This paper analyzes the school-to-work transition of bachelor graduates using survival analysis. Using the REFLEX data, for a sample of graduates from 16 OECD countries who graduated up to 1999–2000 and were later interviewed in 2005–2006, we show that only the relatively inexpensive to observe characteristics of graduates serve to potential employers as screening devices. All the difficult and thus expensive to observe characteristics, though potentially productive, do not speed up the school-to-work transition. Potential public policies to reduce the job search time for graduates should include endowing graduates with entrepreneurial training and promoting clearly readable skills sets of graduates among their potential employers. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2025.
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