Research on the Effect of Skill Mismatch on Skill Development and Job Satisfaction among Graduates

Contemporarily, studies on graduate employment have shifted focus from over/below qualifications to skill mismatch in the employment. Skill mismatch takes many forms such as below/above the job required level and mismatched job domains. Past researches mainly examine the effect of skill mismatch at industrial and organizational level with limited focus on individual perceptions on their skill matching level and skill utilization and put more attention to cross-sectional labor rather than graduate employees. Therefore, to fill the research gap, this paper adopted quantitative research method via online questionnaire to investigate to what extent graduate skills are utilized in their employment among recent business graduates and the effect on their skill development (SD) and job satisfaction (JS). The result shows that key skills (KS) are most influential to SD and JS, in which Literacy and Teamwork ability are positively related to SD while Leadership skill is positively related to JS.