There is an increasing concern about graduate unemployment in many countries today. It has become very difficult for a significant number of university graduates to get a job after they complete their studies. How can this problem be tackled or solved? Any successful experience that can be shared?
Dear Tamrat,
The problem is a very complex and long standing, denied of the attention it deserves by politicians for so long period. Just to contribute a little we have to see both from the demand supply side of the equation. From the demand side there should a coordinated policy intervention to encourage investment , sustained growth (labor intensive) and broad based economic development. To bring such growth, there should be committed politicians to fight corruption, economic policy uncertainty, lawlessness (peace), economic integration (so as to allow) free flow of resources among countries, and a sound macro-economic policy to support such economic space. From the supply side the poor skill, knowledge, attitudes , as a result of the poor educational system has to be radically changed. The participation of private sector industry in the continents educational curriculum is very indispensable.
Dear Wondwosen, this issue is fascinating. Besides the challenge of graduate unemployment, there is a close-related problem which is the so-called professional underemployment. That is when graduates (for instances) get jobs which require much less education. By this way, when you have a kind of high-literacy unemployment, probably you would have a high degree of professional underemployment. Therefore, perhaps, a strand to find out good experiences it would be to check those cases where professional underemployment is low.
Here is a paper about professional underemployment:
Clogg, C., y J., Shockey (1984) “Mismatch Between Occupation and Schooling: A Prevalence Measure, Recent Trends and Demographic Analysis”, Demography, Vol.21, N° 2 (May, 1984), pp. 235-257.
Thank you Gonzalo for sharing your observation and suggesting a resource. Yes, as you noted correctly, the issue of graduate unemployment can be looked at from different perspectives- indicating the level of sophistication needed in confronting this challenge of our time.
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