EMLT Meeting 2 - Vera Janikova (Czech Republic) / Jan Budňák (Czech Republic)

EMLT Research Report CZ, Věra Janíková and Jan Budňák, MU Brno (30th June, 2015)

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EMLT: Research Report CZ

Literature survey, national data, questionnaires (alumni opinion polls MU, research probe MU)


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Literature survey: The Task “To survey the literature on the

magnitude and dimensions of education-job mismatch in CZ”

“This survey should include especially the previous empirical work done.”

ideas on concepts and methods:...


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“We might need to schedule more time at the meeting for discussing the survey as it is so difficult to decide what measures of employability we are using, how we define mismatch, which classifications of jobs we use and what are the issues from graduates, universities and employers' perspectives, so that we are clear that our survey fits our requirements and it is able to explore the mismatch and pick up on the issues raised from the national profiles and literature reviews.”


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0. Introduction – Education and Labour Market in the Czech Rep.

“Education ceased to function as an automatic guarantee of prestigious professions and related benefits in the form of higher wages, social status or protection against unemployment.”

(Jan Keller, Knowledge society?, 2008)


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“The Czech Republic is one of the countries where the relationship between the field of education and employment is rather loose; graduates, more than in other countries, work in occupations where a field which is similar to the field of study, is sufficient.

In the Czech Republic, 4-5 years after graduation, about 20% of university graduates work outside their field of study.”

(Jan Koucký, Position and employment of HE graduates, 2011)


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(a preview of the) Literature review, CZ1. General papers, methodologya. Rašovec & Vavřinová on educational and skills mismatchb. Mysíková on over- and undereducation and the wagesc. Allen on the effects wage-setting institutions on job-worker

mismatchesd. Leontyieva on job-education mismatch among Ukrainian migrants

2. Empirical sourcesa. Koucký et al. on education and employment of HE graduates

(REFLEX 2014, national survey)b. Nekuda on alumni opinion polls of the MU + MU questionnaire for

graduatesc. research probe with graduates from Faculty of Education, MU


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1a: Tomáš Rašovec, Tereza Vavřinová (2014): Skills and Educational Mismatch in the Czech Republic: Comparison of Different Approaches Applied on PIAAC Data.

Abstract: This paper aims to explain both related and different concepts of educational and skill mismatches. In the first part a clear distinction between skill and educational mismatch is made and advantages and disadvantages of using each approach are listed. An overview of meanings and characteristics of different types of mismatch is provided as well. This part of the paper deals also with potential causes of mismatches in the labour market as well as consequences of mismatches. Next section offers the information on measures of educational and skill mismatches and a new approach for measuring skill mismatch is introduced. Due to recently published results from PIAAC survey containing measures of skills and also information about qualifications, educational as well as skill mismatches can be investigated and several methods of their measurement can be compared. The comparison is drawn in relation to the distribution of mismatches among different demographic groups.


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1a: Tomáš Rašovec, Tereza Vavřinová (2014): Skills and Educational Mismatch in the Czech Republic: Comparison of Different Approaches Applied on PIAAC Data. Results for the Czech Rep.:

Our results indicate that 35% of the Czech population attained different educational level than their work would require.

In the domain of skills we found approximately one fifth of the Czech population mismatched in literacy and very similar share in numeracy. In the Czech labour market employers do not take fully advantage of literacy skills of 10.9% and numeracy skills of 11.6% of workers. At the same time, 10.9% of workers lack sufficient literacy skills which negatively affect their working performance. The same is true for 9.2% of the working population in case of numeracy.

It also turned out that measuring skills mismatch by using subjective self-assessment can hardly be considered as substitute to the method based on the frequency of skills use. It is attested to the fact that individuals, when asked to assess the sufficiency of their skills, refer to specific rather than generic skills.

Distribution of mismatch is not equal among different demographic groups. Young age is strongly connected with the incidence of both educational and skill surpluses.

The outcome that we have found surprising is that there is no gender difference in the distribution of labour market mismatches.


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1b: Martina Mysíková (2014): Educational Mismatch in the Czech Labour Market

Abstract: Educational mismatch in labour markets is a phenomenon that has been widely analysed, mainly with respect to rising concerns about possible oversupply of graduates. Similarly to most European countries, the Czech Republic has experienced a boom in tertiary education in the last decade. The incidence and the determinants of over- and undereducation vary substantially depending on both the approach of the mismatch measurement and the data source applied. Educational mismatch also reflects in wage levels. First, overeducated workers have lower wages and undereducated workers have higher wages compared to workers with the same education whose jobs match their education. Second, overeducated workers earn more and undereducated workers earn less than their co-workers with exactly the required level of education. The effects are qualitatively the same regardless the data source or approach applied but their sizes differ slightly according to the approach and data applied.


