Overeducation in the Flemish youth labour market

Based on three definitions, we measure overeducation among Flemish labour market entrants and investigate its determinants to test the validity of different theories and to shed more light on the validity of the measures themselves. Depending on the measurement method, overeducation varies in the first job from 26 to 54%. Looking for the determinants of mismatch, the results differ for the various measures and schooling levels. We find clear evidence that the probability of overeducation is lower for search intensive individuals, individuals with better study results and for jobs in small firms. Furthermore, overeducation differs greatly among jobs in different occupations and industries. These results are largely explained by the difficulties that some occupations and industries have to fill their vacancies. As expected, the measure based on job analysis delivers the most consistent results. However, we find indications that part of the mismatch, measured by job analysis and to a lesser extent by indirect self-assessment, results from differences in job complexity.nrpages: 40status: publishe