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TEXT Table 1. Table 2. Labor force status of 1994 high school graduates and 1993-94 school dropouts 16 to 24 years old by Labor force status of persons 16 to 24 years old by school enrollment, educational attainment, sex, Technical information: Media contact: (202) 606-6378 606-6373 606-5902 USDL 95-190 For release: 10:00 A.M. EDT Thursday, June 1, 1995 COLLEGE ENROLLMENT AND WORK ACTIVITY OF 1994 HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES Sixty-two percent of the high school graduating class of 1994 were enrolled in colleges or universities in the fall, the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. This enrollment rate is about the same as in recent years, but considerably higher than a decade earlier (55 percent). This information is from the Current Population Survey (CPS), a monthly nationwide survey of approximately 60,000 households conducted for BLS by the Bureau of the Census. Each October, the survey includes special questions on the school enrollment and high school graduation status of young people aged 16 to 24. Data for 1994 are not strictly comparable with data for 1993 and earlier years. This stems from two factors: 1) A major redesign of the CPS, introduced in January 1994, and 2) the introduction of 1990 census-based population controls, adjusted for the estimated undercount, which had a pronounced effect on population and labor force levels. For additional information on the redesign, see "Revisions in the Current Population Survey Effective January 1994," in the February 1994 issue of Employment and Earnings. Recent High School Graduates and Dropouts Of the 2.5 million youth who graduated from high school in 1994, about 1.6 million went on to attend college in the fall. Young women continued to be slightly more likely than young men to enter colleges or universities, 63 versus 61 percent. Differences in the college enrollment rates were much greater by race and ethnicity. Whereas 64 percent of the white high school graduates entered college, only about half of black and Hispanic youth were enrolled. (See table 1.) Among young people who continued their formal education after high school, two-thirds were attending 4-year institutions, with the remainder in 2-year colleges. These proportions are roughly the same as in recent years. About 40 percent of those attending 4-year colleges and universities, were working or looking for work. A much higher proportion of those enrolled in 2-year colleges were in the labor force--over 60 percent. As would be expected, the labor force participation rate was even higher--81 percent--among recent high school graduates who were not enrolled in college in the fall of 1994. A large proportion of these nonstudents were unable to find work, however. The unemployment rate for this group was 20.3 percent. Labor market problems were even greater for the 510,000 youth who left high school between October 1993 and 1994 without graduating. Only 61 percent of them were in the labor force last fall, and their unemployment rate was 29.8 percent. Among these dropouts, there was a marked difference - 2 in labor market activity between men and women. Female dropouts were much less likely than their male counterparts to be in the labor force, and those in the labor force were more likely to be unemployed. Youth Enrolled in School Out of the nearly 33 million 16-to 24-year-olds in the civilian population, over half were enrolled in school in October 1994--8.9 million in college and 8.1 million in high school. Eight in 10 of the college students were enrolled full time, with about half of those in the labor force. Among part-time college students, 89.6 percent were in the labor force. The unemployment rate for all college students was low by recent standards, 6.5 percent; the rates for full-time and part-time enrollees were 7.5 and 3.7 percent, respectively. (See table 2.) About 43 percent of the high school students (who were at least 16 years of age) were labor force participants in October, and their jobless rate was 18.0 percent. Unemployment rates for black (38.2 percent) and Hispanic (27.9 percent) high school students were much higher than for whites (15.1 percent). Out-of-School Youth Among 16-to 24-year-olds not enrolled in school, about 4 out of 5 were in the labor force in October 1994. Males in this group were more likely than females to be in the labor force. The extent of education a person