This article evaluates the possible effects of the overeducation experience, focusing on the individual education level and on non-economic aspects. Specifically, the question posed is: does overeducation have negative effects on the degree of job satisfaction, the subjective wellbeing, and the civic and political integration of workers in Spain?

The expansion of education has been accompanied by a growth in highly qualified occupations, but this has not been sufficient to absorb the labour supply with higher qualifications, particularly university qualifications. For this reason, an appreciable proportion of workers have an education level higher than that required by their occupation.

There are various ways of defining and measuring overeducation. Here we will be focusing on formal overeducation measured objectively, i.e., the imbalance that occurs when a person performs work that requires an education level lower than their own. This includes situations of both extreme overeducation (for example, that of a person who has a long-cycle university qualification and works in an occupation without specific educational requirements) and moderate overeducation (for example, that of someone who has a high-school qualification and performs a job that does not require any qualifications at all). This notion of overeducation is differentiated both from overqualification (imbalance between skills possessed and skills necessary for the work carried out) and subjective or perceived overeducation.

In order to contemplate a broad range of variables in which overeducation could have an influence, we have analysed data originating from various surveys that provide detailed information on occupations and educational levels. Although these are surveys on representative samples of the occupied population (Surveys on Qual-ity of Life at Work, ECVT, 2007-2010) or of the general population (CIS Post-electoral Surveys 2015 and 2016, and Surveys on Living Conditions, ECV, 2018), we have focused the analysis on waged workers and on age groups that are in the central phases of their career biography. In these terms, and for the age groups selected, the overeducation rate registered in the surveys that we have used stands at around 20%, with oscillations from one survey to another, but without any defined change in tendency.

Analysts and social scientists have alerted regarding the negative consequences of overeducation, both for people who experience it and for society overall. Beyond its strictly economic impact, significant psychological and social impacts have been attributed to it, such as a reduction in job satisfaction and in subjective wellbeing. Furthermore, it has been suggested that overeducation, as a facet of subemployment and labour precarity, could contribute towards undermining the integration of workers into the political system, generating feelings of inefficacy, alienation, dissatisfaction, and political distrust. Checking whether overeducation really has these effects is relevant for deciding to what extent interventions aimed at mitigating its consequences are necessary.

Overeducation is accompanied by a reduction of between two and three tenths in satisfaction with the job performed, considered both globally and in terms of particular aspects such as satisfaction with the type of activities carried out and the sense of accomplishment provided by work. For example, in the data from the ECV (2018), being overeducated reduced overall job satisfaction by approximately 0.3 points. The re-sult is robust: although the size of this reduction is variable, it is brought to light independently of the survey, the point in time or the variable that is taken into account. The reduction appears to be somewhat greater for satisfaction with personal development at work.
 

The results are less conclusive with regard to the impact of overeducation on subjective wellbeing or perception of own wellbeing. We have put this relationship to the test using different indicators (satisfaction with life, feeling of happiness) in three different surveys. We find that overeducation is coupled with a certain reduction in life satisfaction in one of them (ECV 2018) but not in another (ECVT 2007-2010); nor is  any impact observed on the feeling of happiness in a third survey (EPE 2015-2016). Therefore, in this case, we do not find such a robust pattern of results as for job satisfaction, but insofar as it really exists, the negative effect of overeducation on subjective wellbeing seems to be more modest than its effect on job satisfaction. 

Finally, we asked ourselves whether people who experience overeducation have a lesser degree of political engagement and have more negative attitudes towards the political system – aspects that we encompass under the term civic and political integration. Specifically, we have examined four variables: political efficacy (sense of having the capacity to act and influence politically and that the political system is receptive to citizens), political participation (performance of various types of political actions), satisfaction with how democracy is working and trust in public institutions.

As can be observed, having an education level higher than that required for the occupation performed (in other words, being overeducated), has no effect at all on people’s level of political participation, satisfaction with how democracy is working, or trust in the institutions, and it even seems to be accompanied by an increase in the feeling of political efficacy. All of these results are pointing in the same direction: overeducation does not undermine civic and political integration. 

The results obtained suggest that the negative consequences of overeducation do not have such a broad reach as might be expected. They are important and consistent with regard to job satisfaction, more uncertain with respect to subjective wellbeing considered overall, and non-existent in the civic and political sphere. It can be concluded that, although overeducation has a relevant negative impact on attitudes focusing on the strictly labour sphere, this impact is gradually diluted as attention is displaced towards broader life or social spheres. 

It must be taken into account that this study refers exclusively to overeducation understood as an objective imbalance and referring to formal education. Therefore, the conclusions drawn cannot be extrapolated to the subjective feeling of having more education than necessary for the work being carried out nor to the qualification or skill in the strictest sense.