Human Capitalization and Labor Market Absorption Capacity

Abstract

This paper examines the changes of the degree of job absorption over
time in job categories of Engineering, Computer Sciences, Business
Administration and General subjects. We estimated a time-delay index
explaining time-delay to get the first job after completing studies in the
respective disciplines. Applying convergence criteria on the time-delay
series in each category, surprisingly, the longest delay was found to be in
the case of graduates from computer science, but as expected the
undergraduates and graduates from general group showed little
absorption capacity. On the other hand, engineers were found to be
preeminent with least delay in getting the job. Business graduates were
second specifically due to high market absorption capacity for those who
major in marketing. Overall there was weak correlation found across the
selected specialized groups, except for engineering and business
graduate groups. Our study shows that market absorption capacity of
graduates from business and general fields has become healthier. In case
of Business graduates, a highest convergence rate is observed. Computer
Science graduates do not show good signs in building the labor market
absorption capacity as the delay index of this group increases over time.
General group, considered as underdogs, found satisfactory tendency to
labor market joining capabilities particularly from the share of graduate from mass communication and journalism. With such findings,
balanced labor and educational policies can be grafted, such that each
area of skills and knowledge demand gets its due share in the job market
and the absorption capacity for one category does not remain low