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Technical information: (202) 691-6378 USDL 02-288
http://www.bls.gov/cps/
For release: 10:00 A.M. EDT
Media contact: 691-5902 Tuesday, May 14, 2002
COLLEGE ENROLLMENT AND WORK ACTIVITY OF 2001 HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES
Slightly more than three in every five graduates of the 2001 high school
class were enrolled in colleges or universities in the fall, the Bureau of
Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. The college
enrollment rate was little changed from the previous 2 years, but was below
the record high of 67 percent in 1997.
Information on school enrollment and the work activity of high school
graduates comes from an October supplement to the Current Population Survey
(CPS). The CPS is a monthly nationwide survey of about 60,000 households
that obtains information on employment, unemployment, earnings, demographics,
and other characteristics of the civilian noninstitutional population age
16 and over. Additional information about the October supplement is included
in the Technical Note.
Recent High School Graduates and Dropouts
Among the 2.5 million members of the 2001 high school graduating class,
1.6 million (61.7 percent) were enrolled in college the following October.
The college enrollment rate of young women was 63.6 percent, compared with
59.8 percent for young men. The percentage of young women attending college
following high school graduation has exceeded that of young men in almost
every year since 1988. Among race and ethnic groups, a greater percentage
of white graduates (63.1 percent) were enrolled in college than were black
(54.8 percent) or Hispanic (51.5 percent) graduates. (See table 1.)
The vast majority of recent high school graduates who enrolled in college
in the fall attended full time. Of these full-time students, 42.9 percent
were employed or looking for work in October 2001, compared with 87.5 percent
of part-time college students. Similarly, a much smaller proportion of
students attending 4-year institutions (35.3 percent) participated in the
labor force than students attending 2-year schools (71.6 percent). This
partly reflects the fact that students enrolled in 2-year colleges were more
likely to attend part time (31.3 percent) than students enrolled in 4-year
colleges (11.3 percent).
Among recent high school graduates not enrolled in college in the fall,
80.6 percent were in the labor force in October 2001. Their employment-
population ratio--the proportion of the population with jobs--declined from
69.7 percent in 2000 to 63.8 percent in 2001. Over the same period, their
unemployment rate increased from 13.1 percent to 20.9 percent, in line with
the weakened economy.
Between October 2000 and October 2001, slightly more than half a million
youths dropped out of high school. Among these high school dropouts,
64.0 percent participated in the labor force in October 2001. The unemploy-
ment rate for this group was 35.9 percent--a full 15 percentage points higher
than the unemployment rate for recent high school graduates who were not
enrolled in college.
- 2 -
Youth Enrolled in School
Among all of the nation's 16- to 24-year-olds, more than half were
enrolled in school in October 2001. Nearly 9 million were enrolled in high
school and 10 million in college. Among high school students, 37.0 percent
were either employed or looking for work. For college students, labor
force participation rates varied greatly between full- and part-time
students and those enrolled in 2- versus 4-year colleges. In October 2001,
89.9 percent of part-time college students were in the labor force,
compared with 50.9 percent of full-time students. Among students enrolled
in a 2-year college, 72.1 percent participated in the labor force; this
compares with 52.0 percent of students enrolled in a 4-year college.
(See table 2.)
Overall, the unemployment rate for college students (7.2 percent) was
lower than for high school students (13.9 percent). Among high school
students, unemployment rates were much higher for blacks (29.3 percent)
and Hispanics (22.8 percent) than for whites (11.6 percent). However,
among college students, Hispanics and whites had similar unemployment rates
(5.8 percent and 6.2 percent, respectively), much lower than that for blacks
(13.7 percent).
Out-of-School Youth
Slightly more than four out of every five of the nation's 16- to 24-year-
olds not enrolled in school were in the labor force in October 2001. Labor
force participation rates for men (88.7 percent) were considerably higher
than for women in this group (76.1 percent). This disparity in labor force
activity between young men and women was largest among those who had not
completed high school and nearly disappeared among college graduates. Black
out-of-school youth had lower labor force participation rates (76.0 percent)
than Hispanics (80.1 percent) or whites (83.9 percent). In addition, the
unemployment rate among black out-of-school youth (21.9 percent) was more
than double the rate for white youth (9.9 percent) and higher than that for
Hispanic youth (12.2 percent). (See table 2.)
