Overqualified for the Icelandic labor market: Status among university educated people (Translated by webmaster)

Abstract

The aim of the article is to examine the scope and nature of over-education on the Icelandic labour market. The target population of the research was based on a random sample drawn from the National Population Register by the National Survey of the Social Science Research Institute of the University of Iceland from 9 March to 9 April 2016. The survey included 2,001 individuals, aged 18 or above, from all over the country. A total of 1,210 persons responded to the survey. This research only involved those participants in the sample who had completed a university education and were in salaried employment in Iceland. After data cleansing, 420 participants remained, 192 males and 228 females. The initial results of the research indicated that 21% of participants were over-educated for their jobs; when, however, false over-educated individuals had been subtracted, 7.1% of participants were identified as having over-education. A multinomial regression identifies a statistically significant difference between educational and social sciences; those with a degree in educational science are less likely to be over-educated than those who have completed degrees in the social sciences. Individuals with under-education are most likely to be found within the educational sciences and among those who have been in long-term employment. The results also indicate that females are more likely to be over-educated than men. Those with an over-education generally appeared to be less satisfied in their work, and also had lower incomes than other participants.