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Graduate employment and underemployment: opportunity for skill use and career experiences amongst recent business graduates

Ghulam R. Nabi (Senior Lecturer in Human Resource Management and Organizational Behaviour at Leeds Business School, Leeds Metropolitan University, Leeds, UK)

Education + Training

ISSN: 0040-0912

Article publication date: 1 November 2003

11304

Abstract

Graduate underemployment continues to be a serious and growing problem in the UK. Yet, there is a scarcity of research that has attempted to identify the nature, extent and specificity of the problem. This study examines the opportunity for skill use (skill requirements of the job, personal skill levels, congruence between these two measures) and intrinsic (job, career, life satisfaction) and extrinsic career success (salary, promotion) amongst underemployed graduates. Appropriately employed graduates (those who were in jobs for which they required their degree) were used as a comparison group. Questionnaire data were collected from 203 business graduates in the UK. The key findings suggested that underemployed graduates reported significantly lower levels of opportunity for skill use and intrinsic (job, career, life satisfaction) and extrinsic career success (salary). The implications of these findings and avenues for further research are discussed.

Keywords

Citation

Nabi, G.R. (2003), "Graduate employment and underemployment: opportunity for skill use and career experiences amongst recent business graduates", Education + Training, Vol. 45 No. 7, pp. 371-382. https://doi.org/10.1108/00400910310499947

Publisher

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MCB UP Ltd

Copyright © 2003, MCB UP Limited

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