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Social Indicators Research
Published in: Social Indicators Research 2/2015

01-06-2015

Measuring Young Graduates’ Job Quality Through a Composite Indicator

Authors: Giovanna Boccuzzo, Martina Gianecchini

Published in: Social Indicators Research | Issue 2/2015

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Abstract

The aim of the article is to propose a job quality composite indicator (JQCI) by which to measure the quality of young graduates’ jobs. We design JQCI by grouping jobs’ objective and perceived characteristics into three dimensions—economic, professional, and work–life balance—following a theory-driven approach, and weighting each dimension according to its importance. We apply the resulting JQCI to a sample of Italian graduates 3 years after graduation and validate it by measuring their motivation to leave their jobs, assuming that poor quality could be a reason to want to leave a job. We find that the professional dimension scores the highest. Relevant differences in job quality are related to individual (gender, degree level, disciplinary field, whether the graduate worked while studying) and organizational characteristics (company size). Implications for policy-makers and for firms interested in attracting and retaining Generation Y workers are discussed.
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Footnotes
1
We did not adopt the more popular logistic regression model because it estimates odds ratios in order to approximate the relative risk of rare events. Since 17 % of the respondents in our sample planned to search for a new job, we cannot consider the event to be rare.
 
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Metadata
Title
Measuring Young Graduates’ Job Quality Through a Composite Indicator
Authors
Giovanna Boccuzzo
Martina Gianecchini
Publication date
01-06-2015
Publisher
Springer Netherlands
Published in
Social Indicators Research / Issue 2/2015
Print ISSN: 0303-8300
Electronic ISSN: 1573-0921
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-014-0695-6

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