38 percent of 2014 high school graduates enrolled in college were in labor force in October 2014

In October 2014, 68.4 percent of 2014 high school graduates were enrolled in colleges or universities. Recent high school graduates not enrolled in college were almost twice as likely as enrolled graduates to be working or looking for work.

The labor force participation rate—the proportion of the population working or looking for work—for recent high school graduates enrolled in college in October 2014 was 37.9 percent. Among recent high school graduates enrolled in college, about 9 in 10 were full-time students. Recent graduates enrolled as full-time students were about half as likely to be in the labor force (34.8 percent) as were their peers enrolled part time (75.2 percent).

About 2 in 3 recent high school graduates enrolled in college in October 2014 attended 4-year colleges. Of these students, 31.6 percent participated in the labor force, compared with 49.1 percent of recent graduates enrolled in 2-year colleges.

The labor force participation rate of recent high school graduates not enrolled in college in October 2014 was 72.7 percent. Between October 2013 and October 2014, 575,000 young people dropped out of high school. Their labor force participation rate was 41.2 percent in October 2014.

These data are from the Current Population Survey. For more information, see “College Enrollment and Work Activity of 2014 High School Graduates” (HTML) (PDF). People who were 2014 high school graduates graduated between January and October 2014.