Exploring Employment Status and Education–Job Match among Engineering Graduates in Ethiopia: Policy Implications

Abstract

The article explores the employment status and education–job match among engineering graduates in Ethiopia between the years 2009 and 2013, and implications on the expansion of engineering programs. The findings reveal that engineering graduates have had a good employment status in the five years of the study, with an average employment rate of 80.3 percent. However, an increasing trend of graduate unemployment is observed. Substantial variations are observed among graduates of the various engineering disciplines and between men and women: civil engineers have better employment prospects, and the employment status of women is consistently lower. The findings also indicate that the education–job mismatch is both vertical and horizontal, and affects more than a third of the graduates (41.5 percent). Thus, there is a need to refocus on improving the quality of engineering education, and the decision to expand engineering programs should be based on insightful higher education planning and labor market assessment.