College or university graduates who can’t secure their first job because they do not have the relevant vocational and practical work skills and experience in their job of choice upon graduating are forced to take on short-term jobs that are unrelated to their field of study.
Many lacked the necessary interview and job application skills to be able to attain full-time work or jobs of their choice.
Unfortunately, it is five times more likely that young job seekers will remain unemployed after five years of graduation when compared to those who were not underemployed in their first job.
Some will eventually not use what they have learned at colleges and universities. Most likely, they will struggle financially to pay off their student loans. They don’t earn enough money to survive and save enough money for a house and car.
The social impact of under-employed over-qualified graduates will be increasing if nothing drastic is done to minimise and manage these challenges.
For over-qualified graduates, they can remain under-employed for a very long time. Under-employment of over-qualified graduates will be problematic for many countries especially when job vacancies are fast diminishing with an increasing number of young people coming into the job market.
On a positive note, degree holders in most STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) are less likely to be under-employed. If they can find jobs, they will earn more money than non-college graduates.
Jobs specialisation will be another key for the future of work. Generalist will find it harder to secure a job in the future.
What is needed is a better course and career guidance for students and school leavers. This will minimise any misalignment between their job aspirations and educational intention. Over- or under-qualification of graduates must be proactively managed so that students are not overburdened with unnecessary study debts due to the increasing cost of education and living.
It is not surprising that many young people will increasingly struggle with modern-day living. They will increasingly experience mental health conditions and stresses and will require resources to mitigate.
To speed up the transition into full-time employment, besides to have a positive mindset, school leavers should actively consider future-proofed employment types like being carers (i.e., nursing, social workers), technologist (i.e., software engineers, web administrator, ICT business analysts), or informers (i.e., teachers, policy analysts, event organisers).
The ‘know-who’ factor is also relevant in finding and securing jobs as many job vacancies are not advertised but filled via personal contacts and through networking. This is where parents and adults can play an active role in assisting young people to get their foothold into the job market.
The shift to jobs requiring high skills (i.e., professionals) and high touch (i.e., community and personal services) will only become more intense in coming years as more and more jobs and tasks are transformed or replaced by technology and automation. These are the skills that graduates (and job seekers) must constantly acquire to make them job-ready and future-ready.
It is more instructive to examine which jobs rely on skill sets that machines are unable to replicate because it is these jobs that will be most resilient and future-proof in terms of their requirement for uniquely human labour.