The mismatch between the educational attainment of employees and the jobs they perform is known as undereducation, when schooling is insufficient, and as overeducation, when it is excessive. Over the last decades, there has been a consistent reduction in the proportion of undereducated employees in the Portuguese labour market, as the younger and more educated generations have replaced the older ones.

In turn, overeducation in Portugal increased slightly but remains low, even in more recent years. In fact, the considerable number of workers with tertiary education who entered the labour market in this period stepped into highly-skilled occupations.

Compared to the other European Union countries, Portugal has a higher percentage of undereducation, especially in the older generations, and a lower percentage of overeducation.

For more details see Pimenta and Pereira (2019): “Aggregate educational mismatches in the Portuguese labour market”, published in Banco de Portugal Economic Studies (Vol. 5, N. 1).

Prepared by Manuel Pereira e Ana Catarina Pimenta. The analyses, opinions and findings of this paper represent the views of the authors, they are not necessarily those of the Banco de Portugal or the Eurosystem. 

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