Should governments of OECD countries worry about graduate underemployment?
研究了21个OECD国家毕业生教育性就业不足（过度教育）的普遍性，发现其与供需失衡相关，但与劳动力市场灵活性无关；尽管就业不足者满意度低，但高等教育仍带来社会信任等外部收益，建议政府监测但政策应基于社会回报。
To assess potential public concerns, this paper examines theory and evidence surrounding graduate educational underemployment (overeducation) in this era of mass higher education. Using a new, validated, index of graduate jobs, we find that the prevalence of graduate underemployment across 21 countries is correlated with the aggregate supply–demand imbalance, but not with indicators of labour market flexibility. Underemployment’s association with lower job satisfaction and pay is widespread. Yet in most countries there are external benefits (social trust, volunteering, and political efficacy) associated with higher education, even for those who are underemployed. Taken together with existing studies we find that, in this era of mass higher education participation, under-employment is a useful indicator of the extent of macroeconomic disequilibrium in the graduate labour market. We conclude that governments should monitor graduate underemployment, but that higher education policy should be based on social returns and should recall higher education’s wider purposes.