Migration and inter-industry mobility of UK graduates

Abstract

New university graduates are highly geographically mobile, but, as the literature has shown, often struggle in the labour market, working in non-graduate level jobs or in a field different from the one for which they are qualified. In this context, inter-industry moves can act as complements or substitutes for geographical moves, with graduates reacting to job mismatches by either changing location, industry, or both. Self-selection is also likely; industry movers may differ from non-movers in ways that also affect their career outcomes. We analyse the relationship between migration and inter-industry moves using longitudinal microdata for 7060 recent UK graduates.