Employment status of Rafsanjan Medical Sciences University

Background: One of the economical and social challenges of graduates of higher education is unemployment. Objective: To determine the employment status of students of Rafsanjan medical university. Methods: Through a descriptive study, out of 1168 questionnaires sent to graduated students of Rafsanjan medical university (1990-96) by mail, 410 questionnaires that were sent back, were analyzed. Findings: The results indicated that 60.5% of the research group were employed at one of the public or private organizations, 35.9% were unemployed and 3.6% were self-employed. Out of the employed population, 33.9% were officially hired, 20.2% were conventionally hired, 15.3% had contracts and 30.6% were in the plan of human resource. The interviewed samples (68.4%) stated that high salary was the motive behind occupation. The prevalence of employment were mostly in radiology (81.6%), nursing (79.7%), medicine (76.7%), operation room (30.5%) and anesthesiology (46.6%). Conclusion: Nearly half of the graduates were employed at public offices and the role of private section was not significant in this regard.