Skills and education mismatch

This chapter addresses three key aspects of young people's lives: the nature of human capital development in third-level institutions; transitions from education to work; and the relative exposure to employment mismatch and separation in employment. Young people are more likely to become unemployed but are also more likely to move from unemployment to employment. With respect to the individual characteristics that influenced labour market transitions, higher levels of schooling were a key factor affecting the likelihood of exiting unemployment to enter employment. The result suggests that young people's relative exposure to job loss is particularly high during recession. In terms of within-employment mismatch, the evidence indicates that while overeducation rates in Europe are converging upwards over time, the general pattern of overeducation is linked across many countries, suggesting that the phenomenon responds in a similar way to external shocks and, consequently, is likely to also react in similar ways to appropriate policy interventions.