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UBC Theses and Dissertations
The underemployment of B.C. college graduates Cram, Daniel William
Abstract
Underemployment is a much discussed but little researched topic. The thesis begins with a broad discussion of the theory and methodology underlying the recent research on underemployment. It then proceeds to a quantitative analysis of underemployment using data from the 1995 follow-up of B.C. college leavers from vocational, technical and two-year academic university transfer programs. The study finds that, overall, one third of B.C. college leavers were employed in jobs that did not require the level of education that they had attained. As expected, there were significant differences by field of study and subsequent occupation. The rate of underemployment among students from academic programs was eight times the rate of underemployment for students from vocational programs and twice that of students from career/technical programs. Additionally, almost a third of all college leavers were employed in Sales and Service occupations and roughly two-thirds of those were underemployed. Labour market segmentation theory provides the most useful theoretical explanation for these findings. The markedly uneven rates of underemployment experienced by college leavers in the core and peripheral sectors support the labour market segmentation perspective. In conclusion, underemployment is a useful, though limited construct. Such a measure should only be used in conjunction with other measures of employment outcomes like unemployment, salary and full/part-time employment status.
Item Metadata
Title |
The underemployment of B.C. college graduates
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Creator | |
Publisher |
University of British Columbia
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Date Issued |
1997
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Description |
Underemployment is a much discussed but little researched topic. The thesis begins
with a broad discussion of the theory and methodology underlying the recent research on
underemployment. It then proceeds to a quantitative analysis of underemployment using data
from the 1995 follow-up of B.C. college leavers from vocational, technical and two-year
academic university transfer programs. The study finds that, overall, one third of B.C. college
leavers were employed in jobs that did not require the level of education that they had attained.
As expected, there were significant differences by field of study and subsequent occupation.
The rate of underemployment among students from academic programs was eight times the
rate of underemployment for students from vocational programs and twice that of students
from career/technical programs. Additionally, almost a third of all college leavers were
employed in Sales and Service occupations and roughly two-thirds of those were
underemployed. Labour market segmentation theory provides the most useful theoretical
explanation for these findings. The markedly uneven rates of underemployment experienced by
college leavers in the core and peripheral sectors support the labour market segmentation
perspective. In conclusion, underemployment is a useful, though limited construct. Such a
measure should only be used in conjunction with other measures of employment outcomes like
unemployment, salary and full/part-time employment status.
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Extent |
3987235 bytes
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Genre | |
Type | |
File Format |
application/pdf
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Language |
eng
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Date Available |
2009-03-25
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Provider |
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
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Rights |
For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.
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DOI |
10.14288/1.0087771
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URI | |
Degree | |
Program | |
Affiliation | |
Degree Grantor |
University of British Columbia
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Graduation Date |
1997-11
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Campus | |
Scholarly Level |
Graduate
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Aggregated Source Repository |
DSpace
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Item Media
Item Citations and Data
Rights
For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.