An Analysis of Job Market Expectations of Students of Economics: A Case

Study on Stamford University Bangladesh

H. M. Khairul Kabir Bhuiyan*

This study tries to investigate the job expectations among students, their salary expectation and to
find out what actually the students think about the current job market situation with their field of
Economics. This study conducts a survey on the Bachelors and Masters students of Economics
Department at Stamford University Bangladesh. Thirty- four students were surveyed as a sample
by following the procedure of random sampling method. A questionnaire was constructed to
collect data during July to September 2016.
This study finds out that approximately 41.18% of the sample (students) are willing to do job in
the banking and financial institution, 23.52% students want to be a teacher or to do higher studies,
20.6% students are willing to do government job, 11.8% students want to be self- employed and
the remaining 2.9% wants to work with Non-Government Organization (NGO).

Most of the students choose banking

Job Expectations among
profession because it provides smart
Students for Different
salary, loan and other facilities, and also
have a chance to lead a comfortable,
Sectors
luxury life. This study also reveals that
41.18%
45.00%
the students who have selected banking
40.00%
35.00%
profession as their career, from that,
30.00% 23.52%
20.60%
25.00%
71.4% are female.
20.00%
11.80%
The students choose teaching profession
15.00%
10.00%
or higher studies because they want to
2.90%
5.00%
learn more about Economics and also
0.00%
want to help the society by doing
research. Another reason is that teaching
profession has a great respect and it
contains more prestige than other job.
The students choose government job
because this is a more secured job than other private job. They want to serve the country
and devote themselves to the welfare of the country.
The students choose self- employed status because they want freedom. They want to be an
entrepreneur and want to create employment opportunities for others.
Because of relating to academic background and has a reputation in the society, few
students choose the NGO job as their profession.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------*Undergraduate student, Department of Economics, Stamford University Bangladesh.

The author is grateful to Azharul Islam, Sr. Lecturer in Economics, Stamford University Bangladesh for his
support and valuable advise in preparing this report.

Most of the students who wanted to do the job in a bank, government service, teaching profession
and other fields, are well known about achieving their desired goal. In terms of salary expectation,
the students who want to be a teacher, expected lower salary than other jobs. The salary expectation
is higher among the students who have selected banking and government job as their career. This
study finds out that the gender difference has no effect on wage expectation. Approximately 59%
students of the sample believe that Bachelor and Masters degree in Economics are enough for
getting a job. However, the remaining 41% of the students disagree about this matter. According
to them; besides academic knowledge; professional training, other post graduate diploma (PGD)
courses, good communication skill in English, computer proficiency, leadership skill, attending
career counseling program and workshop on career development etc. are also important to become
a perfect candidate for the job market. Almost 72% of the surveyed students do not believe that
they will find a job quickly after finishing their Bachelor or Masters degree. The remaining 28%
are confident about getting a job quickly after finishing their degree. Approximately 76% of the
students believe that co-curricular and extra-curricular activities are important to achieve their
future goal, and most of them are involved with different social or voluntary organizations,
attending different seminar and workshop and cultural activities organized by the university and
outside.
The positive sign is that 11.8% of the sample students want to be self- employed, thus if they
become self- centered, they would create new employment initiatives through their innovativeness.
As this study reveals that 72% of sample students are confused about getting a job after earning
their degree, so it is important to create new employment opportunities for the new entrants.

BSS and MSS in

Economics is either
enough for job or not?

Getting a job as
soon as earning
degree is either
easy or not?
Yes
28%

41%

59%

Yes

No

No
72%

No

Yes