The Complex Dynamics Between Knowing the Job Market, Deference, and Career Anxiety Within a Changing Gig Economy Landscape

Abstract

This study investigates the complex dynamics between knowing the job market, deference, and career anxiety within a changing gig economy landscape. This study is spread by embracing an entire range of 440 respondents from the two universities and Technical and Further Education (TAFE), using an ethically cleared online questioning method. This study is a fine example of methodological integrity confirmed by the approval of our university’s Human Research Ethics Committee. Significant results shed light on a clear relationship between students’ understanding of the market and the appearance of career anxiety, with interesting distinctions appearing due to distinctions in the level of professional adaptability. This sophisticated analysis emphasizes the dynamic nature of challenges students face amidst radical changes within the contemporary labour market. Therefore, the study provides unique findings for academic discussion and highlights the practical significance of helping students in career transitions. In doing so, it will arm educators with career counsellors and policymakers with rich knowledge about the complexities of relationships between changing trends in modern job market demand and the psychosocial well-being of tertiary students.

Introduction

In the age of passionate technological innovation developing further in the gig economy, there has been a lot of change to earlier career paths. In the move from secondary to tertiary level of learning, dreams become tangled in qualifications as means to reach desired careers. Yet, the very nature of this professional world they want to make their way through is changing at an unseen rate and scale due to technological disruptions that invalidate jobs while transforming some into others – creating new jobs (Schwartz, 2021). This paper addresses a crucial inquiry: In the backdrop of this change among career anxiety levels, tertiary-level students, how does it affect their careers?

It is a complex construct, separate from merely worrying about one’s career path but specific to the apprehension and anxiety experienced by students. At the same time, they consider their ideal job position (Voss, 2023); career is a psychological condition that has become more relevant to the labour market given its sheer speed caused by unprecedented changes. The traditional concept of getting a permanent job after finishing the tertiary level also gives way to what is popularly called the gig economy – a more unstable and uncertain employment world.

The topic is crucial not solely for the students but also for educators, career counsellors, and policymakers trying to create a suitable learning environment that helps learners prepare for future problems. There are factors vital for influencing learners’ perspectives, behaviours, and differences against changes that bring the new model to employment.

Firstly, one should consider the career anxiety phenomenon itself as something more than just general uncertainty; such an analysis has to involve the emotionality of this particular notion against recent promotion patterns changing modern life. The case concerns a rising need for students to respond in an active field of work to questions that reveal the purposefulness and sustainability of chosen job types, as well as queries regarding shifts related to how professional skills are used. This psychological stress includes the fear of choosing the wrong pathways to educational goals and pressure placed on their shoulder that should match emerging dynamism industrial demands.

Moreover, job markets become a great present given to students at that moment of their attempt to access the current employment waves. Having a sense of distinct requirements that grow in different sectors, including temples and also developing nature of abilities, for setting students as having competitive edges. It allows them to consult knowledgeable people relative to what educational courses they should choose for their careers. Thus, researching the linkage between understanding the career market and career worries yields valuable insights into students’ cognition that revamps their emotional reactions and actors.

Career adaptability can be counted among the major factors influencing students’ ability to cope with uncertainties due to the gig economy. Suthar (2020) explains that career adaptability is defined as a psychosocial construct that determines the level to which you are ready or able and willing to accept transition, change, avoidance, response adequateness under perceived threat when faced with role transformation either planned awaited announced that is, successfully relocated from abroad and in such students highly adaptable and have career Resilience perform in uncertain environment consider barriers as opportunities, assertive mode of attitude toward ones’ carriers (Suthar, 2020).

From the interplay of career adaptability, it is possible to gain a deeper insight into how students’ adaptation capabilities affect their emotional reactions to the volatile labour market.

Job market knowledge and adaptability are important in developing individuals’ career paths and reactions to job-related stressors (Lingxiao, 2018). Yet, there is a shortage of absence information in the systematic study of how these factors interplay and contribute to career anxiety among tertiary students at the threshold of entering this highly dynamic gig economy.

This introduction sets the stage for a comprehensive exploration of the research questions: How do levels of career anxiety vary among tertiary students, and what role do knowledge of the job market and career adaptability play in this variation? By addressing this gap in the existing literature, we aim to contribute valuable insights to psychology and education. This research endeavours to enhance the understanding of the psychological challenges faced by students in the contemporary employment landscape, offering implications for educational practices, counselling strategies, and policy interventions.

References

Voss, A. C. (2023). The Role of Time Perspective in the College Major Selection Process. The Keep. https://thekeep.eiu.edu/theses/4976/

Schwartz, J. (2021). Work disrupted: Opportunity, resilience, and growth in the accelerated future of work. John Wiley & Sons.

Lent, R. W., & Brown, S. D. (2020). Career decision making, fast and slow: Toward an integrative intervention model for sustainable career choice. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 120, 103448–103448. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2020.103448

Suthar, D. (2020). Linking Proactive Personality, Career Adaptability with Resilient to Career Shock: A Moderation of Support (Doctoral dissertation, Tesis, Tallinn University of Technology]. https://digikogu. taltech. ee/en/Download/8e0b28d6-8d75-48b3-8b58-8add96158247).

Lingxiao, S. (2018). Parents’ Career Values, Adaptability, Career-Specific Parenting Behaviors, and Undergraduates’ Career Adaptability – Yanjun Guan, Zhen Wang, Qing Gong, Zijun Cai, Sabrina Lingxiao Xu, Qian Xiang, Yang Wang, Sylvia Xiaohua Chen, Hanlin Hu, Lin Tian, 2018. The Counseling Psychologist. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0011000018808215

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