Technical Note
The estimates in this release were obtained from a supplement to the
October 2001 Current Population Survey (CPS), a monthly survey of about
60,000 households which provides information on the labor force,
employment, and unemployment for the nation. The survey is conducted
monthly for the Bureau of Labor Statistics by the U.S. Census Bureau. Data
relate to the school enrollment status of persons 16 to 24 years of age in
the civilian noninstitutional population in the calendar week that includes
the 12th of the month.
Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired
individuals upon request. Voice phone: 202-691-5200; TDD message referral
phone number: 1-800-877-8339.
Reliability of the estimates
Statistics based on the CPS are subject to both sampling and nonsampling
error. When a sample, rather than the entire population, is surveyed,
there is a chance that the sample estimates may differ from the "true"
population values they represent. The exact difference, or sampling error,
varies depending on the particular sample selected, and this variability is
measured by the standard error of the estimate. There is about a 90-percent
chance, or level of confidence, that an estimate based on a sample will
differ by no more than 1.6 standard errors from the "true" population value
because of sampling error. BLS analyses are generally conducted at the
90-percent level of confidence.
The CPS data also are affected by nonsampling error. Nonsampling error
can occur for many reasons, including the failure to sample a segment of
the population, inability to obtain information for all respondents in the
sample, inability or unwillingness of respondents to provide correct
information, and errors made in the collection or processing of the data.
For a full discussion of the reliability of data from the CPS and
information on estimating standard errors, see the "Explanatory Notes and
Estimates of Error" section of Employment and Earnings.
Concepts
The principal concepts used in connection with the school enrollment
series are described briefly below.
School enrollment. Respondents were asked whether they were currently
enrolled in a regular school, including day or night school in any type of
public, parochial, or other private school. Regular schooling is that
which may advance a person toward a high school diploma or a college,
university, or professional degree. Such schools include elementary
schools, junior or senior high schools, and colleges and universities.
Other schooling, including trade schools; on-the-job training; and courses
that do not require physical presence in school, such as correspondence
courses or other courses of independent study, is included only if the
credits granted count towards promotion in regular school.
Full-time and part-time enrollment in college. College students are
classified as attending full time if they were taking 12 hours of classes
or more (or 9 hours of graduate classes) during an average school week and
as part time if they were taking fewer hours.
High school graduation status. Persons who were not enrolled in school
at the time of the survey were asked whether they had graduated from high
school. Those who had graduated were asked when they completed their high
school education. Persons who had not graduated, that is, school dropouts,
were asked when they last attended a regular school. Those who were
enrolled in college at the time of the survey also were asked when they
graduated from high school.
Table 1. Labor force status of 2001 high school graduates and 2000-2001 high school dropouts 16 to 24 years old
by school enrollment, sex, race, and Hispanic origin, October 2001
(Numbers in thousands)
