It’s a mismatch! Overeducation and career mobility in Germany

Abstract The career mobility model suggests that overeducated workers are more prone to take up on-the-job training, to climb up the career ladder, or to leave to professions more suitable to their educational level. Our empirical analysis, using the German SOEP, confirms this theory for Germany. Comparing adequately qualified and overqualified workers in jobs that require the same level of formal qualification indicates that overeducated workers have a higher probability to take up on-the-job training and have a higher probability to move to jobs that better match their educational level. Furthermore, we find that overeducated workers experience higher wage growth than their adequately educated colleagues.