Why graduate labour markets still show a skills mismatch
A conversation with our Education & Human Capital programme on why employer surveys and graduate outcome data keep pointing to different problems.
Employer surveys have for years reported a shortage of "job-ready" graduates. Graduate outcome data, tracked over the same period, show falling unemployment but stagnant wage growth relative to experience. We asked programme fellow Kwame Asante-Boateng why the two pictures diverge.
"Employer surveys usually ask about a fairly narrow set of technical or communication skills," he said. "Outcome data capture something broader — whether a graduate's role, pay and progression match their qualification level. Those are different questions, and they can move independently."
Asked what the data do show clearly, he pointed to sector concentration: "Mismatch is heavily concentrated in a small number of fast-changing occupational categories, not spread evenly across the graduate population. Averaging across all graduates hides that concentration."
The programme's working paper on the underlying methodology, including the occupational classification used, is available alongside this note for readers who want to replicate the analysis on national data.