What is the proportion of persons in employment whose occupational qualification meets the job requirements?
Ideally, the job requirements correspond to the employee's individual qualification. However, over- or underqualification may occur where, for example, there is an imbalance between the supply of, and the demand for specific occupational qualifications.
The large majority of persons in employment are adequately qualified
In 2014, 86.0% of the persons in employment indicated that their current job corresponds to their qualification. In the remaining 14%, 11.8% of the employed persons indicated to be overqualified for the job. Only 2.1% of the persons in employment considered their qualification as too low. Thus, overqualification occurs over five times as frequently as underqualification.
Women are more often overqualified than men
Men were adequately qualified more often than women in 2014. Almost nine from ten men indicated that his qualification corresponds to his job requirements, while this applied only to 83.7% of the women. As regards underqualification, no difference between the sexes was revealed, whereas 14.1% of the women indicated to be overqualified for their job. Among men the proportion was just 9.8%. This means that the poorer match between qualification and job requirements among women as compared with men can be explained by the higher proportion of overqualified women alone.
| Match of professional qualifications and job requirements 2014 in % | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Sex | Underqualification | Adequate qualification | Overqualification |
| Source: Microcensus (follow-up survey 2014). | |||
| Men | 2.1 | 88.0 | 9.8 |
| Women | 2.1 | 83.7 | 14.1 |
| Total | 2.1 | 86.0 | 11.8 |
About third of the people in elementary occupations are overqualified
A match between occupational qualification and job requirements is seen most often in higher-qualified occupations. In about nine of ten cases, managers, professionals, and technicians and associate professionals had an adequate qualification in 2014. A particular mismatch between qualification and job requirements is observed for people in elementary occupations. Over 36.2% of the people in this occupational group indicated to be overqualified for their job. The occupational groups of clerks and service providers also recorded an above-average proportion of overqualified persons (18.1%) as well as operators of plants and machines (16.3%). In addition, 12.7% of office workers and commercial employees said they were overqualified for their job.
Information on the Indicator
Description or definition
Percentage of employed persons (15-64 years) with under- or overqualification in all employed persons (15-64 years).
Concretely, the respondents were asked to indicate whether their current job correspond to their professional qualification.
Source
Microcensus (follow-up survey 2014)
Information for interpretation
Results are based on the self-assessment of respondents.
For more information please refer to Methods: Quality Reports and Explanations (only in German).