Job-field underemployment: its effect on career obstacles in the Israeli labor market

Purpose

The purpose of the current article is to examine the effect of the inefficient allocation of academic individuals in the Israeli labor market in terms of mismatch between their fields of education and occupation – a phenomenon referred in the literature as “horizontal mismatch” and “job-field underemployment” – on their duration of unemployment, in the local labor market.

Design/methodology/approach

A sample size of 8,554 participants have taken part in the survey by the Central Bureau of Statistics: Undergraduate students at academic institutions in Israel in the academic year of 2010–2011, who were sampled again in the academic year of 2017–2018, to determine the nature of their integration into the labor market, and the quality of their career progress. The study’s methodology is statistical-correlational, and its data mainly based on the answers of the participants in the research tool (questionnaire). A T-test for independent samples (via SPSS) has proven the key results.

Findings

The average cumulative annual duration of unemployment, as of graduation with a bachelor’s degree, among the mismatched graduates, was found to be higher than the average cumulative annual duration of unemployment among the matched graduates.

Originality/value

The current study’s originality lays both in its large sample size (8,554), and in the repeatability element of its sampling (test-retest reliability). Also, its findings regarding the consequences of the nature of the match between the educational field and occupational field – on the quality of integration of academics in the Israeli labor market, are pioneers in this field.