An investigation of characteristics affecting employment outcomes and patterns of real estate graduates

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a comprehensive picture of characteristics affecting the employment outcomes and patterns for real estate graduates in Australia. Furthermore, this paper benchmarks the characteristics affecting employment prospects of real estate graduates against those of built environment graduates. Design/methodology/approach – The data used in this paper were collected by the Australian Graduate Survey (AGS). Dimensionality reduction was used to prepare the dataset for the courses listed in the AGS data, in order to develop the simplified classifications of courses used to conduct the analysis in this paper. Dimensionality reduction was also used to prepare the dataset for the analysis of the employment outcomes and patterns for real estate and built environment graduates. Descriptive and statistical analysis methods were used to identify the difference in characteristics, such as gender, age, attendance type, mode of study, degree levels and English proficiency, for real estate and built environment graduates, the level of the influence of these characteristics on their employment outcomes and patterns and the statistical relationship between individual characteristics and employment outcomes as well as employment patterns of the graduates. Findings – English proficiency was found to be an important factor for real estate and built environment graduates for securing employment and it has a statistically significant impact on the employment outcomes and patterns for the graduates. Despite the fact that age and attendance type have no statistical impact on employment outcomes for real estate and built environment graduates, they were found to have statistical significant impact on their employment patterns. Originality/value – This is pioneering research which used official government data, such as AGS data, to provide a reliable and thorough picture of the employment outcomes and patterns for real estate and built environment graduates.