Factors Influencing Job Choice

This research sets out a Perceptual-Judgemental-Reinforcement approach to job choice under conditions of complexity and uncertainty. It investigates the claim that job choices are based on seven implicit factors: such as the specific size of the occupation, the proportion of employees working full-time, the earnings, the job prospects, gender dominance in an occupation, the level of unemployment in the occupation and the predominant age group in the job. Nine case studies involving choices from 25 randomly selected advertised jobs are presented. Results indicated substantial idiosyncrasy in job choices. An individual logistic regression analysis indicated no statistically significant influence of key labour market indicators in any of the nine case studies. It was concluded that job choice was idiosyncratic; that individuals lacked insight into their job choices and probably relied upon relatively few unstated cues. The findings have direct implications for the relevance of occupational information and for key issues in the delivery of vocational guidance. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.