Emotional barriers to job search success: job search anxiety during university-to-work transitions

Job search is an emotionally charged process that involves considerable ambiguity (Turban, Lee, Veiga, Haggard & Wu, 2013). Although research on wellbeing of employed and unemployed job seekers is well established, we know relatively little about emotional wellbeing of new entrants into labour markets. With increasing number of university leavers yet proportionally fewer high skilled jobs across the globe (Green & Henseke, 2016), new entrants into the graduate labour market face unprecedented ambiguity and uncertainty in their job search outcomes upon graduation. Moreover, these new entrants often lack the career-related experience (Boswell, Zimmerman, & Swider, 2012; Feldman, 2003) to help them negotiate this complex terrain (Jackson & Wilton, 2016). Not surprisingly then considerable level of anxiety among university leavers has been reported (Leach, 2016; Tomlinson, 2008). However, how such emotional turmoil impacts job search behaviour and thereby successful university-to-work transitions - although has important practical implications for graduate careers - is a question that received scant scholarly attention. This research aims to examine (i) the factors contributing to job search anxiety (JSA) among university leavers, and its relationship with (ii) job search behaviours during university-towork transitions and (iii) job search outcomes upon graduation. In doing so, this research responds to recent call for studies focusing on the emotional experience of job search (Manroop and Richardson, 2015), particularly for new entrants into the labour market (Boswell et al., 2012).

Part of the symposium "Multiple Perspectives to Successful Employment Outcomes".