Over a third of highly-educated immigrants in employment across Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries are overqualified for their jobs with the exact rate differing significantly between countries, according to Statista.  

The OECD definition of the over-qualification rate is the share of the highly educated who are working in a job that is ISCO-classified (The International Standard Classification of Occupations) as low or medium skilled. 

South Korea (74.5%) and Greece (60.7%) have among the highest over qualification rates among foreign-born workers in the group of OECD countries selected by the Statista study.

Excluding Portugal, that share is particularly high across Southern Europe where many highly educated migrants are in low and medium-skilled jobs.

Spain (53.6%) and Italy (51.7%) are notable examples of Southern European countries where the foreign-born population has a far higher over-qualification rate than the native-born population.

“In many developed countries, a considerable share of workers are overqualified for their jobs,” Statista stated. “The issue has become increasingly common in recent years, most evident in economies with competitive job markets.”

“While it can of course result in positive effects for some organisations such as an employee performing at a higher level, it can also result in higher salary expectations, a lower level of satisfaction and a higher chance of a person leaving their job,” Statista stated.