Graduates With Good Job Upon Graduation Earn More, Faster.
Byline: Zac Auter and Brandon Busteed
Synopsis: Recent college graduates with good jobs at graduation earn higher salaries in the short and long term compared with those who take longer to find a good job.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Recent college graduates who got a good job immediately upon graduation earn considerably higher salaries -- over both the short and long term -- than graduates who took longer to land a first good job out of college. Graduates who had a good job -- as self-defined by the respondent -- waiting for them upon graduation are 2.4 times more likely to be earning $60,000 or more in personal income today than graduates who took two to less than 12 months to land a good job after graduation.
Forty-three percent of recent graduates who had a good job waiting for them upon graduation now earn at least $60,000 in personal income, compared with fewer than two in 10 graduates who took two to less than 12 months (18%) or one year or more (14%) to find a good job.
Additionally, more than a third (38%) of recent college graduates who took a year or more to land a good job now earn less than $24,000 in personal income. By comparison, Americans earning the federal minimum hourly wage can earn $15,080 a year by working 40 hours each week in jobs that typically do not require a bachelor's degree. About a quarter of recent graduates (23%) who took two to less than 12 months to find a good job now earn less than $24,000. However, only about one in 10 recent graduates who had a good job at graduation now earn that same low yearly wage (12%).
The findings come from the Strada-Gallup Alumni Survey (formerly known as the Gallup-Purdue Index), based on interviews with more than 4,429 U.S. adults aged 18 and older who earned a bachelor's degree between 2010 and 2016. For the purposes of this analysis, graduates who were not immediately seeking a job after graduation -- such as those who pursued additional education -- are excluded from the analysis. The research is drawn from Gallup's nationally representative survey of college graduates that has interviewed 80,000 different college graduates over four administrations.
In addition to earning higher salaries overall, recent graduates who had a good job at graduation earn a higher income in their first years out of college than those who took longer to find a good job. More than a third of graduates (35%) who are one to three years past graduation and who had a good job immediately after college...
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