowledge as a means of increasing international competitiveness. Among the topics are whether the Finnish labor market has bumped the least educated, over-education and crowding out low-skilled workers, an empirical test of the effect of bumping down on wages, whether more high-skilled workers occupy simple jobs during bad times, and job competition in the Dutch labor market. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Analyzes the 1970s downturn in the labor market for college-educated manpower, considers consequences for educational institutions, and explores policies for alleviating the situation. Bibliogs

This volume contains original research articles which analyze the linkages between education and skills and the causes and consequences of different types of skill mismatch. The volume yields new insights regarding overeducation, underskilling, graduate jobs, wages returns to skills, aggregate productivity, job complexity and skill development.

USA. Monograph on labour market problems resulting from discrepancies betwen higher education educational level and actual job requirements, causing a surplus in university graduate labour supply - presents definitions of overeducation as well as human capital theoretical explanations, analyses research methods and research results for interpreting trends between 1960 and 1976 (incl. Projections to 1985), and considers implications for job satisfaction, performance and workers' health, labour policy, etc. Bibliography pp. 129 to 143 and graphs.