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April 11, 2017STUDY: LABOUR MARKET OUTCOMES OF GRADUATES FROM MARITIME UNIVERSITIES Statistics Canada has released a study on the labour market outcomes of graduates from universities in the Maritime provinces. The pilot study uses a new longitudinal dataset, the Education Longitudinal Linkage Platform (ELLP), combining data from the Postsecondary Information System (PSIS) with personal income tax data. It examines the outcomes of six cohorts who graduated from universities in the Maritime provinces between 2006 and 2011, including 37,425 undergraduate degree holders and 6,740 graduate degree holders.
Among the study's findings were:
- At least 95 per cent of graduates reported employment earnings in their first year after graduating, suggesting they had employment at some point during that year.
- Approximately two-thirds of graduates were still living in the Maritimes one year after graduating, with education graduates being the most likely to stay and architecture, engineering, and related technologies graduates being least likely to stay.
- The 2009 cohort had earnings one year after graduating that were 8 per cent lower than that of the 2008 cohort, reflecting the impact of the recession. The 2010 and 2011 cohorts also had lower income relative to the 2008 cohort.
- This impact of the recession was consistent among undergraduate degree holders for men and women, those who left the Maritime provinces and those who stayed, and for nearly all fields of study
Graduate Retention
Of all individuals who graduated from Maritime universities between 2006 and 2011, over two-thirds were still living in the Maritimes one year after graduating. Some factors were identified which affected this rate. In general, female degree holders were more likely to have remained in the Maritimes than males, undergraduate degree holders were more likely to remain than graduate degree holders, and degree holders originally from the Maritimes were much more likely to remain in the Maritimes compared to those from out of province. International students were second most likely to remain, while Canadian students from out of province were least likely to remain.
Employment in the First Year after Graduating
The vast majority of graduates from Maritime universities were found to have been employed at some point in their first year after graduating, with between 96.6 and 97.1 per cent of undergraduate degree holders reporting employment income one year out and 94.8 to 96.6 per cent of graduate degree holders.
Between 13.0 and 17.5 per cent of undergraduate degree holders reported employment insurance benefits and 0.3 to 0.6 per cent reported social assistance benefits, with those rates peaking during the 2009 recession.
Impacts of the Recession
For both undergraduate and gradute degree holders, labour market outcomes were worse for the 2009 to 2011 graduating cohorts compared to those from 2008. Among undergraduates, median earnings of the 2009 to 2011 cohorts were between $32,300 and $32,900 compared to $35,200 for the 2008 graduates, one year after graduation. Among graduate degree holders, median incomes were $51,600-$52,200 versus $56,100 in 2008.
This impact was consistent across almost all degree programs, though with varying magnitude. Among male undergraduate degree holders, median earnings one year after graduation declined for the 2011 cohort relative to the 2008 cohort for all programs of study except for visual and performing arts. The hardest hit fields were health, education, and agriculture and natural resources. Among female undergrads, all fields except visual and performing arts, humanities, and architecture and engineering saw a decline in median earnings, with the biggest declines in education, math and computer sciences, and agriculture and natural resources.
Degree holders that gradutated between 2009 and 2011 were also more likely to work in low value-added service industries like retail and food and accomodation services and less likely to report private pension plan contributions compared to degree holders from 2008. For 2009 undergraduate degree holders, 18.7 per cent worked in those industries, compared to 16.3 per cent in 2008, and 35.8 reported pension contributions, compared to 37.4 in 2008.
Source: Study: Labour market outcomes of graduates from universities in the Maritime provinces, 2006 to 2011 | Report
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