Title: Over education and under education in the Tanzanian formal sector: determinants and policy implications

Authors: Pius Chaya; Oswald Mashindano; Danford Chisomi

Addresses: Department of Rural Development and Regional Planning, Institute of Rural Development Planning, P.O. Box 138, Dodoma, Tanzania ' Department of Economics, University of Dar es Salaam, P.O. Box 35096, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania ' Department of Rural Development and Regional Planning, Institute of Rural Development Planning, P.O. Box 138, Dodoma, Tanzania

Abstract: The aim of this paper was to examine the determinants of over education and under education in the formal labour market of Tanzania. The study employed cross sectional and worker self-assessment (WSA) techniques. Interviews were conducted to collect data from 319 employees. Using multinomial logit model analysis, the results revealed that workers in the formal sector with age between 29 and 50 years and who had access to transport were likely to be over educated. On the basis of location, workers in urban and rural areas were likely to be over educated and under educated respectively. Therefore, Tanzania labour market is not free from over education and under education problems and their negative effects on wage, job satisfaction and service delivery can not be ignored. It is therefore recommended that private and public sectors should harmonise standards of recruitment and motivation to mitigate incidences of over education and under education.

Keywords: over education; under education; labour policy; education-job mismatch; formal sector; logit model; Tanzania; formal labour market; worker self-assessment; urban areas; rural areas; wages; job satisfaction; service delivery; recruitment standards; motivation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEED.2013.057710

International Journal of Education Economics and Development, 2013 Vol.4 No.4, pp.371 - 391

Received: 29 Jul 2013
Accepted: 10 Sep 2013

Published online: 10 May 2014 *

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