Assets and barriers to finding employment: Comparisons between NEO-FFI personality, meaning, employability skills, ethnicity, use of Canadian job search support services and length of job search.

摘要

In this intact-groups, quasi-experimental study, 115 recently unemployed job seekers who utilized federally funded labour market interventions are compared on program usage (wage subsidy vs. job & career search), the Big Five personality traits, Personal Meaning Profile (PMP), a new employability skills scale (Assets for Employment; AE), job search length and pain and suffering. Results did not find significant differences in program usage or job search length. However, preliminary support was found for the AE measure as it correlated positively with education level, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, conscientiousness, PMP total and inversely with negative emotionality. Further analysis found those of Non-Western ethnicity had longer job search lengths and higher levels of pain and suffering while simultaneously scoring higher on levels of personal meaning and employability skills. This relationship was unexpected as meaning has been linked to better coping under stress and increased employability skills are desired by employers.