 Underemployment of college graduates: is doing anything better than doing nothing?Michel Armel Ndayikeza Journal of Development Economics, 2025, vol. 174, issue C Abstract: Across low-income countries, limited prospects for high-skill employment and poverty push numerous college graduates into jobs which do not require a college degree. These types of experiences may be advantageous or detracting for the new graduates. To examine this issue, we conducted a field experiment in Burundi which elicited preferences of employers with respect to low-skill job experience of recent college graduates. We estimate the impact of signaling various types of low-skill experiences, such as working as a phone credit sales agent, a waiter, a security guard and other positions that do not necessitate a college degree, on the hiring interest of employers in a high-skill job. Results indicate that mentioning a low-skill experience on a resume increases by approximately 10% the hiring interest of employers. Furthermore, employers prefer job seekers with low-skill experience rather than individuals with no experience at all, irrespective of the quality of the job seeker. Keywords: Low-skill jobs; Underemployment; Labor demand; Job search; Field experiment; Incentivized Resume Rating (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:deveco:v:174:y:2025:i:c:s0304387825000100 DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2025.103459 Access Statistics for this article Journal of Development Economics is currently edited by M. R. Rosenzweig More articles in Journal of Development Economics from Elsevier |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.