As the Spring Festival is coming to an end, graduate students may find it harder to get a desirable job than usual, as a recent survey shows that only 29 percent of students with master’s degrees have secured jobs, down from last year.

A survey conducted from December last year to January 2013 by My China Occupational Skills (MyCOS), a higher education consulting and outcome evaluation facility in China, found that , seven percentage points lower than last year, Xinhua News Agency reported Wednesday.

The survey collected 10,940 valid questionnaires, of which 3,802 were from graduate students, 3,699 from undergraduates and 3,439 from graduates of vocational training schools.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor from

via Higher degrees worth less in job searches in China this year – Globaltimes.cn.

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China / College Grads seeking better jobs take education entrance exams

College graduates who are taking postgraduate entrance exams are doing so largely because they desire better job opportunities, according to survey results released on Saturday. The survey, carried out by independent survey institution My China Occupation Skills from Nov. 23 to Dec. 19, 2012, indicated that 34 percent of respondents believe taking the exams will … Continue reading »

China / Only 30 per cent of university students felt they would be able to find work

Employment prospects are looking increasingly grim amongst many “post-80s and 90s” university graduates and students across the country according to a recent report by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The CASS Blue Book of China’s Society revealed that only 76 per cent of 2012 graduates had been able to find jobs, Caijing reported on Monday. … Continue reading »

“Political leaders, prominent foundations, and college presidents have argued that the nation must increase the proportion of adults with college degrees in order for America to remain competitive in the global economy” write Richard Vedder, Christopher Denhart, and Jonathan Robe in Why Are Recent College Graduates Underemployed? University Enrollments and Labor-Market Realities (Adapted quotes to follow).

Supporting those positions, some have issued studies demonstrating that there is a significant earnings premium associated with the possession of a college degree. That is, college graduates tend to earn more in the labor market compared with those with only a high-school education, a differential that is large enough to justify the expenditure of increasingly large sums of money necessary to finance a college degree.

A less optimistic story points out that, while there are undoubtedly many who benefit —even quite substantially economically, from higher education, a not inconsequential number of Americans who obtain higher education do not achieve the economic gains traditionally accompanying the acquisition of college-level credentials.

The study uses empirical evidence relating to labor markets to argue that a growing disconnect has evolved between employer needs and the volume and nature of college training of students, and that the growth of supply of college-educated labor is exceeding the growth in the demand for such labor in the labor market.

Main Findings

• About 48 percent of employed U.S. college graduates are in jobs that the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) suggests requires less than a four-year college education. Eleven percent of employed college graduates are in occupations requiring more than a high-school diploma but less than a bachelor’s, and 37 percent are in occupations requiring no more than a high-school diploma;

• The proportion of overeducated workers in occupations appears to have grown substantially; in 1970, fewer than one percent of taxi drivers and two percent of firefighters had college degrees, while now more than 15 percent do in both jobs;
• About five million college graduates are in jobs the BLS says require less than a high-school education;

• Comparing average college and high-school earnings is highly misleading as a guide for vocational success, given high college-dropout rates and the fact that overproduction of college graduates lowers recent graduate earnings relative to those graduating earlier;
• Not all colleges are equal: Typical graduates of elite private schools make more than graduates of flagship state universities, but those graduates do much better than those attending relatively non-selective institutions;
• Not all majors are equal: Engineering and economics graduates, for example, typically earn almost double what social work and education graduates receive by mid-career;
• Past and projected future growth in college enrollments and the number of graduates exceeds the actual or projected growth in high-skilled jobs, explaining the development of the underemployment problem and its probable worsening in future years;
• Rising college costs and perceived declines in economic benefits may well lead to declining enrollments and market share for traditional schools and the development of new methods of certifying occupation competence.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor from

via Underemployment of College Graduates.

