GRADUATES' CHARACTERISTICS AND UNEMPLOYMENT: A STUDY AMONG MALAYSIAN GRADUATES

Abstract

The main objective of this paper is to investigate the effects of graduates’ characteristics on the chance of being employed. A total of 3,025 Malaysian graduates involved in the study and data were analyzed using logistic regression analysis. The results show that the employment prospects of graduates with a good command of English and who possess leadership and technical skills are better when compared to those without these skills. These findings suggest that steps should be taken to improve soft skills among graduates. The results also show that Indian and female graduates in this study were found to have less chance of being employed compared to the Malay and Chinese graduates. However, these findings should be interpreted with caution as some of the respondents were not randomly selected, thus suggesting further research towards identifying the relevant factors is required.