Graduate unemployment increasing - January 27, 2006

While most graduates find employment within the first year after graduating, most on an indefinite contract, the rate of graduate unemployment has increased over the last four years, a study has found.

The tracer study, Career Outcomes Of Graduates 2004, carried out by the Students' Advisory Services in collaboration with the Centre for Labour Studies at the University of Malta, found that most students earn the equivalent of the average Maltese national wage in the first year.

Graduates seem to be experiencing greater difficulties in finding jobs at professional, technical, administrative and managerial levels, and many initially kicked off their working careers in executive and clerical posts. But although 40 per cent of the new graduates had found employment which did not specifically require their qualification, the education and experience acquired to achieve that qualification was an asset to the job.

The study, published last month with the assistance of Euroguidance Malta within the Leonardo da Vinci programme of the EUPU, revealed however that there has been an increase of four per cent in the number of unemployed new graduates over the past four years. The rate now stands at eight per cent, up from 3.7 per cent four years ago.

"The January-March 2005 Labour Force Survey shows that the overall Maltese unemployment rate stood at 6.7 per cent, which is considerably lower than the graduate unemployment rate of eight per cent. However, the graduate unemployment rate is lower than the general unemployment rate of young persons." The study pointed to several reasons. It is "primarily attributed to a fall in the demand from the public sector which used to be the main source of employment of new graduates. The government's policy of curtailing employment in the public sector to be in line with the Maastricht Criteria is having an adverse effect on the recruitment of graduates", the study pointed out.

Another reason may be the result of the oversupply of University graduates, particularly those that have achieved a BA (Hons) degree, as opposed to graduates from science-based courses who run few risks of unemployment or underemployment.

While the rate of graduate unemployment is lower than the general unemployment rate of young persons, other reasons include the fact that the private sector does not seem to have generated enough demand to recruit the increasing number of graduates seeking employment, and that graduates might only apply for vacancies for professional posts as they might not want to start their working life on the lower end of the organisational hierarchy.

"This rise in unemployment rate might also be in part due to a mismatch between education and the world of work. Employers and graduates often accuse the University of focusing too much on academic knowledge while giving less importance to practical skills and the application of theories. In fact, relatively few University courses include a substantial amount of work observation and practice within their syllabus."

Furthermore, efforts to align post-secondary and tertiary education with the needs of the work sector have traditionally tended to be more sporadic and inconsistent, the study pointed out.

"A lack of proper policy and strategy is probably the main reason for such failure. The career guidance system in Malta, while in operation for many decades, has until now not been given sufficient resources to operate effectively. Besides, the various private and public entities working in the career guidance field are not adequately coordinated... It is hoped that the drafting of a career guidance policy for compulsory schooling, which should be completed by mid-2006, will pave the way for a more concerted effort."

With regard to seeking employment, the findings showed that graduates tend to refrain from using employment agencies, relying more on adverts in newspapers as their preferred type of job search. Employment agencies are used in only four per cent and as a consequence, "the Employment and Training Corporation, has traditionally focused on the employment demands of lower level occupations, ignoring - by default rather than by active design - the need of tertiary educated people. This situation needs to be remedied before the state of unemployed and underemployed graduates worsens," the study warned.

Once employed, graduates tend to adopt positive attitudes towards work, most of whom are satisfied with their jobs, the study found. The majority of employed graduates said they have the necessary skills to perform their job and do not consider quitting their job. They also perceive their job as being challenging.