Coping with unemployment in COVID-19: The role of employability beliefs in exploration self-efficacy

The new coronavirus global pandemic has caused accelerated and emerging changes in the labor market, including increased unemployment. We examined the associations between employability beliefs and career exploration self-efficacy of 1585 unemployed adult workers, in Portugal, who lost their job after COVID-19. Participants completed measures of employability beliefs consistent with striving, proactivity, flexibility, acceptance of challenges, optimism and autonomy dispositions, and of career exploration self-efficacy. Using multiple linear regression analyses, we found that employability dispositional beliefs established significant positive associations with career exploration self-efficacy, especially autonomy, striving and optimism. Implications of these findings for future research and practice are considered.