U.S. Department of Commerce

Economics and Statistics Administration

U.S. CENSUS BUREAU

census.gov

American Community Survey Briefs

School Enrollment and Work Status: 2011

Issued October 2012

ACSBR/11-14

By Jessica Davis 

INTRODUCTION

This brief presents data on school enrollment and 

student work status for the nation based on the 2011 

American Community Survey (ACS). It takes a look 

at the proportion of students who worked and how 

much they worked over the previous year. Work status 

questions in the ACS are asked of persons aged 16 and 

over, so in addition to college students, high school 

students are included in this analysis. 

College students have a history of working, independent of the type of institution they attend, their age or 

family responsibilities, or even their family income.1

College professors and administrators generally recommend that students work 10 to 15 hours per week on 

campus.2 While 10 to 15 hours per week is considered 

optimal for college students, many of them work longer hours and not necessarily on campus.

This report is one in a series to promote results from 

the 2011 ACS. The ACS provides detailed estimates of 

demographic, social, economic, and housing characteristics for congressional districts, counties, places, and 

other localities every year. A description of the ACS is 

provided in the text box.

1 See American Council on Education issued brief, Working Their 

Way Through College, May 2006, at <www.acenet.edu/AM/CM

/ContentDisplay.cfm?ContentFileID=1618>. 2 See Perna, Laura W., “Understanding the Working College Student,” 

Academe, July–August 2010, at <www.aaup.org/AAUP/CMS_Templates

/AcademeTemplates/AcademeArticle.aspx?NRMODE=Published&NRNO

DEGUID=%7B234AF8C0-AF36-4705-8129-E86F7383FDBA%7D&NRORIG

INALURL=%2FAAUP%2Fpubsres%2Facademe%2F2010%2FJA%2Ffeat%2Fp

ern.html&NRCACHEHINT=NoModifyGuest>.

ENROLLMENT AND WORK STATUS

In this analysis, full-time, year-round workers include 

those who usually worked 35 hours or more per week 

for 50 to 52 weeks in the past 12 months. 

Most high school students are dependents, living at 

home, and do not need employment to pay for school 

or other living expenses. 

In 2011, there were 11.1 million students aged 16 and 

over in high school and the majority of them did not 

work (71 percent). Another 28 percent of high school 

students aged 16 and over worked less than full-time, 

year-round, while 1 percent of them were full-time, 

year-round workers (Appendix Table 1-A). Of the high 

school students who worked less than full-time, yearround, only a minority worked more than 20 hours 

per week. In fact, of the 3.1 million who worked less 

than full-time, year-round, half (1.5 million) worked 13 

weeks or less and 70 percent of them worked less than 

20 hours per week (Figure 1).

In 2011, of the 19.7 million students aged 16 and over 

enrolled in undergraduate college, 72 percent worked 

(20 percent full-time, year-round workers and 52 percent less than that). Of college students who worked 

less than full-time, year-round, more than half of them 

worked more than 26 weeks, and of those, half of 

them worked over 20 hours.

The percentage of college undergraduate students who 

worked full-time, year-round in 2011 varied by state 

(Figure 2). Some states with higher percentages of college students working full-time, year-round were in the 

West and Mid-Atlantic. States with the lowest percentage of college students working full-time, year-round 

were in the Northeast and West. Alaska had the highest 
2 U.S. Census Bureau

percentage of college students 

working full-time, year-round (37 

percent) and Massachusetts had 

the lowest percentage of college 

students working full-time, yearround (14 percent).

In 2011, there were 4.1 million graduate students and 82 

percent of them worked (Appendix Table 1-A). Almost half of 

graduate students were full-time, 

year-round workers. Of graduate 

students who worked less than 

full-time, year-round, 68 percent 

of them worked more than 26 

weeks per year and over half of 

those worked over 20 hours. 

Figure 1. 

Hours and Weeks Worked for Students Enrolled in 

High School, College, and Graduate School: 2011

(For information on confidentiality protection, sampling error, nonsampling error,

and definitions, see www.census.gov/acs/www)

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2011 American Community Survey.

More than 20 hours/week

20 or less hours/week

Full-time,

year-round

27+ weeks

Percent

14–26 weeks

1–13 weeks

Did not work

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Graduate or 

professional 

school

High school College

}

}

}

}

}

What Is the American 

Community Survey?

The American Community 

Survey (ACS) is a nationwide 

survey designed to provide 

communities with reliable 

and timely demographic, 

social, economic, and housing 

data for the nation, states, 

congressional districts, 

counties, places, and other 

localities every year. It has 

an annual sample size of 

about 3.3 million addresses 

across the United States and 

Puerto Rico and includes 

both housing units and 

group quarters (e.g., nursing 

facilities and prisons). The 

ACS is conducted in every 

county throughout the nation, 

and every municipio in Puerto 

Rico, where it is called the 

Puerto Rico Community 

Survey. Beginning in 2006, 

ACS data for 2005 were 

released for geographic areas 

with populations of 65,000 

and greater. For information 

on the ACS sample design and 

other topics, visit 

<www.census.gov/acs/www>.
U.S. Census Bureau 3

SOURCE AND ACCURACY

The data presented in this report 

are based on the ACS sample 

interviewed in 2011. The estimates 

based on this sample approximate 

the actual values and represent the 

entire household and group quarters population. Sampling error is 

the difference between an estimate 

based on a sample and the corresponding value that would be 

obtained if the estimate were based 

on the entire population (as from a 

census). Measures of the sampling 

errors are provided in the form of 

margins of error for all estimates 

included in this report. All comparative statements in this report 

have undergone statistical testing, 

and comparisons are significant at 

the 90 percent level unless otherwise noted. In addition to sampling error, nonsampling error may 

be introduced during any of the 

operations used to collect and process survey data such as editing, 

reviewing, or keying data from 

questionnaires. For more information on sampling and estimation 

methods, confidentiality protection, 

and sampling and nonsampling 

errors, please see the 2011 ACS 

Accuracy of the Data document 

located at <www.census.gov

/acs/www/Downloads/data

_documentation/Accuracy/ACS

_Accuracy_of_Data_2011.pdf>.

! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

TX

CA

MT

AZ

ID

NV

KS

CO

NM

OR

UT

SD

IL

WY

NE IA

FL

MN

OK

ND

WI

WA

AL GA

MO

PA

AR

LA

NC

MS

NY

IN

MI

VA

TN

KY

SC

OH

ME

WV

VT

NH

NJ

MD

MA

CT

DE

RI

DC

AK

HI

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2011 American Community Survey.

0 500 Miles

0 100 Miles

0 100 Miles

Percent by state

25.0 or more

20.0 to 24.9

15.0 to 19.9

Less than 15.0

Percentage of College Undergraduates 

Who Work Full–Time, Year–Round by State: 2011

Figure 2.

U.S. percent is 19.6
4 U.S. Census Bureau

Appendix Table 1-A. 

Hours and Weeks Worked for Students Enrolled in High School, College, and Graduate 

School: 2011

(Population 16 years and over enrolled in public or private school. For information on confidentiality protection, sampling error, nonsampling error, 

and definitions, see www.census.gov/acs/www)

Population High school College Graduate or 

professional school

Number Percent Number Percent Number Percent

 Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11,149,446 19,730,695 4,127,319 

 Did not work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7,934,795 71.2 5,595,655 28.4 726,475 17.6

 Worked less than full-time, year-round . . . 3,068,911 27.5 10,276,460 52.1 1,504,510 36.5

13 weeks or less . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,480,619 13.3 2,667,249 13.5 280,087 6.8

1 to 10 hours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 508,828 34.4 541,600 20.3 50,080 17.9

11 to 20 hours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 535,855 36.2 771,693 28.9 65,634 23.4

Over 20 hours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435,936 29.4 1,353,956 50.8 164,373 58.7

14 to 26 weeks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525,155 4.7 1,748,397 8.9 197,127 4.8

1 to 10 hours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141,453 26.9 251,304 14.4 23,819 12.1

11 to 20 hours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247,264 47.1 592,286 33.9 57,765 29.3

Over 20 hours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136,438 26.0 904,807 51.8 115,543 58.6

27 to 49 weeks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,063,137 9.5 5,860,814 29.7 1,027,296 24.9

1 to 10 hours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272,489 25.6 640,277 10.9 82,377 8.0

11 to 20 hours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534,501 50.3 2,265,686 38.7 329,928 32.1

Over 20 hours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256,147 24.1 2,954,851 50.4 614,991 59.9

 Worked full-time, year-round . . . . . . . . . . . 145,740 1.3 3,858,580 19.6 1,896,334 45.9

Source: 2011 American Community Survey.

Appendix Table 1-B. 

Hours and Weeks Worked for Students Enrolled in High School, College, and Graduate 

School: 2011

(Margin of error values for Appendix Table A-1a. Population 16 years and over enrolled in public or private school. For information on confidentiality protection, sampling error, nonsampling error, and definitions, see www.census.gov/acs/www)

Population

High school College Graduate or 

professional school

Number

Margin of 

error1 Number

Margin of 

error1 Number

Margin of 

error1

 Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11,149,446 19,730,695 4,127,319 

 Did not work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40,456 0.233 46,500 0.195 18,665 0.389

 Worked less than full-time, year-round . . . 27,653 0.243 48,560 0.200 24,650 0.475

13 weeks or less . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19,823 0.177 26,976 0.123 8,571 0.195

1 to 10 hours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11,531 0.593 11,266 0.378 3,584 1.166

11 to 20 hours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11,716 0.641 14,168 0.516 4,314 1.413

Over 20 hours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10,338 0.592 22,709 0.566 7,299 1.760

14 to 26 weeks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12,594 0.112 18,962 0.100 8,044 0.188

1 to 10 hours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5,287 0.915 7,738 0.432 2,201 1.068

11 to 20 hours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9,025 1.120 12,409 0.641 4,239 1.749

Over 20 hours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6,358 1.036 15,779 0.617 6,082 1.818

27 to 49 weeks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18,324 0.163 44,074 0.210 19,871 0.418

1 to 10 hours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8,419 0.722 11,195 0.187 4,805 0.464

11 to 20 hours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11,617 0.715 34,497 0.478 12,008 0.857

Over 20 hours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10,018 0.774 32,495 0.427 14,584 0.986

 Worked full-time, year-round . . . . . . . . . . . 7,097 0.062 38,480 0.153 24,962 0.510

1

 Data are based on a sample and are subject to sampling variability. A margin of error is a measure of an estimate’s variability.The larger the margin of error in 

relation to the size of the estimate, the less reliable the estimate.This number when added to or subtracted from the estimate forms the 90 percent confidence interval.

Source: 2011 American Community Survey.