OVERVIEW
Over 150,000 students were enrolled full-time in Associate’s and Bachelor’s degree programs in Maryland’s colleges in the fall of 2017. How many of these students were employed while pursuing a degree? Working while in college may help students finance their education as well as provide the opportunity to build work experience that will support their career pursuits after college. However, working while in college may have negative consequences for some students, who may struggle to balance competing demands for their time, encounter scheduling conflicts between work and class, or have limited opportunity to attend faculty office hours or receive tutoring support.
State wide results
Approximately 34% of the full-time Associate’s and Bachelor’s degree-seeking students[1] at Maryland’s colleges had a wage record during the fall 2017 term[2]. This rate did not vary over the course of the year; 34% of the population had wage records in the fall and spring[3] terms and 33% had wage records for the full calendar year[4]. This means the majority of students with wage records at the start of the academic year continued to work the entire year.
The majority of students (60%) worked in either the Trade, Transportation and Utilities sector[5] or the Leisure and Hospitality sector[5]. These two sectors include retail stores, grocery stores, gyms, restaurants, hotels, movie theaters and other types of businesses rely on part-time employment(34 hours or less). Nationally, 28% of all employees in wholesale and retail positions are part-time, while 41% of employees in leisure and hospitality are part-time[6].
86% of students in the Trade, Transportation and Utilities sector were employed in retail stores, while 76% of students in the Leisure and Hospitality sector were employed in restaurants.
Sectors of Wage Data
- Trade, Transportation and Utilities (30%)
- Leisure and Hospitality (30%)
- Education and Health Services (17%)
- Professional and Business Services (10%)
- All Other Sectors (13%)
While having a wage record indicates an enrollee is engaged in the workforce, it does not indicate the level of engagement. Some enrollees may have been working full-time for the entire wage period, while others may have been working in a very limited capacity in on-campus jobs.
OTHER TYPES OF WORK EXPERIENCE
Another 36% of students who did not have a wage record during the fall 2017 term may have been engaged in the workforce in a way that is not visible in traditional wage data. Approximately 2.5% of students without wage data participated in work-study (a form of federal financial aid), 31% received an institutional scholarship that may have required a work or service commitment, and 2.5% participated in work-study and received an institutional scholarship. Adding this population to those with traditional wage data may mean that as many as 70% of all Associate's and Bachelor's degree-seeking students were engaged in some type of work or service activity while pursuing their degrees full-time.
The sections below explore wage visibility for each type of Maryland college.
Wage Visibility by College Type
Community
Colleges
The sixteen Community Colleges in Maryland serve a large population of non-traditional students. Click the link above to learn more about wage visibility for enrolled students in Community Colleges.
Four-Year Public
institutions
Maryland's thirteen 4-year public institutions serve a wide range of students. Click the link above to learn more about wage visibility for enrolled students in 4-Year Public Institutions.
State-aided independent institutions
Maryland has thirteen State-Aided Independent institutions. These institutions range from large research universities to small liberal arts colleges. Click the link above to learn more about wage visibility for enrolled students in State-Aided Independent Institutions.
Data Limitations and Definitions:
[1] Enrollees are defined as students pursuing an Associate’s or Bachelor’s degree full-time in the Fall 2017. Enrollments are not mutually exclusive, some enrollees are concurrently enrolled at more than one college. Further, students enrolled in the fall may or may not have been enrolled in the spring; however, they are still counted in wage visibility.
[2] Wage data are effective through September 2018. MLDSC wage data are derived from Unemployment Insurance reporting and do not include information on military service, apprenticeships, self-employment, out-of-state employment or Federal Government employment. Enrollees may also be employed in work-study positions at their campuses that are not subject to UI wage reporting. These gaps in wage data mean it is incorrect to assume that college enrollees not counted as “employed” are unemployed. Enrollees were counted as visible in the wage data if they had a wage record in Q3 of 2017 and Q4 of 2017. These wage periods cover July through September (Q3) and October to December (Q4). Using both Q3 and Q4 to evaluate wage visibility helps minimize the appearance of enrollees in the wage data who may have only worked in the summer leading up to the fall term or over the term break in December.
[3] Enrollees were counted as visible in the wage data if they had a wage record in Q3 of 2017, Q4 of 2017 and Q1 of 2018. These wage periods cover July through September (Q3), October to December (Q4) and January to March (Q1), or the period approximately aligned to the academic year(September to May).
[4] Enrollees were counted as visible in the wage data if they had a wage record in Q3 of 2017, Q4 of 2017, Q1 of 2018 and Q2 of2018. These wage periods cover the period of July through September (Q3), October to December (Q4), January to March (Q1), and April to June (Q2).
[5] Unemployment Insurance data contain the sector of the employer not the job of the employee. Each record contains the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for the employer. NAICS was developed by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and adopted in 1997. It is the standard used for federal reporting. An enrollee was count with the NAICS reported in fiscal quarter 3. The NAICS reported in fiscal quarter 4 may or may not have been the same as that reported in quarter 3.
[6] Labor Force Statistics form the Current Population Survey. Persons at work in nonagricultural industrieis by class of worker and usual full- or part-time status. https://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat21.htm.