Graduates and the job market
Either a good job offer or unemployment awaits many of the new graduates who will be entering the labor force come April. By end of March, more than 90,000 of the estimated half a million college graduates – or a little less than 20 percent, as past trends would show – will not be able to find their dream job despite having invested sweat and tears plus a big chunk of the family’s fortune to get that much wanted college diploma.
Past trends and figures from the National Statistics Office also show that the unemployment rate among graduates ranges from 17 to 19 percent, while undergraduates from 19 to 22 percent. Based on the recent government survey in January 2010, college graduates comprised about 18.5 percent of the unemployed, while the undergraduates, about 19.3 percent. This means that college graduates are only a bit better off than undergraduates. This does not mean however that college graduates are only a bit better off than undergraduates in terms of quality employment and salary scale. They are far at an advantage.
Using our country’s historical figures on education, particularly cohort survival rates, the expected college graduates of 2010 constitute only about 11 to 12 percent of every 100 children who entered elementary 14 to 15 years ago. The 88 percent would have postponed and delayed the completion of their education or totally left the school because of material and mental helplessness and some had prematurely joined the workforce. Of the 11 to 12 percent, however, who made it through college, about seven will take a licensure exam as a requirement for the ultimate conquest of the profession they’ve dreamt of, but only three will pass. Of the successful three, only one will be able to land a job that suits his or her educational attainment. The rest will have to content themselves with any work available in the market even if this has nothing to do with their college course.
These are mere figures from the past but many would wish that this year’s figures will be a lot better so that our new graduates won’t have difficulty finding the right and exactly the desired job for them and that all those taking the licensure exam would pass and get employed as licensed professionals in their respective fields.
The reality however is that there is a wide mismatch between (a) the number, the courses and quality of graduates and (b) the skills and competence required by the industries. Schools cannot be fully blamed for not producing the kind of graduates the business sector needs. No matter how schools try to balance their course offerings based on the requirements of industries, students – and their parents – have always been the ones choosing their courses. Usually, the choices are based on those courses that either: (a) have high rate of employability outside the country; (b) general and not too specialized so that they could land in any job later on after graduation; or (c) highly specialized so that they can earn a good passport to better professional life.
In an article I read lately, the current global job market is characterized by flexible staff, short-term employment, more offshore sourcing, part-time work and much better pay per unit of time. This is a reality that our new graduates must face. The job market has been slowly and gradually shifting, and it is those who embrace this reality who will eventually succeed. Unfortunately, the supply of labor that we have is composed of people who still want to work for one organization for their entire career life – starting from the lowest position and continuously honing their skills and competence as they steadily move up the career ladder.
Yet, the global market is no longer like that. It is no longer the courses completed by the graduates but their possession of necessary aptitude and proficiency plus correct work attitude upon graduation that matter the most. Modern organizations and their human resource development programs no longer give premium to longevity but to flexibility and personal productivity.
If that mindset is changed, a bright future lies before our new graduates.
Feel free to send your comments to nic_agustin@yahoo.com.
