Studies on the cyclicality of higher education examine the relationship between variations in labor market conditions and changes in enrollment. While the majority of the existing literature implicitly assumes an elastic supply of enrollment, this study identifies institutions with supply constraints and investigates how those constraints have…

Higher education enrolment has long been known to rise and fall counter to the current economic situation. This counter-cyclical enrolment response represents an economic principle where a price-elastic consumer is more likely make a consumption choice when another valuable use of resources is not available. Higher unemployment has historically…

Across OECD countries, more and more individuals have attained tertiary education and the share of those with less education has declined. Although there are more tertiary-educated individuals than ever before, they still achieve good labour market outcomes. This confirms that labour market demand is generally keeping pace with rising educational…

This articles describes an occurrence that has been happening during the past two to three decades--a steadily increasing number of educational institutions that provide students with the opportunity to earn degrees without having to conform to the elaborate set of policies, procedures, and regulations long associated with so called traditional…

At the current juncture of China's economic development, the mismatch between the supply of university graduates and contemporary organizations' staffing demands is becoming increasingly evident. Thus, student participation in internships and their use by organizations, as means to recruit and select graduate talent in China has undergone rapid…

This paper examines the key issues at stake for national economies in increasing the number of PhDs to meet expected needs for human capital in science, technology and innovation using illustrations mainly from the European Commission's "Careers of Doctorate Holders" surveys on PhD labour market outcomes; it has been shown that PhD…

The Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce has engaged in a highly publicized campaign claiming that the nation will face a very substantial deficit of college graduates by 2018 if the American postsecondary system fails to rapidly expand the number of college degrees it awards each year. Indeed, the employment projections developed by…

This report examines education gaps and industry demand in the nation's 100 largest metropolitan areas. Metropolitan areas are a natural unit of analysis given that they offer the best approximation of a regional labor market. Moreover, the wide variation in metropolitan area economic performance, as documented by the Brookings MetroMonitor…

The recent response by Anthony Carnevale et al. to the authors' analysis of the fundamental shortcomings associated with their predictions of widespread college labor shortages focuses on three areas. First, Anthony Carnevale et al. suggest that the authors are educational Luddites by noting in the title of their response that the authors believe…

The aim of this paper is to analyze the selection process at work before and after compulsory schooling by assessing the determinants of school failures, dropouts, and upper secondary school decisions of young Italians. The data-set is built combining individual data by the Labor Force Survey and aggregate data on local labor markets and school…

Understanding Australia's vocational education and training (VET) system can be daunting for observers. This paper, written as a background paper for a visit from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), describes Australia's VET system and how it relates to the broader set of education and learning options that are…

The present paper uses British Household Panel Survey data from 1991 to 2002 to assess the extent to which labour market returns have been influenced by changes in the nature of educational supply. We find that whilst there have been substantial shifts in the returns to schooling over the period, these effects are much more pronounced for younger…

This report provides an comprehensive analysis of the way recession is impacting upon graduate outcomes. Data used in this report reflects the current level of applications to higher education (HE) for 2010 entry, but, due to data collection timing differences, the employment and training destinations of the graduating cohorts of 2005/06-2008/09.…

This review of literature related to college-level manpower planning in Indiana is the initial report of the College-Level Manpower Study of the Indiana Commission for Higher Education. This review deals with manpower studies at the national level, with studies conducted in other states, and with studies that deal specifically with Indiana. This…

The tightening employment market during the first half of the 1970's has spotlighted a problem facing many college graduates: What can they do after graduation? The problem has become even more acute for liberal arts graduates, many of whom have difficulty identifying employment options other than those traditionally associated with a liberal arts…