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US College / Unemployment Rate for Bachelor’s-Degree: 3.7 Percent

I like to make this chart of unemployment rates by education attainment every few months. And it’s been a few months, so: Here’s what this graph does not say. It doesn’t say that college is guaranteed to get you a job, especially right out of school. It also doesn’t say that college drop-outs are destined … Continue reading »

“The consideration of race as an affirmative factor in higher education admissions decisions remains the target of legal challenges and public debate” writes Liliana M. Garces in Understanding the Impact of Affirmative Action Bans in Different Graduate Fields of Study. (Quotes to follow)

A new challenge to the constitutionality of the practice is now being considered by the U.S. Supreme Court in Fisher v. University of Texas, Austin. In addition, eight states currently ban the consideration of race in admissions at public institutions of higher education. Of these, six (Arizona, California, Michigan, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Washington) implemented the bans through voter-approved initiatives or referenda; two others (Florida and New Hampshire) banned the practice, respectively, by executive decision or legislative vote. These bans have been enacted despite the 2003 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Grutter v. Bollinger—which allows institutions to practice affirmative action under strict limits—because states can amend their respective constitutions (through state ballot measures, initiatives, or legislation) to prohibit practices that may be permitted under the federal constitution or federal law.

Important findings on the impact of banning affirmative action in higher education were just published in the American Educational Research Journal (AERJ) in Online First. Affirmative action in university admissions has long been a matter of public debate, and Fisher v. University of Texas, Austin has placed its use in admissions policy as an issue before the U.S. Supreme Court. AERJ is a top-ranked peer-reviewed journal of the American Educational Research Association.

The article, “Understanding the Impact of Affirmative Action Bans in Different Graduate Fields of Study,” presents the results of a study undertaken by Liliana M. Garces, George Washington University. Garces examines the effects of affirmative action bans on the enrollment of students of color across six fields of graduate study in four states—California, Florida, Texas, and Washington. The six fields of graduate study are the natural sciences, engineering, social sciences, business, education, and humanities.

Garces’ research shows that the impact of affirmative action bans was most pronounced in engineering, natural sciences, and social sciences, fields in which students of color already are underrepresented. She encourages educators to reconsider their admissions practices and consider the benefits of campus diversity for all students, benefits that include enhanced critical thinking skills, cultural awareness, civic engagement, and workforce competencies/leadership skills.

In light of national concerns over underrepresentation of students of color in the fields of science and engineering, Garces says that banning all affirmative action considerations in admissions in graduate fields of study has consequences. “As institutions struggle to increase the representation of students of color in graduate programs, particularly in STEM fields, the findings from this study suggest that bans on affirmative action are inhibiting these efforts. . . . Graduate education programs will need to rise to the challenge and adopt innovative outreach and recruitment practices and adopt admissions criteria to help reverse this trend.”

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor from 

via The Impact of Affirmative Action Bans in Graduate Fields of Study 

Quebec / The Summit on Higher Education: The losers are youth holders of vocational and technical degrees

First, let us set the record straight. Yes, our opinion is out of context because it expresses the so-called ‘utilitarian’ view of education, from the perspective of one who is now studying to earn a living later.

We must first recognize that the Summit has focused on universities rather than on education. As college studies have hardly been discussed, so was the important (missing) links between the various levels of education. Simply put, it was not on the agenda. And it is very sad for Quebec’s youth and for its economy.

From an ‘utilitarian’ point of view, it becomes urgent that skills are recognized, irrespective of where they were acquired. In practical terms, the question is as follows:

Why a high school graduate with a DEP would not, as easily as possible, become a technician with a college degree or an engineer college with a university degree if he has the capacity and if it suits him ?

In Quebec, the three levels of education (vocational education, technical education and university education) are now under the jurisdiction of two ministries. It is now almost certain that two independent advisory committees will answer to the two ministers on any issues … What a beautiful bureaucratic solution….

Instead of providing better support to the social and occupational mobility by building bridges to simplify the lives of young people holding vocational and technical education degrees, the choice ‘makers’ have chosen to multiply the decision-making arenas and the obstacles, maybe just by ignorance that they were doing so! In sum, the decision ‘makers’ have added barriers and hurdles to those faced by young people who want to to complete their education.

In the current context, many young people have to make career choices with the painful impression that they are closing their doors if they opt for vocational or technical education. Given the existing obstacles to move from one level of education to another, they are not wrong. In addition to being sad, this is economically very costly for Quebec. But this issue is not on the agenda.

Michel Cournoyer

The Editor of the Job Market Monitor

En français @:

Québec / Les grands perdants du Sommet sur l’enseignement supérieur: les jeunes titulaires de DEP et de DEC techniques

Une mise au point s’impose. Oui, cette chronique est hors contexte car elle traite du côté dit ‘utilitaire’ de l’éducation, soit dans la perspective de celui qui étudie maintenant pour gagner sa vie plus tard. On admettra d’emblée que le Sommet a essentiellement porté sur les universités et non sur l’enseignement supérieure. Comme ont n’y … Lire la suite »

All that cramming and hard work might pay off after all: German graduates are practically guaranteed a job – current figures show nearly full employment among those who have an academic degree. 

