ABSTRACT:
The current economic crisis has specially affected the Spanish construction industry, causing the loss of 1.2 million jobs in the last four years. The increase in the unemployment rate is particularly worrisome for recent graduates in the construction industry. This fact leads to changes in the university degrees related to construction: undergraduate students should be prepared for a new professional environment and recent graduate find it hard to enter the labor market. Low employment opportunities entail a lack of motivation that can cause a significant decrease in the achievement of learning outcomes. This paper seeks to analyze the impact of the crisis in the construction industry from the point of view of the students of a M.Sc. in Construction Management, analyzing the evolution of student’s perception on unemployment and their motivations to enroll in the master degree. For this purpose, a questionnaire was handed out to students of three consecutive classes of the M.Sc. in Construction Management at the Universitat Politècnica de València (Spain) from 2010 to 2012. A statistical analysis of the survey was developed. This way, some interesting points can be highlighted on the impact of crisis on young construction professionals.
KEYWORDS:
Construction; Economic Crisis; Employment; Motivation; Labor Market; M.Sc. Degree
REFERENCIA:
TORRES-MACHÍ, C.; PELLICER, E.; YEPES, V.; PICORNELL, M. (2013). Impact of the economic crisis in construction: a perspective from graduate students. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 89:640-645.