A job to match your education: does it matter?

This chapter focuses on the match between an individual's education and the job that is performed. It presents the conceptual framework and provides references to the literature. The chapter also presents measurements of the match quality between individual education and the job held. The measurements refer to the Netherlands and allow an assessment of the development of the match quality over time. Worker assessment of the match quality is available for different years, but it is based on unrelated worker surveys. In a number of surveys, workers have been asked to state the level of education that they think is necessary for proper performance of their jobs. The earnings structure by education appears to have flattened. There is not only a drop for earnings at the highest level of education, but there is also an increase at the bottom. The chapter seeks to establish the earnings consequences of the match quality.