Personality traits and social self-efficacy are associated with university students’ perceptions of employability

Why do some students feel more employable than others even before entering the labour market? Drawing on the Big Five personality framework, Social Cognitive Theory, and Social Cognitive Career Theory, this study examines how personality traits and social self-efficacy shape university students’ self-perceived employability. Survey data were collected from 825 upper-year economics and business students in Hanoi, Vietnam, and analysed using PLS-SEM. The results show that extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience are positively associated with self-perceived employability, while emotional stability shows no direct association. Social self-efficacy emerges as a key mechanism, directly predicting self-perceived employability and mediating the relationships between all five personality traits and self-perceived employability. The study contributes to employability research by identifying social self-efficacy as a key social-cognitive mechanism linking personality traits with students’ self-perceived employability.