Asres (PhD), KassahunMezigebu, Ketema2020-12-222023-11-182020-12-222023-11-182020-11http://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/12345678/24294Unemployment is one of the major challenges facing both developing and developed countries today. The purpose of this study was to find out the socio-economic challenges and job searching practices of unemployed university graduates of Adea Berga District, West Shoa Zone, Oromia Region. The study used mixed research method. Focus group discussion, in-depth interview, Key informant interview and questionnaire were employed as a data collection instruments. The sampling techniques used in this study were stratified and simple random sampling for quantitative part. For qualitative part, convenience sampling method was employed as sampling techniques. The sample size for quantitative study was 154. Focus group discussion and in-depth interview were used with 13 unemployed university graduates to collect qualitative data. Additionally, qualitative information was collected from 4 key informants. In order to analyze quantitative data, SPSS 23 version was used. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze quantitative data. Chi-square test was also used to test association between some variables. Both narration and thematic analysis methods was used to analyze qualitative data. The findings of this study indicated that social networks and newspaper or advertisement board as the most frequently used job searching methods. The livelihood strategies of most of unemployed university graduates depend on the support of their family, relatives or their friends. The job preference and future aspiration of most of unemployed university graduates is self-employment. Key words: Unemployment, Graduate unemployment, Livelihood strategy, Socio-economic challengesen-USUnemployment, Graduate unemployment, Livelihood strategy, Socio-economic challengesThesis