This study addresses the relationship between education-job mismatch and aggregate labor market performance in a cross-country setting. We examine the effect of education-job mismatch on aggregate productivity across 15 countries using data from the OECD Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC). We measure mismatch levels and compute their incidence across…

Education-job mismatch--a signal of market failure due to the inefficient assignment of workers to positions--is one of the main features of the modern labor market (Leuven & Oosterbeek; 2011; Quinitini; 2011; Verhaest & Van der Velden; 2013). Mismatch refers to over- and undereducation on the job market when workers hold educational…

Background: One way of evaluating immigrants' labor market outcomes is to assess the extent to which immigrants are able to enter into jobs that are commensurate with their education and experience. An imperfect alignment between workers' educational qualifications and these required for their current job, or education-job mismatch, has…

Occupational mismatch is a widespread phenomenon among immigrants in many European countries. Mismatch is predominantly measured in terms of formal education ignoring the imperfect comparability of international educational degrees. Exploiting internationally comparable cognitive skill measures from the PIAAC data, we examine whether overeducation…

This final working paper in The Skills Imperative 2035 project builds on and extends the previous work undertaken, with the focus here being on the supply of skills and looking at the extent to which the skills that individuals possess at the end of education vary according to the pathway they followed through their education system. This paper…

Do skills protect against exclusion in adult ages, and how important are the skills acquired before the age of 16 years versus those acquired later on? We match the scores on numeracy and literacy skills from the 2011 PIAAC for young adults backwards to grade point average (GPA) data from compulsory school education, measured at the age of 16…

This article explores cross-country patterns in how conditions relating to family background, education, and the labor market are related to literacy and numeracy skills. It seeks to assess whether these patterns are in agreement with models of skills formation as identified in the political economy literature. The novelty of this article resides…

In this study, we investigated the factors associated with education-job mismatches among US workers by immigrant generation. We used the data from the U.S. sample of the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) and documented the distribution of education-job mismatches across selected independent variables. We…

Building the Right Skills for Human Capital summarizes the findings from the 2019 skills survey for the adult Kyrgyz population. The skills measures used in the survey focused on literacy, numeracy, and problem solving in technology rich environments (PSTRE) and followed the same questions and approach as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation…

Participation in adult education and training (AET) programs is increasingly important for people of all ages and is necessary to remain competitive in a world experiencing rapid technological advances. Lifelong learning activities are especially important for middle-aged and older adults who intend to work at older ages to ensure they have the…

In this study, we investigated factors predictive of disconnection, or not being in education, employment, or training (NEET), among young adults with at least a 2-year college degree. We also explored the extent to which disconnection influences civic participation and well-being among NEETs with and without college degrees. The authors used 2012…

Through analyses of Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) data, the following study considers the direct and indirect association between education and workplace task discretion in 30 countries. By focusing on cross-national comparison, it considers the ways in which these findings are dependent on both the…

While some argue that higher education is one of the best ways to improve equity and social mobility, others argue that increasing access to higher education will cause rapid credential inflation in the labor market. This paper reviews recent employment trends and analyzes scholarship around education and work. The Program for the International…

This paper draws on a rich, new source of data to reexamine the respective roles of cognitive skills, problem-solving skills, years of schooling, and other factors in determining earnings within the United States. It explores how cognitive skills vary by educational group and other characteristics and presents estimates of the relationship between…