The Great Recession and its aftermath have had long-lasting effects on the employment prospects of young people entering the workforce after graduating from high school or college. Despite officially ending in June 2009, the recession has left millions of people unemployed for extended spells, with recent workforce entrants such as young graduates…

This third installment of "Hard Times" updates the previous analyses of college majors, unemployment, and earnings over the Great Recession. While there is wide variation by college majors, hard times have become better times for most college graduates, but the recovery is far from complete. Hard times are becoming better times for most…

This paper examines whether a rise in house prices that occurs immediately prior to children entering college has an impact on their earnings as adults. Higher house prices provide homeowners with additional funds to invest in their children's human capital. The results show that a 1 percentage point increase in house prices, when children are 17…

This study examines if the college wage premium favoring college graduates still exists. The NLSY-79 data is employed. The sample includes individuals who received their high school degree and college degree in 1980 and 1981. These individuals were followed until the year 2004. A cross sectional regression model was estimated for the years 1982,…

The U.S. economy has undergone dramatic changes in recent decades. Jobs that required limited skills--but still paid a family-supporting wage--have disappeared and increasingly have been replaced with jobs that either require higher levels of education and skills "or" require little education and training but offer no pathways to careers…

This report describes the findings of a nationally representative sample of 544 recent high school graduates from the classes of 2006 through 2011. The purpose of this study is to understand how recent high school graduates who are not attending college full time are faring in the workforce, specifically looking at those individuals who graduated…