The NC State Alumni Survey of baccalaureate alumni who graduated
from December 1990 through August 1993 sought among other things
to identify employment outcomes of bachelor's graduates. This
report, the second in a series of reports on data gleaned from
the survey, focuses on how these alumni responded to questions
concerned with employment outcomes.
Employment outcomes
Overall, data provided by respondents to the NC State Alumni Survey yield a highly positive picture of employment outcomes of NC State bachelor's graduates two to four years following graduation:
Residency
The great majority (82 percent, n = 2,185) of NC State Alumni
Survey respondents who were originally classified as in-state
(84 percent, n = 2,665) have remained in North Carolina. Furthermore,
a high proportion (38 percent, n = 192) of those alumni originally
classified as out-of state or foreign students (16 percent, n
= 506) have remained in North Carolina and contribute to the state's
economic growth.
Co-op, internship, research, and summer job experiences
The most favorable employment outcomes are enjoyed by those responding
alumni who participated in the NC State Cooperative Education
program as well as those who had a summer or part-time position
related to their major during their undergraduate studies at NC
State.
Grade point average
The role of academic success (as measured by grade point average
or GPA) in the transition to work was found to be generally weak.
For the School of Design, the College of Textiles, and the College
of Engineering, a weak or moderate positive association between
GPA and salary range was found, indicating that survey respondents
from those three academic units with higher grade point averages
were slightly more likely to have a higher salary range than other
respondents from those colleges or schools.
Employment outcomes by gender
Female respondents were slightly more likely to be employed part-time
than were male respondents (p = .001). Furthermore, a higher
percentage of female respondents (5.7 percent) than male respondents
(1.7 percent) were unemployed. The salary levels reported by
female survey respondents were also significantly lower than those
reported by male respondents (p = .001).
Employment outcomes by ethnicity
By ethnicity, the picture appeared somewhat brighter. No significant
differences were found by employment status, relationship of degree
to current position, minimum educational requirements for position,
or salary ranges. However, for a much higher percentage of African-American
(22 percent) than White (9.3 percent) or Other Minority (12.7
percent) respondents, it took over a year to find their first
permanent full-time job following graduation (p = .001).
Conclusions
The main conclusion to be drawn from these findings is that NC
State graduates appear to be enjoying a robust demand for their
knowledge and skills in the world of work over and above national
levels from the most recent benchmarking data available. Furthermore,
no specific areas of weakness were uncovered in the findings that
are not a direct reflection of the market. These findings provide
further evidence that NC State is indeed acting as an effective
engine in pushing forward the economy of North Carolina.
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The NC State Alumni Survey of baccalaureate alumni who graduated
from December 1990 through August 1993 sought among other things
to identify employment outcomes of bachelor's graduates. This
report, the second in a series of reports on data gleaned from
the survey, focuses on how alumni responded to questions concerned
with employment outcomes.
Data obtained from this survey represent the largest and most
comprehensive effort in the history of NC State to gain feedback
from alumni. The survey sample included 7,491 alumni. Three full
mailings and a telephone follow-up resulted in a 51.2% response
rate, yielding 3,179 usable questionnaires. Significant differences
were found between the population and obtained sample in proportion
of gender, race, and college, but no differences were found by
year of graduation. Though differences were significant (p =
.001), given the large sample size they were not sufficient to
suggest that the obtained sample was appreciably different from
the population of bachelor's graduates from 1990-1993. This report
is therefore based on the assumption that results obtained are
broadly representative of the population of NC State bachelor's
graduates for those years. Further methodological information
on this survey is available from Office of Institutional Planning and Research.
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The foremost questions in most alumni surveys deal with the degree to which graduates are able to secure gainful employment following graduation and the relationship of that employment to their undergraduate majors. In this section of the report, various aspects of employment outcomes are therefore presented.
Current employment status
Of the 3,179 responding alumni, 86.0% indicated that they were
presently employed on either a full-time or part-time basis.
Another 10.6% of respondents indicated that they were currently
engaged in further study and were therefore not seeking employment.
Only 3.5% of respondents indicated that they were currently unemployed.
This translates to a 96.6% success rate for NC State in gainful
employment or further education outcomes of respondents to this
survey. These results are displayed in Table 1.
