33% of the Irish Workforce is Deemed to be Overeducated

Overeducation describes the situation whereby individuals are employed in jobs within which the level of education required to either get, or do, the job in question is below the level of schooling held by the worker

According to recent research undertaken by Séamus McGuinness, Adele Bergin and Adele Whelan of the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), an incredible 33 per cent of the Irish workforce is deemed to be overeducated. At a time when many companies are complaining of a skills shortage, it might seem odd to see this as a concern. There are some advantages associated with having overeducated employees. But it seems that often these are short-term gains only.

Professor McGuinness of the ERSI says “Having overeducated workers does give some benefit in the sense that they do tend to help raise productivity levels, but because such employees tend to get dissatisfied quickly, they are more likely to quit their jobs than others.There is a cost of replacing them that employers have to consider,”

Professor McGuinness said that, in addition to higher levels of dissatisfaction and job mobility, overeducated workers are also likely to find themselves caught in a situation that is not easy to escape. “It is not realistic to say we have to reduce the number of people in third level, but we do have to do more to assist those moving from education to the labour market,”

The average levels of overeducation for the EU 28, varies from 8 per cent in the Czech and Slovak Republics with the estimated incidence of overeducation tending to be lowest in the Eastern group. It rises to 30 per cent and over in the Periphery group such as Spain and Ireland and Cyprus. There are some exceptions to this general pattern, for instance, overeducation rates were relatively high in Lithuania and Estonia, while overeducation in Portugal was well below the level observed in other peripheral countries.