Title: Employer perception on graduate employability: evidence from Uttar Pradesh

Authors: M. Yousuf Malik; Kulsoom Raza; Irsad; Ranjana Singh

Addresses: School of Business, Woxsen University Hyderabad Telangana, India ' Department of Economics, University of Lucknow, 226007, India ' Department of Economics, Mahatma Gandhi Central University, Bihar, India ' Department of Economics, National PG College Lucknow, India

Abstract: The current paper is an attempt to understand the skill gap and predicted job market skills needed. Thus, following the set of objectives and review of the literature, 13 types of skills relevant to employment were identified and classified into three categories: technical skills, non-technical skills, and behavioural skills. Out of the 13 talents chosen by businesses, technical skills in graduates were deemed the most significant, followed by skill flexibility. Students and HR executives were asked to rate all talents on a Likert scale of 1 (least essential) to 5 (most important) using structured questionnaires (most important). There is a gap between the required and apparent abilities of graduates, resulting in poor performance of employees in new workplaces. Graduate foreign language skills have a 0.45 gap, while conceptualising skills have a 0.44 difference. Academic excellence and numeric skills have the smallest difference, with a 0.11 index value. This highlights the importance of identifying the most crucial talents for employers.

Keywords: behavioural skills education; employability; non-technical skills; skills gap; technical skills graduate employability.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEED.2025.147030

International Journal of Education Economics and Development, 2025 Vol.16 No.3, pp.287 - 300

Received: 04 May 2023
Accepted: 17 Nov 2023
Published online: 10 Jul 2025 *