The 'Overqualified third-level graduates in the Irish labour market' seminar took place in the Fórsa offices on Wednesday 11 January 2023 from 15:30 - 16:30. It was also run as a live streamed event.
The details are as follows:
Title: 'Overqualified third-level graduates in the Irish labour market'
Speaker: Ciarán Nugent, NERI economist
Date: Wednesday 11 January 2023
Details of seminar:
NERI economist, Ciarán Nugent presented on his paper 'Overqualified third-level graduates in the Irish labour market'. Subsequently, a discussion will be open to the floor where the chairperson, Dr. Tom McDonnell. NERI Co-director presented questions to Ciarán. See presentation attached below and link to the video.
Abstract:
This report first estimates the share of tertiary graduates among the population, the working population, by gender and for the youngest cohort. In addition, the report presents the occupational breakdown of Irish employment by gender and for younger workers. The analysis also identifies overqualification among younger workers, by gender, by economic activity or sector (NACE), by field of Education and by Nationality.
The analysis found that since 2008, there has been a large increase in the share of working age adults with tertiary qualifications in Ireland and the share of those in work with higher education also shot up. At the same time, since the collapse of Construction and return to growth in 2012, the breakdown of Irish employment by broad occupational group as categorised by the level of investment in education required has changed little, with the share of ‘high-skill’ jobs remaining largely static. The share of jobs in Skilled Trades for instance, increased by just over 1 percentage point in those seven years, the biggest change of nine broad groups.
In addition, approximately 3 in 10 third level graduates employed in Ireland are working in occupations where their qualifications go unused with higher incidence for young workers. Approximately 333,500 workers were overqualified third level graduates in 2019, around 15 percent of employment. Women are also more likely to be overqualified among third level graduates and make up a higher share of all overqualified workers (185,000 or 56 percent).
Biography of the presenter:
Ciarán Nugent is an Economist at the Nevin Economic Research Institute and is based in the Dublin office. He is currently pursuing a doctorate with the Department of Sociology in Maynooth with assistance from the Irish Research Council through the Employment-based programme. He lectures part-time in the Department of Applied Social Studies in Maynooth in Political Economy and the Welfare State and he sits on the Living Wage Technical Group. He also sits on the Board of Directors of GEMS NI.
His research interests include returns to education, overqualification, social mobility, income distribution, wages, precarious work, the cost of living and intergenerational inequality. He graduated with an MA in Economics and BA in International Politics from NUI Maynooth.
Ciarán also produces the NERI video and podcast series.