How do skills influence the students’ employability in a developing economy?

This paper aims to identify the factors that can affect the overall graduate employability (OGE) of private university graduates in a developing economy. Many economies are facing substantial issues in job markets. Moreover, many young people are unemployed and barely get a good job. Hence, it is necessary to examine how skills set influence the employability in a developing economy like Pakistan. The authors carefully selected six such employable factors after searching the existing literature. Those six factors: academic performance (AP), technical skills (TS), communication skills (CS), personality (PE), leadership & motivational skills (LMS); and teamwork and problem solving skills (TPSS), had been considered as the independent variables while OGE had been considered as the single dependent variable. Design/methodology/approach – The authors collected the primary data from a valid sample of 200 employers through a structured questionnaire working as the hiring managers. Those respondents were selected on a random basis. The authors used exploratory factor analysis to validate the items under those independent variables and structural equation modeling with AMOS (24) to test the hypothesized relationship between each independent variable and the dependent one. Research limitations/implications – Based on the findings, this paper can help scholars in further investigating the employability factors. Practical implications – This explorative study will guide the fresh graduates in developing their required employability skills while assisting the employers in recruiting suitable candidates with the required skills and performance.