Agriculture and Life Sciences | |||||
Design | |||||
Education and Psychology | |||||
Engineering | |||||
Forest Resources | |||||
Humanities and Social Sciences | |||||
Physical and Mathematical Sciences |
| ||||
Textiles | |||||
Management | |||||
University Totals |
By way of comparison, the 1993 Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal
Study, First Follow-up, conducted by the U.S. Department of
Education, National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), found
that 75.8% of 1993 bachelor's degree recipients were employed
either full-time or part-time one year after graduation, and that
another 17.9% were enrolled in further postsecondary education.
While the comparison is not exact, it does indicate that NC State's
96.6% success rate for gainful employment or further education
outcomes of respondents to this survey compares favorably to the
national rate of 93.7% as indicated in the NCES study.
Relationship of degree to current position
Among responding alumni who indicated current full-time or part-time
employment, 55.5% reported that their current professional position
was directly related to their degree. Another 29.5% noted that
their current position was somewhat related to their degree.
Only 15.0% of respondents reported their position to be unrelated
to their degree. Thus, fully 85.0% of respondents appear to be
in positions of employment either directly or somewhat related
to their degree from NC State. These results are displayed in
Table 2.
Agriculture and Life Sciences | |||
Design | |||
Education and Psychology | |||
Engineering | |||
Forest Resources | |||
Humanities and Social Sciences | |||
Physical and Mathematical Sciences | |||
Textiles | |||
Management | |||
University Totals |
Of those 887 respondents who reported that their current position
was somewhat related or not related to their degree, 74.9% indicated
that this situation was by choice. Only 25.1% of such respondents
noted that working in a position outside of their major was not
by choice. This result is outlined in Table 3.
Agriculture and Life Sciences | ||
Design | ||
Education and Psychology | ||
Engineering | ||
Forest Resources | ||
Humanities and Social Sciences | ||
Physical and Mathematical Sciences | ||
Textiles | ||
Management | ||
University Totals |
Thus, not only are the vast majority of responding NC State baccalaureate
alumni employed in positions directly or somewhat related to their
degrees, but of those who are not employed in a field close to
their major, this is by choice in 74.8% of cases and may reflect
shifts in life goals, career direction, etc.
To compare these results to a national benchmark, the findings
for NC State alumni were compared to the 1993 Baccalaureate
and Beyond Longitudinal Study, First Follow-up, conducted
by NCES. Among those working full-time, 77.6% were working in
a position related to their field of study. For NC State, the
percentage of alumni employed full-time in a position related
to their field of study is 85.7% (n = 2,197) -- even higher than
when alumni employed on a part-time basis are also included.
Thus, NC State's results on the job-relatedness of alumni employment
are considerably superior to the national picture.
Length of time to first full-time permanent position following graduation
Item 47 on the NC State Alumni Survey requested information on
length of time to first full-time permanent position following
graduation. Of those who responded to this item and who are currently
employed either full-time or part-time, 79% indicated that it
had taken them 6 months or less to secure such a position. When
viewed within a horizon of up to 12 months following graduation,
the proportion of working respondents securing full-time permanent
employment expands to 88.3%. These results are displayed in
Table 4.
1-6 months | ||||||
Agriculture and Life Sciences |
| |||||
Design | ||||||
Education and Psychology | ||||||
Engineering | ||||||
Forest Resources | ||||||
Humanities and Social Sciences |
| |||||
Physical and Mathematical Sciences | ||||||
Textiles | ||||||
Management | ||||||
University Totals |
The most recent national benchmark for length of time to job placement
following graduation is presented in the Recent College Graduates
Survey, 1991, as reported in 1993 by NCES. That survey reports
the percentage of 1991 bachelor's graduates who had secured employment
within 1 year of graduation at 84%. For NC State, the percentage
of all alumni survey respondents who had found employment
within 1 year of graduation was 87%. Again, NC State appears
to be outperforming the national averages in this regard.
Minimum educational requirements for position
Item 50 on the survey requested information on the minimum education
requirements for current positions of employment held by alumni.
Among respondents to this item who indicated either full-time
or part-time employment, 83% noted that their current positions
require either a bachelor's or master's degree at a minimum.
A further 6.5% indicated that their position required an associate
degree or two years of college, and 10.7% affirmed that one year
of college or less was required for their positions of employment.
