Over-Education and Job Mobility among Young Korean Female Graduates

Using data from the 2009 Graduates Occupational Mobility Survey (GOMS) covering Korean female graduates making their transition from college to labor market, this paper examines the incidence and the effects of over-education on job mobility. Contrary to most prior research in the literature, this study considered individual heterogeneity in perceived skills mismatch to measure education-job mismatch. In regard to the prevalence of over-education, the conventional measure based on the assumption of workers’ homogeneity in skills clearly overestimates over-education. As for the effects of being over-educated on job mobility, the results provide evidence that favors many previous studies whereby over-education significantly impact job turnover; hence, suggesting that over-educated young female workers are more likely to change jobs in Korea. This positive correlation remains even when we estimate an augmented specification where graduate over-education is disaggregated according to perceived skills mismatch. Most importantly, in this case it is found that the genuinely over-educated workers are more likely to switch their employers than their apparently over-educated counterparts.