Minnesota's Graduate Employment Outcomes

Using data for better educational and career choices

Is Minnesota creating the human capital needed to develop a skilled workforce and help our economy grow? Which colleges and training programs are best at helping people land a job, continue their studies, or earn enough to pay back student loans and support a family? Until now not a lot of data on job outcomes existed to help people make well-informed educational investments. Thanks to the Workforce Data Quality Initiative (WDQI) of the U.S. Department of Labor, the Minnesota Labor Market Information Office has the ability to follow post-secondary students from school into the world of work to answer the following questions:

How quickly did graduates find a job in the state? How much did the jobs pay? How stable was their employment?
Which industries employed recent graduates, at what wages, and in what regions of the state?
Which educational programs and schools had the best performance as measured by the success of their graduates in the labor market?
How does pre-college work experience effect job placement rates and earnings gains after graduation?
How do demographic characteristics such as age, gender, and race effect labor market success of graduates? How can we use data effectively to track progress towards reducing disparities among minority groups?

All data and publications are based on the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) Unemployment Insurance wage records and Minnesota Office of Higher Education (OHE) post-secondary students’ records stored in the WDQI database.

Online Data Tool

Graduate Employment Outcomes (GEO) shows how many Minnesota graduates are finding Minnesota jobs, and at what wages. Data is available by program, degree, region, and school.

Research Reports

Racial Disparities in Wage and Employment After Graduation shows that the high concentration of racial minorities in temp help and other low-wage industries explains a large part of the wage disparities by race.

Making Sense of Labor Market Returns to Higher Education for Older Graduates shows how starting college directly after high school has advantages in terms of future earnings potential.

Follow the Yellow Brick Roads: Which paths of school and work lead students to success after graduation? shows that earnings increased with educational level, but work experience during and after college helped individuals make the most of their degrees.

Rewards of a STEM Education shows that only half of employed STEM degree holders were hired in a STEM industry, but STEM credentials are in demand across the economy and tend to have higher earnings potential than other fields of study.

Introducing the Graduate Employment Outcomes tool shows how linking college graduate records to workforce records leads to more transparency and better data to evaluate the effectiveness of higher education in Minnesota.

Download PowerPoint Presentation on Graduate Employment Outcomes