How Useful Is the Concept of Skills Mismatch?

Seamus McGuinness, Konstantinos Pouliakas and Paul Redmond

No 10786, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: The term skill mismatch is very broad and can relate to many forms of labour market friction, including vertical mismatch, skill gaps, skill shortages, field of study (horizontal) mismatch and skill obsolescence. In this paper we provide a clear overview of each concept and discuss the measurement and inter-relatedness of different forms of mismatch. We present a comprehensive analysis of the current position of the literature on skills mismatch and highlight areas which are relatively underdeveloped and may warrant further research. Using data from the European Skills and Jobs Survey, we assess the incidence of various combinations of skills mismatch across the EU. Finally, we review the European Commission's country specific recommendations and find that skills mismatch, when referring to underutilised human capital in the form of overeducation and skills underutilisation, receives little policy attention. In cases where skills mismatch forms part of policy recommendations, the policy advice is either vague or addresses the areas of mismatch for which there is the least available evidence.

Keywords: skill gaps; skill mismatch; overeducation; skill shortages; European skills and jobs survey; policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I20 I28 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 32 pages
Date: 2017-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur and nep-lma
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (28)

Published - revised version published as 'Skills mismatch: Concepts, Measurement and Policy Approaches' in: Journal of Economic Surveys, 2018, 32 (4), 985-1085

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp10786.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10786

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte ().