American Workers in Mid-career: Are They Too Skilled or Not Skilled Enough?

• In Event: 207 - Section on Sociology of Education Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 25. Opportunities to Develop Human Capital

Abstract

Recent analyses of the qualifications of the American workforce have begun to recognize the need to consider both educational credentials and skills. Schooling and skills are related to one another, but are conceptually independent indicators of labor market mismatch. Because of the deterioration and obsolescence of skills as workers get further away from their educational preparation, along with the changing demands of the workplace, the divergence between schooling and skills likely increases as workers advance through their careers. We examine the level and determinants of education and skill mismatching in a sample of mature (aged 30-65) American workers. We hypothesize that the determinants of over-qualification differ from the determinants of under-qualification, and test for both demand-side and supply-size determinants of mismatch. We pay particular attention to differences in education and skill mismatch experienced by men and women. We use the recent release of data from the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), which contains sophisticated measures of skill (literacy, reading components, numeracy, and problem solving in technology-rich environments) as well as education mismatch. Applying a variety of theoretical perspectives, our preliminary findings indicate higher levels of over-qualification than of under-qualification, with both being systematically associated with several individual and firm-level variables.

Authors

• David B. Bills, University of Iowa

• Sanga Kim, University of Iowa

• Dong Hoon Shin, University of Iowa

• Zebing Wu, University of Iowa