Just 2.2 percent of graduates had no work in 2011 according to figures issued on Tuesday by the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) – part of the Federal Employment Agency.

Even in 2006, just 3.6 percent of all university graduates were unemployed, while in 1997 the rate was higher at 4.5 percent.

Technical college graduates also have good prospects for finding work – just 2.5 percent were unemployed in 2011, down from 3.3 percent jobless in 2006.

Yet although graduates were usually working, many did not have the kind of job they may have wanted.

“In 2009, almost every third tertiary education graduate had a non-standard job,” said Brigitte Weber und Enzo Weber, the authors of the study.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor

via Education ‘protects against unemployment’ – The Local.

The employment rate for graduates from polytechnics or vocational schools is more than 95 percent, higher than that for their college counterparts, according to a report by the Ministry of Education on middle-level vocational education.

The message is such schools provide the right people with the right skills for enterprises and they meet the needs of the country’s industrial development.

That more than 6 million graduates from such schools have entered manufacturing enterprises from 2007 to 2011 speaks volumes for how important a source of labor they are for the country’s manufacturing industry. From 2006 to 2011, more than 30 million graduates joined the total workforce.

What is noteworthy is the fact that more than 84 percent of vocational school students are from rural families and 70 percent from the underdeveloped western regions.

Without such schools, more than 20 million young rural villagers would probably have joined the ranks of migrant workers.

The expansion and extension of this kind of middle-level education has not only provided the country’s industries, manufacturing in particular, with a stable source of skilled workers, it has also made it possible for young villagers to avoid the footsteps of their parents of either farming in the fields or becoming migrant workers.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor 

 via Quality vocational education |Editorials |chinadaily.com.cn.

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China – More than 30m students in vocational schools

China has more than 30 million students studying in vocational schools, as well as 72.65 million people who have graduated from such schools over the last 10 years, according to a report issued by the Ministry of Education. According to a report on the development of vocational education, the employment rate for graduates of secondary … Continue reading »

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2012-2013 powered by Thomson Reuters are the only global university performance tables to judge world class universities across all of their core missions – teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook. The top universities rankings employ 13 carefully calibrated performance indicators to provide the most comprehensive and balanced comparisons available, which are trusted by students, academics, university leaders, industry and governments.

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Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor 

via World University Rankings 2012-2013.

Around one in five UK university professors are female. That’s better than 3%, which was the figure in 1989. But it’s nowhere near parity – and in many parts of the world, the number of women working at the top level of academia or in senior university management positions is far worse.

The failure of higher education institutions to fully accept women into their most senior structures has led female academics to demand a radical solution. At the British Council’s Going Global conference in Dubai, an international grouping of senior women called for equality to be made a key performance indicator in quality audits of higher education institutions. The fewer women at the top table, the idea goes, the lower down the league tables a university would slide.

It’s the first demand of six in what is being called a Manifesto for Change for Women in Academic Leadership and Research. Female academics, the manifesto says, must also start getting a lot more of the big money for research projects, with “gender implications and impact” being included by grant making bodies as criteria against which funding applications are assessed.

Other points include a requirement for “mainstreaming”, so that diversity is fundamentally incorporated in all of a university’s practices and procedures, and the creation of a global database on women and leadership in higher education, so that it’s easier to see how slowly – or indeed how fast – the situation improves country by country.

A series of British Council workshops and seminars in Hong Kong and Tokyo have been exploring the reasons behind what remains a considerable equality gap in virtually every country in the world. Evidence from an international group of female academics has been analysed by Professor Louise Morley from the Centre for Higher Education and Equality Research, who says that patterns of discrimination appear similar across national boundaries.

“Barriers include the failure to recognise, identify and nurture women’s talent, the gendered division of labour inside the academy, with women frequently responsible for the organisational housework, [and the] view that men are more suited to leadership authority,” says Morley.

In regions which seem to show less discrimination against women academics with ambitions to progress, a range of factors come into play. Sometimes those factors are not particularly positive: in the Philippines and Sri Lanka, Morley explains, female academics have been able to rise up the career ladder because the profession isn’t perceived as desirable, prestigious, or sufficiently well-remunerated by men.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor 

 via Gender equality in higher education must be made a global priority.

