Public 2-year Students Working Before, During, and After Beginning at a Public 2-Year Institution.

In 2011-12, some 44 percent of students in public 2-year institutions worked while enrolled in their first year of postsecondary education. Today, July 9, the National Center for Education Statistics released a new report entitled Working Before, During, and After Beginning at a Public 2-Year Institution: Labor Market Experiences of Community College Students. The report presents analyses of data from the 2012/14 Beginning Postsecondary Student Longitudinal Study (BPS:12/14). The report describes the employment of students attending public 2-year institutions before they enrolled in postsecondary education for the first time, as well as during their first year of enrollment. It also examines how employment is related to these students’ postsecondary experiences and employment outcomes after exiting postsecondary education. Findings from the report include the following: Some 44 percent of beginning public 2-year students worked while enrolled in their first year of postsecondary education: 18 percent worked 35 hours or more per week, 14 percent worked between 21 and 34 hours per week, and 11 percent worked fewer than 21 hours per week. Twenty percent of beginning public 2-year students who worked 20 hours or less while enrolled in 2011–12 had attained an associate’s degree by 2014, compared with 10 percent of students who did not work while enrolled their first year and 9 percent of students who worked full time during their first year. Among public 2-year students who began in 2011–12 and were not enrolled 3 years later, a higher percentage of students (20 percent) who did not work while attending school in 2011-12 were unemployed in 2014 than students who worked 20 hours or less while attending school (4 percent), those who worked 21-34 hours while attending school (9.4 percent), and those who worked 35 hours or more while attending school (5.6 percent).