Psychological capital and job readiness among Chinese university students: the mediating role of career adaptability and the moderating effect of labour market pressure

Today's competitive labour market poses substantial challenges to the work readiness and employability of recent university graduates. Psychological capital, comprising self-efficacy, hope, resilience, and optimism, is considered critical for supporting students' career transitions; however, its role in shaping job readiness has received limited empirical attention within the Chinese higher education context. This study examines the direct effects of psychological capital on job readiness, the mediating role of career adaptability, and the moderating influence of perceived labour market pressure. Using a stratified sample of 1,279 university students, structural equation modelling was employed for data analysis. The results indicate that self-efficacy, hope, resilience, and optimism significantly predict job readiness, with career adaptability demonstrating the strongest direct effect. Mediation analysis confirms that career adaptability mediates the relationships between self-efficacy, hope, resilience, optimism, and job readiness. Moderation analysis further reveals that labour market pressure weakens these relationships, highlighting the conditional influence of external labour market perceptions. The findings underscore the dynamic interplay between internal psychological resources, adaptive career behaviours, and external labour market conditions. These results offer important implications for higher education institutions, suggesting that interventions targeting psychological capital, career adaptability, and perceptions of labour market pressure may enhance students' job readiness and support more effective employability development in increasingly competitive labour markets.