To read this content please select one of the options below:

Skill mismatch comparing educational requirements vs attainments by occupation

Kea Tijdens (Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
Miroslav Beblavý (Centre for European Policy Studies, Brussels, Belgium)
Anna Thum-Thysen (Centre for European Policy Studies and European Commission, Brussels, Belgium)

International Journal of Manpower

ISSN: 0143-7720

Article publication date: 5 November 2018

808

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to overcome the problems that skill mismatch cannot be measured directly and that demand side data are lacking. It relates demand and supply side characteristics by aggregating data from jobs ads and jobholders into occupations. For these occupations skill mismatch is investigated by focussing on demand and supply ratios, attained vis-à-vis required skills and vacancies’ skill requirements in relation to the demand-supply ratios.

Design/methodology/approach

Vacancy data from the EURES job portal and jobholder data from WageIndicator web-survey were aggregated by ISCO 4-digit occupations and merged in a database with 279 occupations for Czech Republic, being the only European country with disaggregated occupational data, coded educational data, and sufficient numbers of observations.

Findings

One fourth of occupations are in excessive demand and one third in excessive supply. The workforce is overeducated compared to the vacancies’ requirements. A high demand correlates with lower educational requirements. At lower occupational skill levels requirements are more condensed, but attainments less so. At higher skill levels, requirements are less condensed, but attainments more so. Educational requirements are lower for high demand occupations.

Research limitations/implications

Using educational levels is a limited proxy for multidimensional skills. Higher educated jobholders are overrepresented.

Practical implications

In Europe labour market mismatches worry policy makers and Public Employment Services alike.

Originality/value

The authors study is the first for Europe to explore such a granulated approach of skill mismatch.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The first author gratefully acknowledges the Marie-Curie ITN Network Grant for EDUWORKS (EU-FP7 No. 608,311, 2013–2017). This paper builds on research conducted as part of the InGRID project (EU-FP7 No. 312,691, 2013–2017). The WageIndicator data used in this paper have been made available by the WageIndicator Foundation. The authors finally acknowledge support by the EURES team, in particular Kristof Dankaert, and the Czech EURES advisor team. The authors thank two anonymous referees of this journal for their comments.

Citation

Tijdens, K., Beblavý, M. and Thum-Thysen, A. (2018), "Skill mismatch comparing educational requirements vs attainments by occupation", International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 39 No. 8, pp. 996-1009. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJM-10-2018-0328

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited

Related articles