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Table 1.  Labor force status of 1994 high school graduates and 1993-94 school dropouts 16 to 24 years old by
Table 2.  Labor force status of persons 16 to 24 years old by school enrollment, educational attainment, sex,

Technical information:  (202) 606-6378         USDL 95-190
                              606-6373
 
Media contact:                606-5902         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.
 
      -----------------------------------------------------------
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      -----------------------------------------------------------
 
 
 
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.       data for the "other races" group are not
          2/  Data refer to persons who dropped out of school      presented and Hispanics are included in both
        between October 1993 and October 1994.                     the white and black population groups.
          NOTE:  Detail for the above race and Hispanic-           Because of rounding, sums of individual
        origin groups will not sum to totals because               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.