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3 sources of data: national Labour Force Survey, national Statistics on Income and Living Conditions international Programme of Assessment of Adult

Competencies (PIAAC) 3 approaches to the data

normative approach (job analysts) statistical approach (educational attainment of

workers) self-declared approach (self-evaluation of workers)

“The indices of over- and undereducation vary substantially according to the approach applied.”


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human capital model job competition model somewhere-in-the-middle model

educational mismatch? NO, RATHER skills mismatch.


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1c: Jim Allen et al. (2007): Wage Effects of Job-Worker Mismatches: Heterogeneous Skills or Institutional Effects?

Abstract: There is strong evidence that mismatches between a worker’s own education and that required in the job have strong effects on wages. These effects are usually attributed to assignment theory, which asserts that productivity, and thus wages, depend on the fit between education and job. Recent research has cast doubt on this interpretation: educational mismatches appear to be only weakly related to skill mismatches, which should, but do not, account for the bulk of the wage effects. These results are replicated in this paper, for higher education graduates in eleven European countries. In addition, we established that in countries with strong wage setting institutions, the effects of educational mismatches are stronger, and those of skill mismatches weaker, than in countries with more market-based wage setting arrangements. We found no evidence that the strength of the effects of overeducation are in any way related to the degree of educational stratification in a country. We conclude that the wage effects of educational mismatches are mainly attributable to the institutional setting, rather than to heterogeneity in skill levels among workers with the same level of education.


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“In particular, the strength of the effect of overeducation appeared to be positively related to the degree of collective bargaining coverage in a country. In the case of overskilling, the opposite was true. This suggests that wage effects of educational mismatches are largely attributable to the wage setting arrangements in a country. In countries with strong wage setting institutions, formal attributes of workers and jobs (that is the actual and required level of education) are assigned a concrete value in negotiated wage scales. When such institutions are weaker, wage setting is more determined by market forces, so that such formal attributes are less important. In that case, skill mismatches become more important.”


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1d: Yana Leontiyeva (2014): The Education–Employment Mismatch among Ukrainian Migrants in the Czech Republic

Abstract: The aim of the article is to provide a brief overview of current labour migration from Ukraine to the Czech Republic and to explore the degree to which Ukrainian labour migrants utilise their skills on the Czech labour market. The analysis, using internal statistical data from the Czech Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and evidence from specific migrant surveys, is focused on the relationship between the formal education of economically active Ukrainian migrants and their position on the Czech labour market, and the extent to which there is an educational–occupational mismatch. The article analyses the factors that might influence the match between jobs and formal education and the position of Ukrainian migrants in the labour market. Analysis of the educational background of Ukrainian respondents does not seem to support the popular stereotype of the average Ukrainian as a university- -educated construction-site worker or a cleaner, primarily due to the fact that the Czech Republic does not only attract well-educated Ukrainian migrants. Nevertheless, a comparison of the educational and occupational structures of Ukrainian migration does provide evidence of a significant waste of human capital.


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2a: Jan Koucký, Radim Ryška, Martin Zelenka: Reflection on Education and Employment of University Graduates (Reflexe vzdělání a uplatnění absolventů vysokých škol)

“The survey is called REFLEX 2013, and it is the third survey of this kind in a row (previous ones were performed in 2006 and 2010). Participants of REFLEX 2013: vast majority of Czech public universities and 15 private universities. 32 721 completely filled in questionnaires were collected, further 2 617 questionnaires were also usable for analysis.”


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2a: Jan Koucký, Radim Ryška, Martin Zelenka (2014): Reflection on Education and Employment of University Graduates (Reflexe vzdělání a uplatnění absolventů vysokých škol)

Basic results: Share of persons with tertiary education (university graduates) in the labour market is growing. Lower wages in areas with many graduates (economics, not in technology) and of graduates of

regional universities. Growing number of students who work during their studies (32% in 2010, 48% in 2013), due to

expected necessity of work experience. If those working students, however, stay at the same position after graduation, they earn less money (employer does not reward the diploma).

Job satisfaction in the area of technology. Contrariwise, dissatisfaction is strong in agricultural areas.

Evaluation of achieved education is the same as in 2010 and in 2006. Graduates find that education is focused on the acquisition of theoretical knowledge and not enough on practical skills and gaining experience. The tendency to reduce the role of the teacher as the main source of information, which is reflected in the findings of 2006 and 2010, was in 2013 at the same level.

When evaluating what is the actual benefit of the study, a loosening of the relationship between the field of study and the employability on the labour market was perceived. This is shown, for example, in the answer to the question "To what extent is the study completed a good basis - to enter the work; for coping with the current work; for a future career.“ The largest decline occurred in the graduates’ assessment of their study as a good basis for the development of entrepreneurial skills. Contrary to this, a slight increase occurred in the evaluation of study as a good foundation for their own personal development.