has is clearly the most important contributor to the labor market success of out-of-school youth. High school dropouts in the labor force had by far the highest jobless rates, while persons who had attended or graduated from college had the lowest rates. As with students, the jobless rates among minority out-of-school youth were higher than those for white youth. ----------------------------------------------------------| Information in this release will be made available to | |sensory impaired individuals upon request. Voice phone: | |202-606-7828; TDD phone: 202-606-5897; TDD message referral| |phone number: 1-800-326-2577. | ----------------------------------------------------------- Table 1. Labor force status of 1994 high school graduates and 1993-94 school dropouts 16 to 24 years old by school enrollment, sex, race, and Hispanic origin, October 1994 (Numbers in thousands) ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ | | | | | Civilian labor force | | | | ______________________________________________________ | Civilian | | | | | |noninsti- | | | Employed | Unemployed |Not in Characteristic | tutional | |Partici-| | |labor __________________ __________________ |population|Number | pation | | | | |force | | | rate | | Percent | | Percent | | | | |Number | of |Number| of | | | | | |population| |labor force| | | | | | | | | ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ | | | | | | | | Total, 1994 high school graduates....| 2,517 | 1,495 | 59.4 | 1,257 | 49.9 | 238 | 15.9 | 1,022 | | | | | | | | Men................................| 1,244 | 792 | 63.6 | 665 | 53.4 | 127 | 16.0 | 452 Women..............................| 1,273 | 704 | 55.3 | 592 | 46.5 | 111 | 15.8 | 570 | | | | | | | | White..............................| 2,065 | 1,252 | 60.6 | 1,108 | 53.6 | 144 | 11.5 | 813 Black..............................| 318 | 175 | 55.0 | 100 | 31.4 | 75 | 42.8 | 143 Hispanic origin....................| 178 | 114 | 64.0 | 81 | 45.7 | 32 | 28.5 | 64 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Enrolled in college................| 1,559 | 723 | 46.4 | 642 | 41.2 | 82 | 11.3 | 836 | | | | | | | | Enrolled in 2-year college.......| 530 | 324 | 61.2 | 283 | 53.4 | 42 | 12.8 | 205 Enrolled in 4-year college.......| 1,029 | 399 | 38.7 | 359 | 34.8 | 40 | 10.1 | 630 | | | | | | | | Full-time students...............| 1,427 | 609 | 42.7 | 537 | 37.6 | 72 | 11.8 | 818 Part-time students...............| 131 | 114 | 86.9 | 104 | 79.4 | 10 | 8.6 | 17 | | | | | | | | Men..............................| 754 | 359 | 47.7 | 319 | 42.4 | 40 | 11.1 | 394 Women............................| 805 | 364 | 45.2 | 322 | 40.0 | 42 | 11.4 | 441 | | | | | | | | White............................| 1,313 | 640 | 48.7 | 579 | 44.1 | 61 | 9.5 | 674 Black............................| 162 | 55 | 33.9 | 41 | 25.1 | 14 | (1) | 107 Hispanic origin..................| 87 | 46 | 53.3 | 40 | 45.5 | 7 | (1) | 41 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Not enrolled in college............| 959 | 772 | 80.5 | 616 | 64.2 | 156 | 20.3 | 187 | | | | | | | | Men..............................| 491 | 432 | 88.1 | 346 | 70.4 | 87 | 20.1 | 58 Women............................| 468 | 340 | 72.6 | 270 | 57.7 | 70 | 20.5 | 128 | | | | | | | | White............................| 752 | 612 | 81.4 | 529 | 70.4 | 83 | 13.5 | 140 Black............................| 156 | 120 | 77.0 | 59 | 38.0 | 61 | 50.7 | 36 Hispanic origin..................| 91 | 67 | 74.3 | 42 | 46.0 | 26 | (1) | 23 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Total, 1993-94 high school dropouts2/| 510 | 311 | 61.1 | 219 | 42.9 | 93 | 29.8 | 198 | | | | | | | | Men................................| 259 | 198 | 76.5 | 151 | 58.2 | 47 | 23.9 | 61 Women..............................| 251 | 113 | 45.2 | 68 | 27.1 | 45 | 40.0 | 137 | | | | | | | | White..............................| 382 | 252 | 66.0 | 177 | 46.3 | 75 | 29.8 | 130 Black..............................| 100 | 48 | 47.9 | 34 | 34.1 | 14 | (1) | 52 Hispanic origin....................| 108 | 51 | 47.5 | 31 | 28.6 | 20 | (1) | 57 | | | | | | | | ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 1/ Data not shown where base is less than 75,000. 