Graduate unemployment

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Graduate unemployment is unemployment among people with an academic degree. Research study^[1] undertaken proved that the unemployment, and much more so, the underemployment of graduates, are devastating phenomena in the lives of graduates and a high incidence of either, are definite indicators of institutional ineffectiveness and inefficiency. It was found that an increasing number of graduates were in a unemployed occupational situation. However, the incidence of underemployment among the graduates much higher. Educated unemployment or underemployment is due to a mismatch between the aspirations of graduates and employment opportunities available to them. This represents a wasteful investment of scarce resources. Large sums of money have consequently been invested in educating unemployed or underemployed graduates which could otherwise have been invested in job-creating productive programmes. It was furthermore found that two factors are important regarding graduate unemployment or underemployment, namely incidence and duration. The duration of graduate unemployment in particular, appears to be a sharply declining function of age. It is principally a youth problem, most graduates finding a job after some time, the length of which varies with the fields of specialisation.