Coping with unemployment in COVID-19: The role of employability beliefs in exploration self-efficacy

Abstract

The new coronavirus global pandemic has caused accelerated and emerging changes in the labor market, including increased unemployment. We examined the associations between employability beliefs and career exploration self-efficacy of 1585 unemployed adult workers, in Portugal, who lost their job after COVID-19. Participants completed measures of employability beliefs consistent with striving, proactivity, flexibility, acceptance of challenges, optimism and autonomy dispositions, and of career exploration self-efficacy. Using multiple linear regression analyses, we found that employability dispositional beliefs established significant positive associations with career exploration self-efficacy, especially autonomy, striving and optimism. Implications of these findings for future research and practice are considered.