2/ Data refer to persons who dropped out of school between October 1993 and October 1994. NOTE: Detail for the above race and Hispanicorigin groups will not sum to totals because data for the "other races" group are not presented and Hispanics are included in both the white and black population groups. Because of rounding, sums of individual items may not equal totals. Table 2. Labor force status of persons 16 to 24 years old by school enrollment, educational attainment, sex, race, and Hispanic origin, October 1994 (Numbers in thousands) __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ | | | | | Civilian labor force | | | | __________________________________________________________ | Civilian | | | | | |noninsti- | | | Employed | Unemployed |Not in Characteristic | tutional | |Partici-| | |labor ___________________ ____________________ |population| Number | pation | | | | |force | | | rate | | Percent | | Percent | | | | | Number | of | Number | of | | | | | |population| |labor force| | | | | | | | | __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Total, 16 to 24 years...........| 32,560 | 21,341 | 65.5 | 18,909 | 58.1 | 2,432 | 11.4 |11,220 | | | | | | | | Enrolled in school...................| 16,932 | 8,697 | 51.4 | 7,738 | 45.7 | 959 | 11.0 | 8,234 | | | | | | | | Enrolled in high school............| 8,054 | 3,443 | 42.7 | 2,824 | 35.1 | 619 | 18.0 | 4,611 Men..............................| 4,253 | 1,833 | 43.1 | 1,514 | 35.6 | 319 | 17.4 | 2,419 Women............................| 3,801 | 1,610 | 42.3 | 1,310 | 34.4 | 300 | 18.6 | 2,192 | | | | | | | | White............................| 6,270 | 2,902 | 46.3 | 2,465 | 39.3 | 437 | 15.1 | 3,367 Black............................| 1,390 | 430 | 31.0 | 266 | 19.1 | 165 | 38.2 | 959 Hispanic origin..................| 1,080 | 318 | 29.4 | 229 | 21.2 | 89 | 27.9 | 762 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Enrolled in college................| 8,877 | 5,254 | 59.2 | 4,914 | 55.4 | 340 | 6.5 | 3,623 | | | | | | | | Enrolled in 2-year college.......| 2,347 | 1,680 | 71.6 | 1,545 | 65.8 | 136 | 8.1 | 666 Enrolled in 4-year college.......| 6,531 | 3,574 | 54.7 | 3,370 | 51.6 | 204 | 5.7 | 2,957 | | | | | | | | Full-time students...............| 7,286 | 3,828 | 52.5 | 3,541 | 48.6 | 287 | 7.5 | 3,458 Part-time students...............| 1,591 | 1,427 | 89.6 | 1,374 | 86.3 | 53 | 3.7 | 165 | | | | | | | | Men..............................| 4,216 | 2,459 | 58.3 | 2,281 | 54.1 | 177 | 7.2 | 1,757 Women............................| 4,662 | 2,796 | 60.0 | 2,633 | 56.5 | 163 | 5.8 | 1,866 | | | | | | | | White............................| 7,218 | 4,454 | 61.7 | 4,217 | 58.4 | 237 | 5.3 | 2,764 Black............................| 1,037 | 503 | 48.5 | 425 | 40.9 | 78 | 15.6 | 534 Hispanic origin..................| 671 | 429 | 64.0 | 403 | 60.1 | 26 | 6.1 | 242 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Not enrolled in school...............| 15,629 | 12,643 | 80.9 | 11,171 | 71.5 | 1,473 | 11.6 | 2,985 16 to 19 years.....................| 3,178 | 2,275 | 71.6 | 1,816 | 57.1 | 459 | 20.2 | 904 20 to 24 years.....................| 12,451 | 10,369 | 83.3 | 9,355 | 75.1 | 1,014 | 9.8 | 2,082 | | | | | | | | Men................................| 7,835 | 7,076 | 90.3 | 6,296 | 80.4 | 780 | 11.0 | 759 Less than a high school diploma..| 2,000 | 1,636 | 81.8 | 1,352 | 67.6 | 284 | 17.3 | 364 High school graduates, no college| 3,510 | 3,207 | 91.4 | 2,863 | 81.6 | 343 | 10.7 | 303 Less than a bachelor's degree....| 1,631 | 1,561 | 95.7 | 1,444 | 88.5 | 118 | 7.6 | 70 College graduates................| 695 | 673 | 96.8 | 637 | 91.7 | 36 | 5.3 | 22 | | | | | | | | Women..............................| 7,794 | 5,567 | 71.4 | 4,875 | 62.5 | 693 | 12.4 | 2,227 Less than a high school diploma..| 1,727 | 693 | 40.1 | 492 | 28.5 | 201 | 29.0 | 1,034 High school graduates, no college| 3,329 | 2,476 | 74.4 | 2,172 | 65.2 | 304 | 12.3 | 853 Less than a bachelor's degree....| 1,872 | 1,603 | 85.6 | 1,467 | 78.4 | 137 | 8.5 | 269 College graduates................| 865 | 795 | 91.9 | 744 | 86.0 | 51 | 6.4 | 70 | | | | | | | | White..............................| 12,431 | 10,330 | 83.1 | 9,345 | 75.2 | 985 | 9.5 | 2,100 Black..............................| 2,441 | 1,773 | 72.7 | 1,367 | 56.0 | 406 | 22.9 | 668 Hispanic origin....................| 2,661 | 1,932 | 72.6 | 1,677 | 63.0 | 255 | 13.2 | 729 | | | | | | | | __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ NOTE: Detail for the above race and Hispanic-origin groups will not sum to totals because data for the "other races" group are not presented and Hispanics are included in both the white and black population groups. Because of of rounding, sums of individual items may not equal totals.