These findings are detailed in Table 5.
(Percentages by college) | HS diploma | ||||
Agriculture and Life Sciences | |||||
Design | |||||
Education and Psychology | |||||
Engineering | |||||
Forest Resources | |||||
Humanities and Social Sciences |
| ||||
Physical and Mathematical Sciences | |||||
Textiles | |||||
Management | |||||
University Totals |
By way of comparison, the 1993 Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal
Study, First Follow-up, published by NCES, specifies that
the percentage of 1992-93 college graduates who were working full-time
and whose jobs required a bachelor's degree at minimum was 59.9%.
Among all NC State Alumni Survey respondents who were employed
full-time, this same statistic was 84.2% -- a finding which indicates
that responding NC State alumni show a marked tendency to be employed
closer to their level of qualification than appears to be true
across the nation in general.
Salary ranges
Item 51 on the survey requested information on salary ranges for
current positions of employment held by alumni. Salary information
constitutes some of the most sensitive information on this type
of survey. Fortunately, only 549 (17.3%) of the 3,179 survey
respondents refused to provide such information - a lower than
average refusal rate.
Among respondents to this item who indicated either full-time or part-time employment, 28.8% reported salaries at or above $40,000 per year. An additional 30.4% of respondents reported a salary range from $30,000 to $39,999, and 31.5% of respondents described their salary in the range from $20,000 to $29,000 per year. Only 9.2% of employed respondents reported making an annual salary of under $20,000. Among respondents to this item who indicated either full-time or part-time employment, the following generalizations may be made by college or school:
These results are outlined in Table 6.
|
| ||||||
Agriculture and Life Sciences | |||||||
Design | |||||||
Education and Psychology | |||||||
Engineering | |||||||
Forest Resources | |||||||
Humanities and Social Sciences |
| ||||||
Physical and Mathematical Sciences | |||||||
Textiles | |||||||
Management | |||||||
University Totals |
Since NCES' 1993 Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study,
First Follow-up, asked for information on actual salary dollar
amounts and reported a median salary by discipline, the
only option for comparing NC State survey results expressed as
salary ranges with national results is to use another indicator
of central tendency, the modal salary range, to report
the NC State results. Another problem is that the NCES data yields
only average starting salaries, whereas respondents to
the NC State Alumni Survey gave their current salary ranges
two to four years following graduation. Nevertheless, the median
starting salaries found in the NCES study fall either below or
within the lower end of the modal salary ranges reported
by responding NC State alumni in all comparable cases. As a rough
indicator, this finding may be taken to indicate that NC Alumni
Survey respondents are earning salaries comparable to other bachelor's
graduates around the nation. These comparisons are detailed in
Table 7.
Agriculture and Life Sciences | |||
Design | |||
Education and Psychology | |||
Engineering | |||
Forest Resources | |||
Humanities and Social Sciences | |||
Physical and Mathematical Sciences | |||
Textiles | |||
Management | |||
n/a |
Residency
To determine the proportions of alumni survey respondents who are currently working or living in North Carolina, original tuition residency code data from historical student files were compared with current home addresses of respondents. Note: original residency codes were unavailable for 8 respondents.
Thus, in the aggregate, it appears that a net out-migration of approximately 9% exists among responding alumni. However, a deeper analysis reveals the complexity of these migration patterns.
From these findings, two conclusions may be drawn. First, it
is evident that the great majority of NC State graduates who responded
to the alumni survey have remained in North Carolina and are contributing
to the economic growth of the state through their learned skills
and current employment. Second, percentage-wise, a far greater
percentage of out-of-state students remain in North Carolina than
the percentage of in-state students who leave North Carolina.
Viewed in this light, NC State is not only enabling the great
majority of in-state students to acquire the knowledge and skills
they need to gain meaningful professional employment in North
Carolina, but is also attracting talented students from beyond
the state borders and facilitating their ability to contribute
their talents to the state economy.
Resources used in the job search
Item 46 on the NC State Alumni Survey was concerned with determining those resources alumni found most useful in their job search. Among those who responded to this item and who are currently employed on a full-time or part-time basis, the three most frequently cited resources were:
These findings are more thoroughly detailed in Table 8.
