Working Paper

Student Graduation, Labour Market Destinations and Employment Earnings

“This paper investigates the labour market destinations of graduates from seven higher education institutions in South Africa. A three-step estimation procedure is employed in which the relative importance of covariates such as age, race, and gender in each stage from educational attainment to pre-defined labour market outcomes, is estimated. The results indicate that race continues to be a significant determinant in South Africa of the probability of outcomes such as graduation and employment even when controlling for institution type and field of study. No differential in earnings is apparent on the basis of race once individuals have been selected into employment. Whilst socio-economic variables are important in determining graduation and success in the labour market, they are not crucial.”