Repeated choice of study. The answer to this question (Would you change anything, if you had the chance to start over?) remains constant in 2006 to 2013: about two thirds of students would not change anything.


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2a: Jan Koucký, Radim Ryška, Martin Zelenka: Reflection on Education and Employment of University Graduates (Reflexe vzdělání a uplatnění absolventů vysokých škol)Graduates’ skills

When evaluating the level of skills among graduates it is necessary to distinguish, what occupations they have. Those who work in places with high qualification demands, that is in occupations reserved for university graduates, have a higher level of skills which is also required in their positions. On the other hand, there are a growing number of graduates who work in jobs with lower skill intensity. The slight overall decline in the average level of skills is thus a result of the increase in the proportion of graduates in positions with lower qualification demands.

Contrary to the graduates’ skills, the level of skills required by the employer is rather increasing slightly. In the largest extent, requirements for flexibility have increased. Together with the skills of innovation and knowledge management, human resource mobilization and presentation, flexibility belongs to those skills that are most required in positions occupied by graduates. On the other hand, on average, entrepreneurship is the skill that is according to the REFLEX investigation required the least. The contradiction that arises here between perception of graduates and that of employers, can be caused by different expectations that these two parties have of the positions.

Universities do not teach the graduates to develop and use soft skills (e.g. communication, stress situations, taking the responsibility, adapting to new circumstances). Regarding the whole group of soft skills, the graduates’ evaluation of the level of these skills acquired in the study is rather low. It shows that in education, there are no significant moves in favour of developing the soft skills, because the statements of the graduates do not indicate so.

On the other hand it appears that relatively high percentage of graduates work in positions where high level of soft skills is required.


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2b: Surveys of the Masaryk University with graduates and alumni, http://www.muni.cz/general/evaluation/graduates?lang=en

http://www.muni.cz/general/evaluation/graduates?lang=en




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2b: Jaroslav Nekuda: Survey “Completion of studies at MU - looking back and to the future”

The questionnaire “Completion of studies at MU - looking back and to the future” is given to students who are just finishing their studies at MU and making the transition to full employment. The survey gathers information on employment prospects and evaluation of studies at MU at the time of graduation.

Selected results more than a half of the graduates (58%) already work at the time of graduation or know where

they are going to work; this share is growing, between 2013 and 2014 by 8% 42% of the graduates who already work in a job or know where they are going to work ,

will continue in that occupation after the graduation too, the share of graduates who evaluate the process of job search as very difficult or rather

difficult, has not changed (2014 – 27.5%, 2013 – 27,8%); this variable has been growing more significantly during the Great Recession in 2009 to 2012,

the share of graduates who are going to work in their field of study, has not changed in 2013-2014; it does not change very much in the long term either, ranging between 83% and 93%,

86% of graduates who already do work or are going to work in a job, evaluate their jobs as „with good prospects“; this value also does not change significantly,

about 30% of those graduates who neither work at the moment of the survey nor know if they would in near future, are afraid of unemployment; this number has decreased by 4% compared to 2013,

there has been a major increase in graduates who do not yet have a job but are looking for it: from 67% in 2013 to 73% in 2014,

following the decrease in starting salaries in 2012 by 3%, there is a return to growth by 4% in 2013 and even by 10% in 2014 (to 25444 CZK) (Nekuda 2014, p. 68).


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2b: Jaroslav Nekuda, Tomáš Sirovátka: Survey “MU alumni employment after graduation”

The goal of the survey “MU alumni employment after graduation” is an evaluation of those entering employment after HE. The survey was given to alumni of master programmes two years after graduation.

Selected results: there are only 2.5% unemployed graduates (which is about 3 to 4 times less

than the overall average of the Czech Rep.) seven graduates in ten get a job two months after graduation at the latest only 6% of the graduates consider getting the job as “very difficult”,

another 30% as “difficult” more than half of the graduates work in the field of their study, the current

share is 57% (in the previous survey, it was 64%) two thirds of the graduates (61%) work in positions which require

university education in their field of study; under this average value are students of Faculties of Economy, Sports and Arts

about 14% of students work in occupations which do not require university education (in previous research, it was about 13%)

about 28% of all graduates would be interested in working abroad; this number has not changed compared to previous survey.


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2b: Jaroslav Nekuda: Survey “Completion of studies at MU - looking back and to the future”: The Questionnaire


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2c: Research probe with last semester students of the Faculty of Education, Masaryk University, CZ

Research topic: Key factors for last semester students building up a career map

Research sample: 24 respondents Research method: online survey Research tool: semi-structured questionnaire with closed and

semi-closed questions Structure of the questionnaire: Part I: information on respondents Part II: information on career map