A felsőfokú végzettségűek státus-inkonzisztenciája
The inconsistency between a job and graduation

Summary/Abstract: It is assumed that an average, recently-graduating university student will be satisfied if she/he obtains a carrier position that is usually obtained by university graduates; conversely, the attractiveness of positions occupied en masse by non-graduates will remain low in the eyes of new graduates. In our research, each job position looked at had a value of between 0 and 1 according to the proportion of such positions obtained by graduates. Thus the concept of job position – an originally non-linear category – has been developed into a linear one. This new method can therefore make an average occupation – one linked with the prestige of any social demographic group – quantifiable. We can as a result see that the average occupation prestige of graduates aged around 25 is lower than the average occupation prestige of persons of around 35 years; though the average occupation prestige of graduates aged around 25 is higher than with 45 or 55 year-old graduates. Therefore, although the commonplace that the “inconsistency between job and the level of education has grown” with the new generation is valid, it is only valid in comparison with previous cohorts – not in comparison with the whole “society of elders”. In contrast, in 1970 the average occupation prestige of graduates of around 25 was higher than the average occupation prestige of the graduates of any older generation. Taking on board these two phenomena one could say that the present situation of young graduates is worse than for older ones, or at least is worse than for older ones when they were young; and this “handicap” is more characteristic of young college graduates (BA) than for young university graduates (MA).

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