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Higher Education – Women : 25 Countries Where Women Don’t Go To College

“In America and other well-developed countries, it’s easy to take education for granted. For most women, if you want to go to college, you can make it happen, whether it’s through student loans, scholarships, or alternative education. But around the world, millions of women and girls never have that opportunity, and often never even complete … Continue reading »

Two-Thirds of Young Arab Women Remain Out of Workforce According to a Gallup Survey

About one in three young Arab women between the ages of 23 and 29 participate in their country’s labor force versus about eight in 10 young Arab men. This gender gap is generally consistent across the 22 Arab countries and territories Gallup surveyed in 2011, but young women’s labor force participation is slightly higher in … Continue reading »

Talented Working Mothers: 28 percent of women with Harvard MBAs had left the workforce 15 years after receiving their degree

A 2009 study from University of Califirnia Berkeley Haas School of Business found that 28 percent of women with Harvard MBAs had left the workforce 15 years after receiving their degree.  A 2010 study of MBAs from top business schools by University of Chicago Booth School of Business found that hours and labor force participation … Continue reading »

Women in US – America has a “leaky” talent pipeline

“Women have been a growing factor in the success of the U.S. economy since the 1970s. Indeed, the additional productive power of women entering the work force from 1970 until today accounts for about a quarter of current gross domestic product (GDP). Still, the full potential of women in the work force has yet to … Continue reading »

Central Banks – Women challenge men’s club

When the European Parliament turned Yves Mersch down for a top central banking post, it wasn’t because he lacked the expertise or experience; they rejected him because he is a man. Mersch, a Luxembourger who is highly regarded by his peers, had been expected to get the job on the European Central Bank’s all-male board … Continue reading »

In a new EPI paper, Hal Salzman of Rutgers, Daniel Kuehn of American University and B. Lindsay Lowell of Georgetown University find little evidence to support expansion of high-skill guestworker programs as proposed in the immigration bill being debated in the Senate. Contrary to many industry claims, the study finds that U.S. colleges and universities provide an ample supply of highly qualified science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) graduates.

In Guestworkers in the high-skill U.S. labor market, the authors examine the IT labor market, guestworker flows and the STEM pipeline, and conclude that the United States has more than a sufficient supply of STEM workers available.

Key findings include:

• Guestworkers may be filling as many as half of all new IT jobs each year
• IT workers earn the same today as they did, generally, 14 years ago
• Currently, only one of every two STEM college graduates is hired into a STEM job each year
• Policies that expand the supply of guestworkers will discourage U.S. students from going into STEM, and into IT in particular

“The debate over guestworker programs is largely based on anecdotal evidence and testimonials from employers, rather than solid evidence,” said Salzman. “Our examination shows that the STEM shortage in the United States is largely overblown. Guestworker programs are in need of reform, but any changes should make sure that guestworkers are not lower-paid substitutes for domestic workers.”

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor

via EPI analysis finds no shortage of STEM workers in the United States | Economic Policy Institute.

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The 21st Century Workforce and the STEM Dilemma (Infographics)

“The 21st Century Workforce: Skills Gap and the STEM Dilemma,” outlines the current lack of qualified workers and the pressing need to engage students with STEM education. Raytheon believes that in order to build the next pipeline of technologists and innovators to ensure a competitive U.S. workforce and future economic growth, students must be shown … Continue reading »

US Competitiveness – STEM – Change the Equation

“… The U.S. will be short as many as 3 million high-skills workers by 2018, according to a Georgetown University report issued last year. Two thirds of those jobs will require at least some post-secondary education, says Anthony Carnevale, director of the Georgetown’s Center on Education and the Workforce.” “So dire are the predictions about … Continue reading »

Classle has launched Ready Steady Jobs, a programme to tackle the employability issue.

The training, according to Vaidya Nathan, Chief Executive and Founder of Classle, would consist of a series of video tutorials, discussions and assignments, targeted at helping students develop the skills required to land a satisfying job.

‘It is open to students across all disciplines and is for free,’ Vaidya Nathan told Business Line.

The programme started on April 8 and will end on July 31.

Around 150 colleges, mostly from Tamil Nadu, besides some in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra are said to have tied up with Classle.

Vaiya Nathan says that around 79,000 students have registered for the Ready Steady Jobs programme till date (since its commencement on April 8).

