Educational Imbalance in the Job Market

Educational imbalance can be present in the job market. The job market should be a place where educational qualifications and jobs are matched. However, we can observe that many jobs accept, welcome or encourage applicants who are not educationally suitable to them. Supply and demand for graduates can also be a form of imbalance in education. There are certain times in which graduates in in demand careers are few while graduates in saturated fields are many.

• The Job Market – The job market manifests a form of educational imbalance. There have been an increase in jobs which are lenient on the qualifications of graduates. There are job advertisements which indicate that they prefer graduates of the study field corresponding to the career field; they further indicate that they also will still greatly consider applicants who are not graduates in the study field corresponding to the career. To add, because of the dual and multi-training of graduates, students and drop outs, many companies do not specify study fields that they require of graduates or non-graduates in their job advertisements. They indicate that any graduate, for example, in any course can be considered for the position.

• Supply Of and Demand For Graduates – Supply and demand are factors and they can be factors in educational imbalance. Every now and then, certain career fields experience over or lack of supply of graduates. Correspondingly, certain study fields experience over or lack of demand for their graduates. For example, nursing graduates were in demand in previous years because there were still few graduates compared to vacant nursing jobs. In response to the demand, many students study nursing with the hope of landing jobs after they graduate. However, as time passed by the vacant positions were filled and the newer graduates arrive at the job market only to find out that the demand have been satisfied and there is now shortage of vacant positions.