Project 4

Graduate labour market and equity

This project was a continuation of CGHE Project 2.3, ‘The heterogeneity of the graduate labour market in UK and Europe.’ It sought to assess how the growing inequality of labour markets outcomes has played out for graduates from across the socio-demographic spectrum in a cross-nationally comparative perspective.

About this project

This project tracked trends in graduate outcomes in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, and its intersection with region, gender, ethnicity and social class. It mapped how increasing degree requirements in the labour market were matched by changes in job tasks and how these trends influenced the distribution of opportunities between graduates and non-graduates. The frame for the enquiry was the uncertainty in high-skills demands against the backdrop of steadily growing graduate numbers.

The project analysed a range of secondary data from national and international sources with essential information on educational attainment, demographics, and earnings over multiple years to study trends. It also brought together information on job tasks to explore the changing importance for degree requirements.

Team

Dr Golo Henseke

IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society

Golo Henseke, an Associate Professor at UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society (IOE), is an applied economist with a track record of publications in leading journals and leadership in diverse, externally funded research projects.

Professor Claire Callender

IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society and Birkbeck

Claire Callender is Professor of Higher Education Studies at IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society. She is a Deputy Director of CGHE. Claire led on CGHE Project 5, ‘Student loan debt and graduate decision-making’ which explored the impact of income-contingent student loan debt on English graduates’ lives using both quantitative and qualitative methods. It showed how loan debt can have negative effects on graduates’ lives.

Publications

CGHE working papers

The rising value of interpersonal job tasks for graduate pay in Europe (Working Paper 53, Francis Green and Golo Henseke, June 2020)
Graduates and ‘Graduate Jobs’ in Europe: A Picture of Growth and Diversification (Working Paper 25, Francis Green and Golo Henseke, August 2017)

Additional publications

Green. F. and Henseke, G. (submitted) Europe’s Evolving Graduate Labour Markets: Supply, Demand, Underemployment and Pay
Henseke, G. and Green. F. (submitted) The rising value of interpersonal job tasks for graduate pay in Europe.
Green, F. and G. Henseke (in press, 2020) Graduate Employment and Under-Employment:Trends and Prospects in C. Callender, W. Locke and S. Marginson (eds), Changing Higher Education for a Changing World. London, Bloomsbury.
Henseke, G. (2018). Against the Grain? Assessing Graduate Labour Market Trends in Germany Through a Task-Based Indicator of Graduate Jobs. Social Indicators Research, 41:809-840.
Henseke, G. and F. Green (2017) “Cross-national Deployment of “Graduate Jobs”: Analysis Using a New Indicator Based on High Skills Use”. Research In Labor Economics. Skill Mismatch in Labour Markets, 45:41-79.
Henseke, G. and F. Green (2016), “Graduate Jobs” in OECD Countries: Analysis Using A New Indicator Based on High Skills Use”, OECD Education Working Papers, No. 144, OECD Publishing, Paris.
Green, F. and G. Henseke (2016). “The Changing Graduate Labour Market: Analysis Using a New Indicator of Graduate Jobs”. IZA Journal of Labor Policy, 5:14. OA.
Green, F. and G. Henseke (2016) “Should governments of OECD countries worry about graduate underemployment?” Oxford Review of Economic Policy. 32(4): 514-537.
‘Graduate Jobs’ in OECD Countries: Analysis Using A New Indicator Based on High Skills Use,
OECD Education Working Papers, No. 144, OECD Publishing, Paris, 2016
‘The Recent Trend for “Graduate Jobs”, Using a New Indicator’
Graduate Market Trends, Spring 2015

Other outputs

Graduates and ‘graduate jobs’ in Europe: a picture of growth and diversification
Keynote at CGHE annual conference, March 2017
Graduate labour market trends in Germany
Seminar at the Federal Institute for Vocational Education, November 2016
Graduate jobs
Workshop at Warwick Institute for Employment, November 2016