The reasons given by employers for not hiring young people for entry-level jobs

”Employability skills are the attributes of employees, other than technical competence, that make them an asset to the employer” . These employability skills include reading, basic arithmetic and other basic skills; problem solving, decision making, and other higher-order thinking skills; and dependability, a positive attitude, cooperativeness, and other affective skills and traits.

Employers and the Workplace
What skills and traits do employers value most in pros-pective entry-level employees?
Employers want entry-level employees to possess an array of basic, higher-order, and affective employability skills.

Employers value these generic employability skills above specific occupational skills.
Specific occupational skills are less crucial for entry-level employment than a generally high level of literacy, responsible attitudes toward work, the ability to communicate well, and the ability to continue to learn.
1) employers place greatest importance on employee attitudes, 2) employers emphasize basic skills over job-specific skills, and 3) employers deem it important for workers to have an understanding of the work environment .
Employers find far too many entry-level job applicants deficient in employability skills, and want the educational institutions to place more emphasis on developing these skills.
Why have employability skills become so important in contemporary workplaces?
Valuing employability skills-to the point of assigning them an even higher priority than job-specific technical skills-employers are understandably distressed to find so many entry-level job applicants lacking these skills. The reasons given by employers for not hiring young people for entry-level jobs, including:

•  Low grades and low levels of academic accomplishments
•  Poor attitudes, lack of self-confidence
•  Lack of goals, poorly motivated
•  Lack of enthusiasm, lack of drive, little evidence of leadership potential
•  Lack of preparation for the interview
•  Excessive interest in security and benefits, unrealistic salary demands and expectations
•  Inadequate preparation for type of work, inappropriate background
•  Lack of extracurricular activities
•  Inadequate basic skills (reading, writing, math)

The primary concern of more than 80 percent of employers was finding workers with a good work ethic and appropriate social behavior: reliable, a good attitude, a pleasant appearance, a good personality.

One can easily see that employability skills are not merely attributes that employers desire in prospective employees; rather, many employers now require applicants to have these skills in order to be seriously considered for employment. And if employers hire applicants and then find them to lack these skills?


87 percent of persons losing their jobs or failing to be promoted were found to have “improper work habits and attitudes rather than insufficient job skills or knowledge”.


Employers expect to train new employees in company-specific procedures and to acquaint them with the behavioral norms, standards, and expectations of their workplace. They often provide training in job-specific technical skills as well. But they are emphatic in their conviction that the educational institutions should take most of the responsibility for equipping young people with general employability skills.


The demand for basic, higher-order, and effective employability skills reflects profound changes in the Indian workplace.