Building: Pinnacle
Room: 2F-Harbourside Ballroom
Date: 2016-07-03 03:30 PM – 05:00 PM
Last modified: 2016-06-24
Abstract
Introduction
Perceived graduates’ employability has been related to important job market processes and outcomes such as job search or educational-fit and it has been argued that men and women may have different perceptions of employability. Although several studies have compared perceived employability across gender based on observed employability scores (e.g. Rothwell & Arnold, 2007; Rothwell, Jewell, & Hardie, 2009), to our knowledge, no study has evaluated the extent to which those scores show measurement equivalence. This is necessary to make between group comparisons, both regarding the average levels of employability, and the relationships between employability and relevant work outcomes.
Objectives
To determine whether a measure of perceived employability (Gamboa et al., 2013) shows measurement equivalence across gender, and whether the relationship between perceived employability and three work related outcomes (educational fit –vertical and horizontal, and job satisfaction) are similar across gender.
Design/Methodology
The sample was made of 7846 graduates (33% male) that had entered the job market at least two years before data collection. Measurement equivalence was assessed by multiple group mean and covariance structure Confirmatory Factor Analysis using LISREL 9.1. Considering the item response options (0-10) and the distribution of the data, ML estimation methods were used.
Results
One out of the three items of the scale was not invariant across gender: there were significant differences in its factor loading. However the effect size could be considered very small.
Conclusions
The assessed 3-item Perceived-Employability scale, can be used to make comparisons between men and women. Based on both estimated latent means and total scores, there are not significant differences between men and women in perceived employability. In addition, in both cases, there is no predictive bias, since the pattern (and size) of relationships between employability and a number of work relevant outcomes are not significantly different across groups.