School-to-Work Program Participation and the Early Labor Market Success of Young Adults

• In Event: Excellence in Education Research: Early Career Scholars and Their Work

Abstract

Young adults in the United States have the highest levels of unemployment (Bureau of Labor Statistics 2011) and underemployment (Jacobe 2010) of all age groups in the current recession, spurring the introduction of congressional legislation (U.S. House 2011) and the allocation of funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (U.S. Department of Education 2010) in search of a solution.
However, existing research suggests that school-to-work program participation may increase employment prospects. Analyses of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 indicate that off-the-job training and apprenticeships are associated with higher wages (Lynch 1992). Pema and MeHay’s (2006) analysis of 1980 sophomores in the High School and Beyond survey finds that participation in school-to-work programs has positive, long-term effects on the probability of full-time employment and the duration of employment. More recent studies of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health suggest that having an informal mentor increases the likelihood of employment when respondents are in their 20s (DuBois and Silverthorn 2005; McDonald et al. 2007). Finally, Neumark and Rothstein’s (2006; 2007) examinations of specific types of school-to-career program in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 indicates that participation in cooperative education and internship or apprenticeship programs increases post-high-school employment, and that internship or apprenticeship participation increases earnings.
While past research suggests school-to-work programs and job training can be a valuable protective factor from unemployment, the contemporary financial climate varies widely from the time periods previously under investigation. Educational attainment has shifted significantly, as roughly thirty percent of US citizens aged 25 and older had a college degree in 2010 versus 26% in 2001, 21% in 1990, and 17% in 1980 (US Census Bureau 2010). Despite this increasingly educated workforce and Bureau of Labor Statistics projections that occupations involving postsecondary degrees will see the greatest percentage change in employment growth, most job openings will occur among occupations requiring only on-the-job training (Lacey and Wright 2009). Neumark and Rothstein’s (2007) analyses indicate that school-to-work programs hold great promise in affecting employment outcomes; however, their analyses only include data through 2001. Additionally, increasing participation in (and critique of; see Perlin 2011) internships deserves more systematic evaluation than has been previous undertaken with these data. Since federal and state funding continues to support youth job training programs, a nationally-representative examination of school-to-work experience in the contemporary economy is important to inform the current academic and policy dialogue about program efficacy.
This project uses annual longitudinal data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 to follow youth from high school until eight years after high school graduation to examine two related questions about the effects of school-based work training on young people’s employability: Does participation in school-to-work programs during high school affect earnings in early adulthood? If so, which programs are most effective?

Author

• Carrie Shandra, Stony Brook University - SUNY