Example employment dissertation topic 9:

Overqualified and under-employed: A study of the contemporary graduate job market.

This is a dissertation that combines employment theory with practical personal experiences and a number of ethical considerations would need to be addressed in the methodology accompanying the research. The explosion in student numbers in the late 1990s was matched by a growing economy. Ten years later and the job market has changed beyond recognition; high numbers of graduates are failing to secure ‘graduate’ employment within the UK. Using both readily available public data in the form of graduate employment trends and first hand interviews with graduates now aged 22-25, this dissertation focuses upon the careers, to date, of students who graduated from the School of Media, Leeds Metropolitan University, in the years 2009, 2010, and 2011, and provides an answer to the question as to the extent to which these graduates are ‘overqualified’ and under-employed for the jobs in which they presently find themselves.

Suggested initial topic reading:

• Comunian, R., Faggian, A. and Jewell, S. (2011). ‘Winning and losing in the creative industries: An analysis of creative graduates’ career opportunities across creative disciplines’. Cultural Trends, vol. 20(3-4), pp. 291-308.
• Comunian, R., Faggian, A. and Li, Q.C. (2010). ‘Unrewarded careers in the creative class: The strange case of bohemian graduates’. Papers in Regional Science, vol. 89(2), pp. 389-410.
• Scurry, T. and Blenkinsopp, J. (2011). ‘Under-employment among recent graduates: A review of the literature’. Personnel Review, vol. 40(5), pp. 643-659.