Identifying and ranking barriers to employment of university graduates in the Iranian labor market

The purpose of the present research is to identify and rank the employment barriers of university graduates in the Iranian labor market. This research is among the applied researches that have been conducted with a mixed exploratory (qualitative-quantitative) approach. The qualitative part was done using the meta-analysis method and as a result, during a seven-step process, a total of 52 documents were selected and analyzed as samples of the qualitative part. The quantitative part of the research was also done using the descriptive method and using the survey method. Sampling was done using criterion sampling technique and80 experts participated in the research. Qualitative part data was analyzed by content analysis method, using thematic content analysis technique and with the help of MAXQDA20 software, and quantitative part data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics and using structural equation modeling technique with the help of Smart PLS software. The findings of the qualitative section in the form of 7 factors including; Economic, educational, structural, political, business, cultural and human resources factors were calculated. Also, the results of the expert opinion survey showed that other than the human resource factor, other factors can be considered as obstacles to the employment of university graduates in the Iranian labor market, among which the economic factor is the most important and the cultural factor is the least important. The general results of the research show that in order to remove these obstacles and get out of the existing situation, measures such as; It is inevitable to revise university educations, create culture, launch a comprehensive labor market information system, revise university courses, etc.