Civilian labor force
Civilian Not in
Characteristic noninsti- Employed Unemployed labor
tutional Percent of force
population Total population
Total Percent of Number Rate
population
Total, 2001 high school graduates.. 2,545 1,522 59.8 1,252 49.2 270 17.7 1,024
Men.............................. 1,275 746 58.5 619 48.6 127 17.0 529
Women............................ 1,270 775 61.0 633 49.8 143 18.4 495
White............................ 2,048 1,256 61.3 1,061 51.8 195 15.5 792
Black............................ 392 207 52.8 151 38.4 57 27.3 185
Hispanic origin.................. 241 172 71.4 125 51.8 47 27.4 69
Enrolled in college.............. 1,569 735 46.8 630 40.1 105 14.3 834
Enrolled in 2-year college..... 500 358 71.6 314 62.7 44 12.4 142
Enrolled in 4-year college..... 1,069 377 35.3 316 29.6 61 16.2 692
Full-time students............. 1,430 613 42.9 516 36.1 98 15.9 817
Part-time students............. 139 122 87.5 114 82.0 8 6.3 17
Men............................ 762 323 42.4 283 37.1 40 12.5 439
Women.......................... 808 412 51.0 347 43.0 65 15.8 395
White.......................... 1,292 625 48.4 538 41.7 87 13.9 667
Black.......................... 215 86 40.1 70 32.5 16 19.0 129
Hispanic origin................ 124 79 63.7 61 49.3 18 22.6 45
Not enrolled in college.......... 976 787 80.6 622 63.8 164 20.9 190
Men............................ 513 423 82.5 337 65.6 87 20.5 90
Women.......................... 463 363 78.5 286 61.7 77 21.3 100
White.......................... 756 631 83.5 523 69.2 108 17.1 125
Black.......................... 177 121 68.3 81 45.5 40 33.3 56
Hispanic origin................ 116 93 79.6 63 54.5 29 31.5 24
Total, 2000-01 high school
dropouts(1)..................... 506 324 64.0 207 41.0 116 35.9 182
Men.............................. 298 198 66.5 130 43.7 68 34.2 100
Women............................ 207 126 60.6 77 37.2 48 38.6 82
White............................ 401 273 68.1 185 46.0 89 32.4 128
Black............................ 85 42 49.9 22 25.7 21 (2) 43
Hispanic origin.................. 119 84 70.6 57 47.6 27 32.6 35
1 Data refer to persons who dropped out of school between October 2000 and October 2001.
2 Data not shown where base is less than 75,000.
NOTE: Detail for the above race and Hispanic-origin groups will not sum to totals because data for the
"other races" groups 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 2001
(Numbers in thousands)
Civilian labor force
Civilian Not in
Characteristic noninsti- Employed Unemployed labor
tutional Percent of force
population Total population
Total Percent of Number Rate
population
Total, 16 to 24 years.......... 35,195 22,458 63.8 19,996 56.8 2,461 11.0 12,737
Enrolled in school................. 18,949 9,047 47.7 8,174 43.1 873 9.6 9,902
Enrolled in high school(1)....... 8,990 3,326 37.0 2,863 31.8 463 13.9 5,664
Men............................ 4,747 1,699 35.8 1,420 29.9 278 16.4 3,048
Women.......................... 4,244 1,628 38.4 1,443 34.0 185 11.4 2,616
White.......................... 7,027 2,862 40.7 2,530 36.0 332 11.6 4,166
Black.......................... 1,480 349 23.6 247 16.7 102 29.3 1,131
Hispanic origin................ 1,209 362 29.9 279 23.1 83 22.8 847
Enrolled in college.............. 9,958 5,721 57.4 5,311 53.3 410 7.2 4,238
Enrolled in 2-year college..... 2,706 1,952 72.1 1,769 65.4 182 9.3 755
Enrolled in 4-year college..... 7,252 3,769 52.0 3,542 48.8 227 6.0 3,483
Full-time students............. 8,289 4,219 50.9 3,900 47.0 319 7.6 4,070
Part-time students............. 1,670 1,502 89.9 1,411 84.5 91 6.0 168
Men............................ 4,585 2,503 54.6 2,317 50.5 186 7.4 2,081
Women.......................... 5,374 3,217 59.9 2,993 55.7 224 7.0 2,156
White.......................... 7,879 4,669 59.3 4,381 55.6 288 6.2 3,210
Black.......................... 1,279 660 51.6 570 44.5 91 13.7 619
Hispanic origin................ 944 568 60.2 536 56.8 33 5.8 375
Not enrolled in school............. 16,246 13,411 82.5 11,822 72.8 1,588 11.8 2,835
16 to 19 years................... 3,727 2,822 75.7 2,260 60.7 561 19.9 905
20 to 24 years................... 12,519 10,589 84.6 9,562 76.4 1,027 9.7 1,930
Men.............................. 8,314 7,374 88.7 6,475 77.9 898 12.2 940
Less than a high school diploma 2,151 1,787 83.1 1,459 67.8 328 18.3 364
High school graduates, no
college....................... 3,836 3,386 88.3 2,969 77.4 417 12.3 450
Less than a bachelor's degree.. 1,675 1,580 94.3 1,473 87.9 107 6.8 95
College graduates.............. 652 621 95.2 574 88.0 47 7.5 31
Women............................ 7,932 6,037 76.1 5,347 67.4 690 11.4 1,895
Less than a high school diploma 1,623 967 59.6 736 45.3 231 23.9 656
High school graduates, no
college....................... 3,559 2,651 74.5 2,328 65.4 323 12.2 908
Less than a bachelor's degree.. 1,842 1,567 85.1 1,460 79.3 107 6.8 275
College graduates.............. 907 852 93.9 823 90.7 29 3.4 55
White............................ 13,107 10,995 83.9 9,901 75.5 1,094 9.9 2,112
Black............................ 2,497 1,898 76.0 1,482 59.3 416 21.9 599
Hispanic origin.................. 3,197 2,560 80.1 2,248 70.3 313 12.2 636
1 Includes a small number of persons enrolled in grades below high school.
NOTE: Detail for the above race and Hispanic-origin groups will not sum to totals because data for the
"other races" groups 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.