Eurostat: Non-Nationals Are More Likely to Be Over-Qualified for Jobs in EU Than Nationals & Other EU Countries’ Citizens

Employed non-nationals are more likely to be over-qualified for their job than nationals, with non-EU employees being especially affected by this phenomenon.

According to a report by Eurostat, the European Statistics Office, the over-qualification rate was 39.6 per cent among non-EU citizens and 32 per cent for other EU countries citizens. In general, the over-qualification rate for nationals stood at 20.8 per cent – 0.2 percentage points below 2020 levels, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.

The over-qualification rates have dropped by 1.9 percentage points for non-EU citizens and 0.2 percentage points for citizens from other EU countries, while those have increased for nationals by 0.2 percentage points compared to those in 2020.

The highest over-qualified shares were recorded in Greece, where 69.5 per cent of non-EU citizen employees are over-qualified for the job that they do, followed by Italy (67.1 per cent), Spain (57 per cent), Estonia (46.4 per cent) and Austria (46.2 per cent).

As per EU citizens from any respective EU country, the over-qualification rate was the highest for those Cyprus (50.3 per cent), followed by Greece (48.2 per cent), Italy (46.9 per cent), Spain (46.2 per cent) and Ireland (41.4 per cent).

On the other hand, Spain and Greece have the highest rates of over-qualified employed nationals, with 34.5 and 32.1 per cent, respectively, followed by Cyprus (29.5 per cent), Ireland (26.8 per cent) and Austria (26.2 per cent).

Data by Eurostat show that Luxembourg reported the lowest over-qualification rates for 2021 – 4.8 per cent for over-qualified nationals, 5.5 per cent for citizens and 8.2 per cent for non-EU citizens.

Over-qualification for non-EU citizens and citizens of other EU countries was higher among people between 35 and 64 years older, rather than younger ones aged between 20 and 34 years old, while the situation for nationals is reversed.

“The over-qualification rate was higher among non-EU citizens aged 35-64 years at 42.8 per cent compared with 35.2 per cent in the group of people aged 20-34 years (7.6 percentage points gap between age groups). For citizens of other EU countries, the gap was smaller at three percentage points, with 33 per cent in the older age group compared with 30 per cent in the younger group,” Eurostat explains.

The over-qualification rate was higher for people in the younger age group among nationals in the EU, with a difference of 3.9 percentage points.

In terms of sexes, the over-qualification rate was higher by one percentage point for women than for men. The difference is more evident between non-nationals, with women being over-qualified by 4.9 per cent compared to men, 4.1 percentage points for citizens of other EU countries and 6.3 percentage points for non-EU citizens.