From University to Work III Part 1 : Sociological Mechanisms of Determinants of Job Opportunities for Non-Selective College Students

During 1990s, job markets for university graduates faced drastic changes. On the one hand, the number of appropriate jobs for college graduates reduced greatly. Part time or temporal jobs increased and the number of graduates who had no jobs upon graduation increased. On the other hand, the supply side of new school graduates\u27job market changed. The main source of supply became college and university graduates because the number of work-bound high school graduates reduced and college-bound students increased. How do those structural changes in job market contribute to changes in the mechanisms of job allocation among college and university graduates? What factors determine the allocation of ""good"" jobs? In this first report, we examine the sociological mechanisms of determing job opportunity allocation. We conducted a questionnaire survey in January and February in 2005. We chose students in business majors in ""C group"" non-selective 4 year-colleges, which intake students with relatively lower academic achievement. We find that although many different aspects of students affect job allocation, no decisive factors appear to be powerful enough for students to understand what they should do for getting ""good jobs"" during 4 years in colleges