Jobs Mismatch

Sometimes, jobs are available but most people do not easily fit to it. There a lot factors this happens, but bottomline, the person, who loses on this situation is the person seeking for jobs. It makes the person frustrated and worse, making the person lose his or her self-confidence. In the long run, they simply stop trying and stay unemployed for significant period of time.

People tend to go for what others want.

When people tend to choose the most popular course before going to college, the tendency is that students will not be passionate about the chosen field, resulting for him or her to compete with many more graduates, who are more eager to get the job. By nature of the competition, the less prepared and dedicated will lag behind and will settle for less. This contributes to job mismatch. Futhermore, parents sometimes force their children to choose their preferred education. This is also not good, especially if the parents make a seemingly "safe" and popular choice. The same thing could also happen.

If students are allowed to choose what they want there will be diversity on their choices, thus competition becomes lesser as people choose what they think will suit them well. For example, in the Philippines, many nursing graduates are extremely talented in arts, but they did not choose to pursue improving these skills, since it is considered a non-lucrative field. This is perhaps an assumption by most people. We even are not certain if these people were allowed to become artists, they could be more successful in life.

People tend to have diploma-mentality, rather than skills-based philosophy.

In countries where poverty is extremely rampant, people tend to settle for courses, that are affordable. This results for people to overwhelm the supply of that profession, and the cycle of competition repeats itself. In the Philippines, there are many graduates of nursing, education, commerce and criminology, because this is considered the most cost-efficient courses. Skills-based courses are highly disregarded, which in turn results for graduates to push themselves to go to colleges, just for them to get a diploma, instead of focusing on nurturing their skills.

A diploma does not guarantee job, but skills do. A good recommendation to solve job mismatch is to reduce focus on a diploma mentality. People can get jobs even though they do not get a diploma, as long as they are skilled. In most Western countries, university graduates may earn better than those who do not, but it does not mean non-university graduates are all unemployed. What non-university graduates do is acquire experience related to the skills they possess to help them become more employable in the job market.

Schools do not provide many options for courses.

Schools in most countries are not just institutions of learning, instead schools become more of a business, rather than serving what the community needs. If people tend to choose popular choices, the demand for the course will increase, thereby schools continue to offer these courses. Since resources can be limited for schools, these schools will no longer have alternative programs and courses that will promote diversity in decisions.

Schools can aggravate the problem of job mismatch by indirectly influencing the job market. If schools will offer only popular courses, people will think education is similar to one person or another, that there is nothing special with the other. This contributes to competition and in the long term, job mismatches. In Western countries, schools are controlled in terms of quantity and quality. If courses are popular, more regulations must be in place to maintain quality and prevent destructive competition in the end.

Industries do not take steps to be aggressive in providing jobs.

More industries, more choices. Surprisingly in some tropical countries, agriculture is a driving force of the economy, but people are not interested in working in it. This is because the agriculture industry are not too aggressive in providing high-paying jobs. There are several reasons for this. It could be people want to keep labor cheap to keep prices cheap and profits high from sale of products. This results industries to be non-sustainable. This is also true with manufacturing. When salary for factory workers are low, because it is controlled by investors. Who would want to become one? No one.

Surprisingly, when I arrived in Norway, I learned taxi drivers are even paid higher than most white-collar jobs. They work less, but they earn more. This made this profession attractive for job-seekers. Now, they take pride of becoming one, because they can support their family using this job, which does not require a university degree. This means that if employers pay good and sufficient, this results for the job market to attain equilibrium. People have many options to choose, thereby resulting for them to seek what do best and lessening risk of competition that worsens job mismatch.

Lack of government control.

The government is crucial in preventing job mismatch. First, they could enact laws that controls school offerings. A quota system for popular courses must be initiated for others, who seemed not passionate about taking the popular course will have no option to enroll in another one. This will dissipate the competition within the popular course, at the same time improving its quality. The demand for other courses will also increase, thus helping schools and graduates in the long run.

Most importantly, it is the government that has biggest influence in the society. Reducing the gap between the employer and employees must be the goal. If employees are paid not far from the salary of their employers, then  this could result to new perspective that everyone is seemingly equal. Whether blue-collar or white-collar workers, a person will take pride of his or her chosen profession. This will also lessen bias against certain "dirty" jobs, that most people avoid, because they seem to pay less and not something someone could be proud of. In the long run, this creates a situation wherein anyone can freely choose any course, without fear of getting less salary or being ashame of one's work.

Lastly, job mismatch is a product of so many factors. To prevent and address this involves everyone to take action. Individuals must take action by following what they want in life and not forcing others to do the same. On the other hand, schools must be conscious on the implication of the selected courses they offer. Schools should not just focus on earning money, but providing good future to their graduates. Moreover, employers must ensure equality at work to contribute in social harmony; while the government must be proactive in implementing regulations that will benefit, not just the few, but everyone.




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