Advanced Materials Research Vols.

850-851 (2014) pp 1069-1072 Online: 2013-12-13

© (2014) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland
doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.850-851.1069

Employment Expectation: Factor Influencing Graduate Employment

Xiaojian Penga, Lina Zhangb,*

School of Economics and Management, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330031, China
a
xjpeng2013@126.com, blinazhang2013@126.com

Keywords: Employment expectation, Graduate employment, Empirical analysis, Logistic model

Abstract. Based on the 2013 session of the graduate survey data of the Economics and Management
School of Nanchang University, this paper uses Logistic model to analyze the impact of employment
expectation on undergraduate students. Evidence indicates that the employment expectation has a
significant negative impact on the employment of university students, the higher the expectation of
employment, the less satisfactory employment situation is. And the cognition factor plays a key role
for the employment of university students, including the cognition on major, the competence
cognition and the cognition on the employment situation.

Introduction
Throughout surveys from domestic and overseas, Xiaoling Feng found a small gap between
undergraduate course and graduates’ profession expectation as well as area expectation and the reality
of employment in XiaMen University, but the value of the expectation still opposites reality [1].
Shengyu Zhu discovered that sex, family economic background and academic background of college
students are significantly impact the revenue [2]. Through the literature comb, we hardly found the
quantitative molecular studies about the relationship with employment expectation and employment
of university students. This paper is based on the studies analysis, using Logistic Model to analyze the
impact that employment expectation will have on undergraduate employment.

Definition of Variables
According to the hypothesis of "Rational Man" and the "Economic Man"we figured out the following
variables.(see in Table 1).
Independent Variables. This paper mainly studies the employment situation of university
students which is divided into two cases "signed" and "not sign" , both of which refer to the survey of
university graduates contract situation in the last semester of senior year .
Dependent Variables. We excluded the interference of other factors, and divided the argument
into two categories, one is the key argument that employment expectation, and the other for the
control variables.
Table 1 Describes the Variable Data
STD. Estimated
Tyre Variable Name Label Defined Variables Mean
Deviation Impact
Independent Employment y Signed=1; Not Sign=0 1.64 0.482
Variables Situation
Sex x1 Male=1; Female=2 1.4 0.492 +
Control The Rural=1; the County=2;
Family Seat x2 1.59 0.773 +
Variables the Urban=3
Family Economic Poverty=1; Normal=2;
x3 1.72 0.515 -
Situation Wealthy=3
Cognitive Unexpected Specialty =1;
Cognition on Major x4 1.31 0.462 -
Variables Expected Specialty =2

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1070 Advances in Applied Sciences and Manufacturing

Student party members and

Cognition on student leaders=1; Student
x5 2.47 0.791 +
Competence Party members =2; Student
leaders=3; General Student=4
cognition on
employment x6 Good=1;Normal=2;Pool=3 2.28 0.626 +
situation
Place of Tier cities=1; Second-tier
employment x7 cities=2; Third-tier cities=3; 1.7 0.638 +
Expectative options General county=4
Variables 1000-2000=1;2000-3000=2;30
Wage income
x8 00-4000=3;4000-5000=4; 3.16 0.827 -
requirements
5000 or more=5

Model Construction and Data Sources

Model Construction. Objective of this paper is the employment situation of university students,
"contracted" and "unsigned",namely dichotomous variables.We use the Logistic model for analyzing:
1
Pi = F(α + ∑ βιxi ) = (1)
1+e
−(α + ∑ βixi )
Table 2 The Basic Situation of the Questionnaire
Statistical Indicators Effective ratio(%)
Signed 36.3
Employment Situation
Not Signed 63.7
Male 59.6
Sex
Female 40.4
the Rural 59.1
Family Seat the County 23.3
the Urban 17.6
Poverty 31.1
Family Economic Situation Normal 65.8
Wealthy 3.1
Unexpected Specialty 30.6
Cognition on Major
Expected Specialty 69.4
Student party members and student leaders 4.1
Party members 14.5
Cognition on Competence
Student leaders 21.8
General Student 59.6
Good 9.3
Cognition on employment situation Normal 52.8
Pool 37.8
Tier cities 37.3
Second-tier cities 57
Place of employment options
Third-tier cities 3.6
General county 2.1
1000-2000 0.5
2000-3000 18.1
Wage income requirements 3000-4000 54.4
4000-5000 19.2
5000 or more 7.8
In regression analysis, it is usually to be logic transformation, probability function between the
independent variables and linear regression model [3]:
 Advanced Materials Research Vols. 850-851 1071

p
ln ( i ) = yi = (α + ∑ β i xi ) = α + β1 x1 + β 2 x2 + k + β n xn + ε (2)
1 − pi
In the above Eq.2, Pi is the rate of students signing, yi is the rate of representative students
signing, If signed, the dependent variable value is 1; if not, the value is 0. Xi is independent variables,
defined as professional knowledge, cognitive ability; β means coefficient of influencing factors, and α
represents the nodal increment, and ε means the error [4].
Data Sources. This data came from Nanchang University School of Economics and Management
survey of 2013 graduates, there were 935 graduates on their sub-12 professional conduct random
surveys.For the 935 graduates in 2013, we prepared 200 questionnaires. And the overall sampling rate
is 21.93 percent, and the effective questionnaires rate is 96.5%. The overall effective sampling rate is
20.64%,and the effective sampling rate of the professional is about 20% . So we can say: The survey is
scientifically valid (Table 2).

