© Copyright 2003 by the Wyoming Department of Employment, Research & Planning

Employment Outcomes for [Nebraska] College Graduates*

by:  Mary Findlay, Economic Trends, Nebraska Workforce Development, Labor Market Information Center

Last month Research & Planning presented an article called “The Community College Connection: Labor Market Outcomes.” It explored how Wyoming community colleges meet the educational and employment goals of their graduates. The article is a summary of the publication Connecting Business and the Wyoming Community College System: A Study of Employment Outcomes of 2001 Graduates from Wyoming Community Colleges. Wyoming is not the only state interested in employment outcomes of college graduates. The following article looks at some of the research results from Nebraska’s Employment Outcomes Project.

How much are recent graduates of Nebraska community and state colleges making? This is one question many people in the state would like to have answered. Prospective students planning their education need information to help select a college. Colleges and regulating commissions need the information to improve education and training programs in the state. Workforce Investment Boards, economic developers, and policy makers need information on labor supply to help meet the needs of businesses in Nebraska. 

Results from the Employment Outcomes Project are giving a clearer picture of recent graduates’ earnings, industry employment, and work location. Questions answered by the project include:

• Which majors produce graduates most likely to be employed in Nebraska? 
• Which majors produce graduates with the highest wages? 
• What industries employ recent graduates? 
• In which counties are graduates employed?

The Workforce Investment Act provided the impetus for the partnership that developed between the Coordinating Commission for Postsecondary Education [CCPE], Nebraska Workforce Development, and Nebraska’s state and community colleges. The Workforce Investment Act requires states to develop a system of consumer information and the outcomes information fills that bill. Now that processes have been worked out, other education and training providers are being invited to participate. 

All of Nebraska’s community colleges and Wayne and Chadron State Colleges participated in the initial Employment Outcomes Project. Unemployment Insurance wage files were queried to see how many graduates from July 1999 - June 2000 were found working in Nebraska during January through March of 2001. Annual earnings estimates were calculated from this snapshot and reported in the aggregate to protect individuals' privacy.

• Overall, 77% of community college graduates and 55% of state college graduates were located in Nebraska wage records.
• For state college graduates, General Business Administration & Management and Elementary Teacher Education were the majors producing the highest number of Bachelors Degree graduates with 228 and 140 graduates, respectively. Business Administration graduates earned an estimated average annual wage of $22,319 while Elementary Education graduates averaged $18,034. At the Masters level, Business Administration graduates averaged $50,869 and Elementary Education graduates earned an average of $40,939. 
• Elementary, Middle & Secondary Education Administration Post-Masters graduates earned the highest estimated average annual wages ($52,378) of the state college graduates.
• For community colleges, Liberal Arts & Sciences produced the highest number (387) of Associate Degree graduates. General Business Administration & Management produced the second highest number (346) of Associate Degree graduates. Liberal Arts & Sciences graduates earned an estimated average annual wage of $11,167 while the Business Administration graduates earned $18,275. Liberal Arts & Sciences programs are generally for transfer to four-year colleges and universities rather than being career entry degrees.
• Community college graduates in health professions, including Surgical/Operating Room Technician, Respiratory Therapy Technician, Dental Assistant, Medical Assistant, Clinical and Medical Social Work, and Nursing (R.N. Training) are very likely to remain working in Nebraska. In each of these majors, 90% or more of the graduates were found working in Nebraska.
• Community college graduates in eight different fields of study earned average annual wages of $30,000 or more. Three Industrial/Manufacturing Technology/Technician graduates earned [an] average of $46,001.
• Graduates from the community colleges are likely to be working in the county where the college is located. The largest number of Western Nebraska Community College graduates were working in Scotts Bluff County, MidPlains graduates were working in Lincoln County, Central graduates were working in Hall and Adams counties, Northeast graduates were working in Madison County, Southeast graduates were working in Lancaster County, and Metropolitan graduates were working in Douglas County. 
• In general, as the level of education increases, wages increase. One exception was that graduates with Associates Degrees earn approximately $1,000 more per year than Bachelors Degrees graduates. [See Table.] 

What are our plans for the future? Possibilities include future wage matches on this cohort of graduates to find out how many are staying in Nebraska and earnings gained over a specific amount of time. Mapping the counties of employment illustrates the need to obtain employment and wage information from our neighboring states. This is an option that may be pursued in the future. Some files have included demographic information and this could be mined to produce reports that incorporate gender, race and ethnic background.

This consumer reports system includes education and training programs plus outcomes information on as many programs as possible. The Workforce Investment Act specifically identifies using Unemployment Insurance wage records as an accurate, inexpensive, and confidential source of outcomes data. Concerns about individual student privacy were addressed and resolved in the procedures for outcomes measurement. 

Confidentiality:

The U.S. Departments of Education and Labor published a joint memorandum on the interpretation that sharing individual student social security numbers with state labor agencies was permitted under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). The memo, while allowing educational authorities, such as CCPE to share the data with state labor agencies, explained the limitations on the exception:

• allowing limited use of data [for] Workforce Investment Act (WIA) purposes only; 
• utilizing privacy protections of data during the handling and manipulation processes, 
• destroying the data when no [longer] needed, 
• (educational institutions) placing a record into each graduate/completer student file that the data had been released for WIA purposes. 

An agreement between the Commission and the Department of Labor defines the procedures for protecting individually identifiable information. Information on the employment outcomes project methodology may be obtained by contacting Mary Findlay at mfindlay@dol.state.ne.us. Limitations of the data may be obtained by clicking on Stuff You Should Know in Nebraska TrainingLink.



*Used with permission. Originally published in the January 2003 edition of Economic Trends, a monthly publication produced by the Nebraska Workforce Development, Labor Market Information Center. The original article can be viewed at <http://www.dol.state.ne.us/nwd/pdf/lmitrends/ET_Jan2003.pdf>.

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