Asked how this programme would help students become industry-ready, he said, “We are not looking at employability in isolation. It is not like fitting an alloy wheel in a car. We will put the candidate through a series of tests, track their activity in a passive way by engaging them in discussions and so on, and as also help them enhance their technical knowledge and communication skills.”

Based on the interactions during the programme, we will prepare a report on five dimension including quantitative ability, skill and expertise, academic and personal details and the unique trait smart report, said the Classle Founder.

“Jobs are aplenty. While employability is an issue, the fact is – job aspirants are only looking to join the Big Four and campus placement. We are looking to groom the prospective candidate and signal to the hirers to look at the world as a talent acquisition platform,” he said.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor

via Classle launches ‘Ready Steady Jobs’ prog to tackle employability issue – Business Line.

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India / Employability / The AMCAT – Aspiring Minds Computer Adaptive Testing

An oft-repeated grouse by the industry that only 25 per cent of the graduates are employable continues to be a niggling worry for institutions. Realising that it is essential to effectively measure the employability level of students to show the institutions where they stood to take remedial measures or improve, Aspiring Minds, an employability measurement … Continue reading »

McKinsey partnered with Chegg Inc. to conduct a survey that gauges the attitudes of more than 4,900 recent graduates on a range of issues. The mix included attendees of four-year and two-year private and public colleges, as well as vocational and for-profit institutions. The survey primarily focused on students who graduated between 2009 and 2012, though some students still working toward their degrees were surveyed as well. (Adapted Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor to follow).

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Source: Voice of the Graduate McKinsey on Society.

Full Report @:

Expressing concern over the lack of employability of engineering graduates in the state, the Odisha Private Engineering College Association (OPECA) has decided to hold an educational conclave on May 17 to guide colleges to maximize students’ employability.

“By our own evaluation, only about 35% engineering graduates are getting jobs in their areas of specialization. Another around 20% are underemployed. They work in a different area of specialization with salary not commensurate with their qualification,” said OPECA secretary Binod Dash.

The all-India trend on employability is not very good either. According to NASSCOM, India produces around three million graduates and post graduates every year. Of them only 25 per cent of technical graduates and 15 per cent of other graduates are employable.

The educational conclave will aim at preparing the next generation for real world challenges. It will be an industry-academia interface to help college authorities understand the needs of the industry.

According to a section of educationists, employability of the technically-qualified manpower is over-hyped while the technical education sector is suffering from multiple problems. “Most of the colleges have gross shortage of faculty members. Many don’t have the right kind of infrastructure. In such a situation, the overall quality of education imparted by many colleges is poor. If these improve, quality of students and their job skills will automatically improve,” said Trilochan Pradhan, who headed the commission for technical education formed by the state government in 2009 to come out with suggestion to improve technical education in the state.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor

via Conclave to augment employability of engineers – Times Of India.

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ndia / From Job Centres to Employability Centres

Minister for Labour and Rehabilitation Shibu Baby John on Saturday said that the employment exchanges in the state would be converted into Employability Centres with the introduction of the Additional Skill Enhancement Programme (ASEP). The project is aimed at converting Employment Exchanges into employment generation centres. These employability centres are being established to change the … Continue reading »

India / Employability / The AMCAT – Aspiring Minds Computer Adaptive Testing

An oft-repeated grouse by the industry that only 25 per cent of the graduates are employable continues to be a niggling worry for institutions. Realising that it is essential to effectively measure the employability level of students to show the institutions where they stood to take remedial measures or improve, Aspiring Minds, an employability measurement … Continue reading »

India – Employability of MBA graduates at dismal low

Employability of MBA graduates across specialisations is at a dismal low, says the National Employability Report MBA Graduates, Annual Report 2012 by Aspiring Minds. While employability is below 10% for functional role in the field of HR, marketing or finance, in business consulting roles, it is as low as 2.5%. The study also revealed that … Continue reading »

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, bachelor’s degree holders between the ages of 20 and 24 saw average unemployment more than double from 2007 through 2011. But by 2012, it was falling quickly, back to within about a point of where it was at the turn of the century, when times weren’t exactly awful. None of this says anything about underemployment — students taking jobs they’re overqualified for just to pay rent — but it’s an encouraging sign nonetheless…

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor

via A History of the Job Market For New College Grads (In 3 Graphs) – Jordan Weissmann – The Atlantic.

