Understanding how well a job fits an employee is crucial for studying labor markets, according to new research from Cornell. However, measuring the quality of this fit is challenging.

The study looks at the pros and cons of different ways to measure job fit. It uses data from a survey of 500 U.S. employees, collecting information on wages, tenure, job satisfaction, performance evaluations, and how well employees feel their skills match their jobs.

A good fit

“What makes a good job fit?” the researchers ask. This is a key question for understanding labor markets.

There are several ways to measure job fit—asking employees about job satisfaction, looking at performance evaluations, noting how long they stay in their jobs, and checking their wages. But each method has its problems.

The survey found that some measures, like wages, performance evaluations, and skill fit, tend to go together. Others, like job satisfaction and tenure, do not.

Interestingly, over time, wages, performance evaluations, and skill fit tend to improve, while job satisfaction often drops.

“The main point is that these measures do correlate, but not as much as you might think,” the researchers say. “It’s puzzling that wages, skill fit, and performance evaluations go up over time, but job satisfaction goes down.”

This pattern appears in other types of relationships too. Even when job satisfaction decreases, employees still see improvements in wages, skill fit, and performance evaluations.

“This finding suggests we need to be careful when choosing what to measure,” the researchers conclude. “Different measures tell different stories about job fit over time.”