Resumo
Exploring a longitudinal sample of 15 000 recent graduates who entered the Portuguese labour market in 2010-2011, this study analyses the effects of educational mismatches on graduates’ subsequent job and wage mobility in early career. The data indicate that about 40% of the recent graduates in Portugal are vertically mismatched at entry. Of this total, those who are not able to switch to a well-matched job over the 2010-2018 period, about one-fifth of the newly graduates, experienced a persistent wage penalty of about 12% when compared with their peers continuously matched. This group of graduates are mainly employed in occupations related with clerk and sales tasks. Moreover, the data show that about 44% of the graduates did not change their first employer over the analysed period. In this regard, mismatched graduates at entry do not exhibit a higher propensity to change jobs when compared with their similar counterparts who entered the labour market adequately matched.