Emotional resilience and its role in promoting well-being and employability during the school-to-work transition under labor market uncertainty

The transition from higher education into employment has become more demanding for graduates as economic conditions increase uncertainty surrounding early career opportunities. To examine how psychological resources operate under such conditions, this study empirically tests the relationships among emotional resilience, well-being, labor market uncertainty, and employability using established multidimensional measures. The results indicate that emotional resilience is positively associated with employability, both through a direct pathway and through an indirect pathway operating via well-being. Specifically, higher levels of emotional resilience correspond to stronger well-being, which in turn relates to greater career adaptability, motivation, and confidence. The analysis further shows that labor market uncertainty conditions these relationships. When perceived uncertainty is higher, the positive association between emotional resilience and well-being is reduced, and the link between emotional resilience and employability is correspondingly weakened. This pattern suggests that the effectiveness of psychological resources is contingent on the stability of the external employment environment. Additional analyses using alternative model specifications yield consistent results, supporting the reliability of the observed relationships. Taken together, the findings indicate that employability is not solely determined by individual psychological strengths, but emerges from their interaction with labor market conditions. This underscores the importance of institutional efforts that simultaneously foster students' emotional resilience and well-being while reducing informational ambiguity during the school-to-work transition through clearer guidance and structured support mechanisms.