Logistic Regression Results of Employment Effects.

Model Test. In this paper, we used the Hosmer and Lemeshow test and Omnibus test and built up a
binary Logistic regression analysis model. The null hypothesis of H-L test is that the model fits the
data well. According to the test, the model chi-square value is 2.616, and significance level is 0.956>
0.50,.So we can not reject the null hypothesis,and the model can be considered good fit.
Meanwhile,Omnibus test model and the combined HL show that the regression model fit well and
have strong explanatory power .Employment expectations can better reflect the impact on
employment of university students.
Model Runs. Using SPSS18.0 ,we analyzed the survey data with Logistic regression and the
model estimation results shown in Table 3.
Table 3 The Binary Logistic Model Estimation Results
Regression Standard Wald Test
Independent Variables Exp(B)
coefficient error value
Sex 0.533 0.364 2.144 1.703
Control
Family Seat 0.559 0.291 3.699 1.749
Variables
Family Economic Situation -0.507 0.384 1.747 0.602
Cognition on Major -0.785* 0.383 4.201 0.456
Cognitive
Cognition on Competence 0.603* 0.238 6.404 1.828
Variables
Cognition on employment situation 1.396** 0.318 19.239 4.04
Expectation Place of employment options 0.601 0.35 2.954 1.825
Variables Wage income requirements -0.020 0.243 0.007 0.98
Note: * and ** represent the 5% and 1% level significantly.

Model Analysis and Discussion

Description of the questionnaire data. Overall, the majority of undergraduates' employment
expectation is reasonable.We can easily see from the Table 2 that most students have not yet signed
the contracts and the most of them are boys, or from rural areas or poor families. And also, the
majority believes that the employment situation is not promising and even grim. From the expectation
variable, most of the students tend to staying in second-tier cities, while more students prefer the
first-tier cities,with a need of 3000-4000 yuan in wage.
The effects of cognition on major. Table 3 shows that the professional employment has a
negative relationship with the university students’ employment. Popular professional employment
was unduly high expectations and the professional degree of expected are often associated with
society and market demand. The popular professional job market are approaching saturation, while
the unpopular one is relatively more, so the unpopular graduates find the right job much easier.
1072 Advances in Applied Sciences and Manufacturing

The effect of cognition on competence. As can be seen from Table 3, The cognition on
competence showed a significant positive effect with employment of university students , and the
regression coefficient was 0.603,which passed the 5% significance test. This shows that those who
with low cognition on competence has a high-signing rate than those who were college student leaders
and the party members.
The effect of cognition on employment situation. Seen from Table 3, the regression coefficient
was 1.396, which passed the 1% significance test. This shows that the more college graduates have a
nice employment expectation, the worse employment rate is, which makes the probability of success
of employment increased and the student lowered their employment expectations, even if the nature
of work , salary or wages are not satisfied, he would choose early signing.
The effect of expectative variables. From Table 3, the choice of the employment places and the
income requirements was not on a significant statistical level. However, it can be seen from the sign
of the regression coefficients that less developed the chosen place of employment , the higher the
signing rate will be; the higher the income level required, the lower the signing rate will be.

Conclusions and Suggestions

Conclusions. These empirical analysis show that: The current employment expectation of most
students is relatively reasonable. Employment expectation has a significant negative impact on
employment expectation . The higher employment expectation of college students, the more
employment situation is not ideal. In employment expectation, the cognitive factors plays a key role
on the employment of university students.
Suggestions. First, to strengthen students' education on career guidance , including the direction of
the profession and employment or the education about employment situation . Help students to
establish a correct concept of occupation in order to determine a reasonable expectation of
employment.Second, to strengthen students’ education on career planning , guide students to establish
a long-term career development, and lower initial employment expectation appropriately.

References
[1] X.L. Feng: Journal of Technology College Education, (2007) no. 5, p. 64-66. (In Chinese)
[2] S.Y. Zhu and X.L. Zhou: J. Modern Education Management, (2010) no. 4, p. 118-121. (In
Chinese)
[3] X.Y. Li and L. Deng: Modern Economic Research, (2010) no. 2, p. 82-85. (In Chinese)
[4] X.Y. Wei: Theory and contemporary, (2011) no. 5, p. 30-35. (In Chinese)
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Employment Expectation: Factor Influencing Graduate Employment

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