Agriculture and Life Sciences | ||||||
Design | ||||||
Education and Psychology | ||||||
Engineering | ||||||
Forest Resources | ||||||
Humanities and Social Sciences |
| |||||
Physical and Mathematical Sciences | ||||||
Textiles | ||||||
Management | ||||||
University Totals |
By college, significant differences (p = .001) were uncovered
in the resources alumni found to be most useful in searching for
a job. Family, friends, or acquaintances were the most frequently
cited resource by respondents who graduated from Agriculture and
Life Sciences, Humanities and Social Sciences, or Management.
Direct contact with the employer was most frequently rated useful
by Design, Education and Psychology, and Forest Resources respondents.
Alumni survey respondents who graduated from Engineering, Physical
and Mathematical Sciences, or Textiles most frequently found the
Career Planning and Placement Center to be their most useful resource
in the search for employment.
Self-employment and small business creation
Item 53 on the alumni survey requested information from those alumni who are self-employed, including a description of their work or business and a brief description of their responsibilities. 138 replies were received to this item, even though many more alumni may in fact be self-employed on a full-time or part-time basis. Despite the small number, the variety of endeavors described was very broad, and encompassed the following:
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Note: To facilitate analysis of employment outcomes, the following
discussion is limited to those NC State Alumni Survey respondents
who reported being currently employed either full-time or part-time.
Cooperative education
360 currently employed survey respondents reported having participated in the co-op program at NC State.
Internships
634 currently employed NC State Alumni Survey respondents indicated that they had participated in an internship experience during their course of undergraduate studies at NC State.
Research experiences
383 currently employed NC State Alumni Survey respondents reported participating in a research experience during their undergraduate studies at NC State.
Summer employment or part-time job in the major
1,066 currently employed NC State Alumni Survey respondents reported having had a summer or part-time job that was related to their major during their undergraduate studies at NC State.
Section summary
The most favorable employment outcomes appear to be enjoyed by
those responding alumni who participated in the NC State Cooperative
Education program as well as those who had a summer or part-time
position related to their major during their undergraduate studies
at NC State. In terms of educational requirements for positions
of employment, Research participants appear to enjoy a clear advantage
over other respondents and are more likely to be employed in positions
where the minimum educational requirement is a graduate degree.
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The role of GPA in the transition from NC State to the world of work
Interest is often expressed in knowing how a baseline measure
of academic success such as grade point average (GPA) translates
into success in the world of work. To explore this connection,
data from the 2,707 currently employed NC State Alumni Survey
respondents were analyzed using non-parametric measures of association.
Findings indicate that no significant relationship exists between
GPA and how closely alumni positions of employment are related
to the academic degree from NC State, between GPA and length of
time to first full-time permanent position following graduation,
or between GPA and part-time or full-time employment status.
However, several other items did display a relationship with GPA.
GPA by salary range
Although no relationship was found at the university level, when
disaggregated to the college level, a weak positive association
was found for respondents from Design (gamma = .22) and from Textiles
(gamma = .24). A moderate positive association between GPA and
salary range was found for respondents from Engineering (gamma
= .39). Results for other colleges provide no support for the
notion that an association exists between GPA and salary range
of alumni.
GPA by minimum education requirements for position of employment
A weak positive relationship (gamma = .26) was found between grade
point average and minimum education requirements for position,
thus indicating that those respondents with a higher grade point
average displayed a slight tendency over other respondents to
be employed in a position with a higher minimum educational requirement.
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The responses of NC State Alumni Survey respondents to questions
concerned with employment outcomes were analyzed by gender to
ascertain the extent to which responding alumni have experienced
differing degrees of success in the world of work based on their
gender. Findings bear out the notion that differences do exist,
but may be more a reflection of the society in which alumni work
than a reflection of the labors of NC State to provide a quality
education for all students. No significant differences were found
by gender in the relationship of degree to current position of
employment.
Employment status
Significant differences were found by gender (p = .001) on the
employment status of all respondents. Female respondents were
slightly more likely to be employed part-time than were male respondents
and were correspondingly somewhat less likely to be employed full-time
than male respondents. Furthermore, a higher percentage of female
respondents (5.7%) than male respondents (1.7%) were unemployed.