The employment to population ratio, also referred to as the employment rate, represents the proportion of the civilian population that is employed, and it is used as a measure of labor market conditions and the economy’s ability to provide jobs for a growing population. In this indicator, employment to population ratio and employment rate are used interchangeably. The employment to population ratio and unemployment rate are related. Movements in the unemployment rate reflect net changes in the number of people who are looking for work but are unable to find it, while movements in the employment to population ratio reflect whether the economy is generating jobs fast enough to provide employment for a constant proportion of the population. Further, changes in the employment to population ratio for a particular subgroup (e.g., male high school dropouts) indicate the economy’s performance in providing jobs for that particular group.

This spotlight examines employment rates between 1990 and 2012 for three age groups: young adults (those ages 20–24), 25- to 34-year-olds, and 25- to 64-year-olds. In 2012, the employment rate was 69 percent for young adults and 74 percent for 25- to 34-year-olds (see Digest of Education Statistics 2012, table 431). The employment rate for 25- to 64-year-olds overall (72 percent) was higher than the employment rate for young adults, but lower than the employment rate for 25- to 34-year-olds. This indicator also examines employment rates by educational attainment, which refers to the highest level of education achieved (i.e., less than high school completion, high school completion, some college, or a bachelor’s degree or higher).

via The Condition of Education – Spotlights – 2013 Spotlights – Trends in Employment Rates by Educational Attainment – Indicator May (2013).

In the past, a college degree all but assured job seekers employment and high earnings, but today, what you make depends on what you take. In Hard Times 2013, we show differences in unemployment and earnings based on major for BA and graduate degree holders. We show that STEM — Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics — majors typically offer the best opportunities for employment and earnings, while unemployment is higher for graduates with non-technical degrees.

Majors with highest and lowest unemployment rates. Nursing and Elementary Educa- tion majors have the lowest unemployment rates among recent graduates. Architecture and Information Systems major have the highest.

1. Even as the housing bubble seems to be dissipating, unemployment rates for recent architecture graduates have remained high (12.8%). Graduate degrees and work experience did not shield these graduates from a sector-specific shock; graduates with experience in the field have the same jobless rates as the economy overall (9.3%).

2. Unemployment is generally higher for non-technical majors, such as the arts (9.8%) or law and public policy (9.2%).

3. People who make technology are still better off than people who use technology. Unemployment rates for recent graduates in information systems, concentrated in clerical functions, is high (14.7%) compared with mathematics (5.9%) and computer science (8.7%).

4. Unemployment rates are relatively low for recent graduates in education (5.0%), engineering (7.0%), health and the sciences (4.8%) because they are tied to stable or growing industry sectors and occupations.

5. Graduates in psychology and social work also have relatively low rates (8.8%) because almost half of them work in healthcare or education sectors.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor

via Center on Education and the Workforce -.

A generation ago men in higher education outnumbered women. Now the opposite is true. What happened? asks Jos Claessen.

In the school year 2010/2011, 123,894 students attained a higher education degree (a higher vocational education bachelor or an academic bachelor or master). But this imposing figure hides a worrying imbalance between male and female graduates which should give us pause for thought.

Of this number, 44% was male while women made up the majority with 56%. A discrepancy of this size is astounding. Only a generation ago men outnumbered women in higher education. In 2013 it’s the men who are lagging behind. Why?

Administrators and politicians are becoming increasingly aware that a transformation is taking place. In 2011, former education minister Marja van Bijsterveld shrugged off what she perceived to be a minor drop in school performance by boys. Her successor Jet Bussemaker, however, wonders in her Emancipation policy outline if the ‘success of the girls’ comes with a ‘problem for the boys’.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor

via DutchNews.nl – Columns: Fewer boys are making the grade.

Although the job market in China is still much better than many other parts of the world, it is a tough market for graduates. Many job seekers have decided to shy away from the rat race and try other options.

A record-high 6.99 million Chinese students are leaving universities in 2013, a 2.8 percent increase year on year, to hunt for jobs at a time when employers are cutting down on recruitment, according to government figures.

The number of jobs for new hires this year has dropped about 15 percent year on year amid slowing economic growth in China, according to a Ministry of Education survey carried out among nearly 500 firms in February.

“The shrinking job market is the result of the sluggish world economy and tempered domestic growth,” said Yang Lin, director of the career guidance center of Beijing Technology and Business University.

