New Data on College Enrollment and Employment Status of Recent High School Graduates

A new report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that of the 2.9 million men and women who graduated from high school in 2014, about 2.0 million, or 68.4 percent, were enrolled in college in October 2014. This includes both full-time and part-time enrollments.

There were significant gender differences in college enrollment rates. Nearly 73 percent of women who graduated from high school in 2014 had enrolled in college by October of that year. For men, 64 percent of high school graduates had enrolled in college by October.

Of the 1,050,000 women high school graduates in 2014 who were enrolled in college, 415,000, or 39.5 percent, were also employed. About 36 percent of new male high school graduates who enrolled in college in 2014 also had jobs.

The unemployment rate (those looking for work who couldn’t find it) for women high school graduates who were enrolled in college was 18.9 percent. For men, new high school graduates who were enrolled in college had an unemployment rate of only 8.9 percent.