These results are displayed in Table 9.
| |||||
Length of time to first full-time permanent job following graduation
Significant differences were found on this item by gender (p =
.001). Employed male respondents either already had a job or
accepted a job upon graduation with greater frequency than did
employed female respondents. Within one year of graduation, these
differences had largely disappeared. By that time, 87.4% of female
respondents vs. 89.0% of male respondents had secured a position.
These findings are shown in Table 10.
(Percentages by gender) |
| |||||
Minimum educational requirements for position
Overall, the percentage of currently employed female and male
respondents now in positions where at least a bachelor's degree
is required appears quite similar (81.9% for females and 83.6%
for males). Nevertheless, significant differences were found
by gender (p = .001). Interestingly, currently employed female
respondents were more likely than employed male respondents
to be employed in positions where a graduate degree was the minimum
educational requirement. These findings are displayed in Table
11.
Salary Ranges
While it is certainly a direct reflection of society and the labor
market in general, perhaps one of the most disheartening findings
in the NC State Alumni Survey is the difference in salary levels
between currently employed responding female and male alumni.
Over 80% of responding female alumni reported salary ranges under
$40,000 per annum, while over 70% of responding male alumni reported
salary ranges from $30,000 and up. The differences were significant
(p = .001), and are set forth in Table 12.
Most helpful resource in job search
Significant differences were found by gender (p = .001) on the
resources responding alumni found most useful in the search for
a job. Female respondents used newspaper ads, career fairs and
employment agencies more frequently than did male respondents.
Conversely, male respondents indicated that NC State faculty
or the Career Planning and Placement Center had been the most
useful resource with greater frequency than did female respondents.
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Employment outcomes by ethnicity
The responses of NC State Alumni Survey respondents to questions
concerned with employment outcomes were analyzed by ethnicity
to ascertain the extent to which responding alumni have experienced
differing degrees of success in the world of work according to
their ethnic background. No significant differences were found
by employment status, relationship of degree to current position,
minimum educational requirements for position, or salary ranges.
Length of time to first full-time permanent job following graduation
Significant differences by ethnicity were found among employed
survey respondents on this item (p = .001). Of particular note
is that for a much higher percentage of African-American (22%)
than White (9.3%) or Other Minority (12.7%) respondents, it took
over a year to find their first permanent full-time job following
graduation. This is more thoroughly detailed in table 13.
(Percentages by ethnicity) |
| |||||
| ||||||
Most helpful resource in job search
Although cell size problems precluded the use of significance
tests for this item, it is nevertheless interesting to note the
wide variation in resources found most helpful by currently employed
survey respondents in conducting job searches. Most notably,
African-American respondents showed a much higher frequency of
preference for career fairs (9.8%) than did either White (0.8%)
or Other Minority respondents (0.0%). For African-American and
White respondents, family and friends or direct contact with employer
were the most frequently-cited helpful resources in the job search.
For Other Minority respondents, contact with the Career Planning
and Placement Center proved to be the most fruitful. These results
are given in Table 14.
NC State Faculty | |||
Family or Friends | |||
Contact with Employer | |||
Professional Associations | |||
Employment Security Commission | |||
Career Fair | |||
Career Planning/Placement Center | |||
Employment Agency | |||
Newspaper Advertisement | |||
Computer Search | |||
Other Resource |
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Overall, data provided by respondents to the NC State Alumni Survey
yield a highly positive picture of employment outcomes of NC State
bachelor's graduates two to four years following graduation.
86 percent reported being employed; 85 percent of those employed
are in positions related to their degree from NC State, 79 percent
of those employed found their first full-time position within
6 months of graduation, and 83 percent of those employed are in
positions where the minimum educational requirement is a bachelor's
degree. Furthermore, NC State appears to exceed national levels
as established through NCES' 1993 Baccalaureate and Beyond
Longitudinal Study, First Follow-up, in all these outcome
areas. By college/discipline area, the modal salary ranges indicated
by respondents to this survey are at or above the median salary
figures given by this same NCES survey for almost all NC State
Colleges and Schools.
The main conclusion to be drawn from these findings is that NC State graduates appear to be enjoying a robust demand for their knowledge and skills in the world of work over and above national levels from the most recent benchmarking data available. Furthermore, no specific areas of weakness were uncovered in the findings that are not a direct reflection of the market. These findings provide further evidence that NC State is indeed acting as an effective engine in pushing forward the economy of North Carolina.
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