As immigration has been on the rise, particularly in North America, this has resulted in an increase in the proportion of overqualified employees exceeding the demands of the positions within a majority of employment throughout many sectors.
[citation needed] The concept of overqualification is often a euphemism used by employers when they do not want to reveal their true reasons for not hiring an applicant.
In the United States, the term "overqualified" has been found by the courts to sometimes be used as a "code word for too old" (i.e., age discrimination) in the hiring process.
[5] Noluthando Crockett-Ntonga recommends that job applicants address potential concerns such as salary requirements in a cover letter and interview before the employer makes any comments about overqualification.
These forces have led both to an increase in some educational institutions hiring candidates without PhDs as well as a focus on the development of other doctoral degrees, such as the D.A.
[9] Some argue that this reservation is rather a reaction associated with job insecurity, especially in situations where most of the company leaders hold lower qualifications than the PhD; as part of the wide phenomenon of credential creep.