New posts in many large state-owned enterprises have declined dramatically this year after economic reform or restructuring was performed in order to achieve efficiency, Yang added.

Out of 178,000 college graduates in Shanghai, 44.5 percent had signed up for employment as of May 10, while the figure for Beijing was only 33.6 percent at the beginning of May, according to government figures.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor

via China Exclusive: Tough job market for Chinese college graduates – Xinhua | English.news.cn.

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China / Only 3% of College Graduates Find Jobs

A mere 3 percent of China’s recent 6.9 million college graduates had found jobs in the country as of May, news portal eastday.com reports. According to the recent employment situation report issued by a job-hunting website on Thursday, China’s financial hub came in at fourth place on a competition index of graduates looking for jobs … Continue reading »

China / Jobless fears as record 6.99 million graduates hit market

A record 6.99 million students – an increase of 190,000 compared to last year – will graduate from China’s higher education institutions this year. But graduate unemployment, a scourge in recent years, shows no sign of easing for the class of 2013. Local media in a number of Chinese regions have been declaring 2013 as … Continue reading »

China / More than 95 percent of graduates from polytechnics or vocational schools have a job

The employment rate for graduates from polytechnics or vocational schools is more than 95 percent, higher than that for their college counterparts, according to a report by the Ministry of Education on middle-level vocational education. The message is such schools provide the right people with the right skills for enterprises and they meet the needs … Continue reading »

China / Only 29 percent of the graduate students master’s degrees have found jobs

As the Spring Festival is coming to an end, graduate students may find it harder to get a desirable job than usual, as a recent survey shows that only 29 percent of students with master’s degrees have secured jobs, down from last year. A survey conducted from December last year to January 2013 by My … Continue reading »

China / Over 12 million jobs created this year

The Chinese government today said it has created 12.02 million new jobs in the first 11 months of this year surpassing the goal of 9 million. The urban registered unemployment rate stood at 4.1 per cent at the end of September, below the annual target of 4.6 per cent, the Ministry of Human Resources and … Continue reading »

When it comes to obtaining higher education, women are continuing to outpace men, while newcomers are arriving in Canada with more post-secondary experience than the average person who was born here.

According to the latest figures released Wednesday by Statistics Canada, women ages 25-64 now hold 54 per cent of all university degrees, and 60 per cent of the degrees among young adults.

But research has shown that while more women are graduating from post-secondary institutions, they remain underrepresented at the highest levels in business and continue to face pay equity issues.

Meanwhile, the Statistics Canada data suggests that immigrants comprise just one-quarter of Canada’s total adult population but account for more than one-third of all adults with a university degree.

What’s more difficult to extrapolate from the 2011 National Household Survey, however, is whether immigrants and women with degrees are actually working in their respective fields, whether they’re climbing the corporate corporate ladder and whether they’re being compensated appropriately.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor

via National Household Survey: Women lead men in post-secondary education | Canada | News | National Post.

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Canada’s New ‘Census’ / Young backing away from skilled trades

Canada is facing a looming shortage in handy skilled trades workers — including mechanics, welders and construction staff — as the number of qualified older workers approaching retirement outnumbers younger ones, according to new data from Statistics Canada Continue reading »

More than 20,000 of last year’s graduates were unemployed six months after leaving university, with men more likely to be out of work than women.

Thousands more took jobs that do not require a degree such as window cleaners, office juniors and road sweepers.

Overall, nine per cent of all UK and EU full-time university leavers, or 20,415, were assumed unemployed after completing a first degree in 2011-12, according to figures yesterday from the Higher Education Statistics Agency. Women are faring better than men in the job market, the data suggested, with more than one in 10 − or 11 per cent — of male graduates whose whereabouts were known six months after they finished their first degree registered as jobless, compared with seven per cent of women.

Although the total proportion of those unemployed six months after graduation is the same as the previous year, the agency warned that figures are not directly comparable because of changes in the way they are collected.

The statistics also looked at the types of jobs and careers graduates were in after gaining their degree. In 2011-12 more than a third of new graduates working in the UK were in “non-professional” jobs not necessarily requiring a degree.

Around 9,695 people were working in “elementary occupations”, taking jobs as office juniors, hospital porters, waiters, road sweepers, window cleaners, shelf stackers and lollipop men and women.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor

via Graduates taking elementary jobs – Telegraph.