Education and its discontents: Overqualification in America, 1972-2002

Journal Article (Review;Journal)

The study of education-occupation mismatch, once central to the sociologicalinvestigation of the labor market, has been largely abandoned. While labor economists and scholars in other nations continue to investigate overqualification, it has been more than two decades since its last sociological assessment in the United States. Drawing on previous work and guided by Bourdieu's concept of habitus, I hypothesize that workers who have more educational attainments than needed for their jobs will be less satisfied with their jobs, be more politically liberal, and be less likely to endorse an effort-based achievement ideology. Using the 1972-2002 General Social Survey, I find that overqualification has increased substantially, that the expected effects are generally found, and that these effects remain relatively stable over time. I discuss the implications of these findings for understanding the persistence of existing stratification hierarchies. © The University of North Carolina Press.

Full Text

Duke Authors

Cited Authors

  • Vaisey, S

Published Date

  • December 1, 2006

Published In

Volume / Issue

  • 85 / 2

Start / End Page

  • 835 - 864

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

  • 0037-7732

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1353/sof.2007.0028

Citation Source

  • Scopus