Overqualification among men and women aged 25 to 34 with a college diploma or apprenticeship training

Since occupations requiring a college education are closer in proximity to occupations requiring a high school education, college-educated graduates typically have higher rates of over-qualification than university graduates.

For instance, in 2011, 31% of employed men aged 25 to 34 with a college diploma or a diploma in trades were in occupations requiring a high school education (compared with 18% among university-educated men the same age). College-educated women were more likely to be overqualified than their male counterparts (45%), while university-educated women were no less likely to be overqualified than men (18%).

Between 1991 and 2011, however, the overqualification rates among college and trades graduates declined significantly (Table A.1). Among college-educated men, the overqualification rate declined by 10 percentage points and among college-educated women, the rate declined by 4 percentage points. College-educated immigrants also saw their rate decline, but to a lesser degree (5 percentage points for men and 2 percentage points for women).

Table A.1
Overqualification rates among younger workers aged 25 to 34 with a college diploma or a trades certificate, 1991, 2006 and 2011
Table summary
This table displays the results of Overqualification rates among younger workers aged 25 to 34 with a college diploma or a trades certificate. The information is grouped by Occupations usually requiring high school education or less (appearing as row headers), 1991, 2006, 2011 and Change (1991 to 2011), calculated using percentage and percentage point units of measure (appearing as column headers).

	1991	2006	2011	Change (1991 to 2011)
	percentage			percentage point
Occupations usually requiring high school education or less
All men	40.2	34.6	30.6	-9.6
Immigrant men	45.1	43.5	40.6	-4.5
Canadian-born men	39.4	33.1	28.8	-10.6
All women	48.4	47.8	44.5	-3.9
Immigrant women	56.1	56.7	54.3	-1.8
Canadian-born women	47.2	46.2	42.6	-4.6
Sources: Statistics Canada, Census of Population, 1991 and 2001; National Household Survey, 2011.

In comparison, the proportion of university-educated people who were in occupations requiring a high school education remained relatively stable over the period.