Research of the relationship between the unemployment anxiety and the self-esteem of potential workforce in tourism

Unemployment is one of the most important socio-economic problems waiting to be solved in Turkey as in most countries. It is known that unemployment creates economic, psychological and social effects on individuals. One of the most important impacts of unemployment on individuals is unemployment anxiety. The aim of this study is to determine the factors affecting the unemployment anxiety levels of the students and to determine whether unemployment anxiety differs according to the self-esteem levels of the students. The research was applied to the senior students of the Culinary, Tourism and Hotel Management Program studying at Suleyman Demirel University. Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale has been utilized for evaluating self-esteem level and the unemployment anxiety scale has been utilized for evaluating unemployment anxiety levels. The analysis was performed on the responses received from 593 participants who were found to be eligible for the study. Furthermore, for analyzing the results, SPSS 22.0 was applied. The existence of the difference between self-esteem and unemployment anxiety was revealed by sample independent t-test analysis. The results revealed that the unemployment anxiety level of the students was below the average, and the level of anxiety of the Tourism and Hotel Management department students was higher than that of the Culinary Program students. A significant difference was found between self-esteem and unemployment anxiety. Accordingly, it was determined that students with low self-esteem have higher unemployment anxiety than those with high self-esteem