The new Post-secondary Employment Outcomes (PSEO) tool offers online searchable data on the job placement and earnings of Oregon’s public college and university graduates.
Salem, OR –The Higher Education Coordinating Commission (HECC) is pleased to report that Oregon is partnering with the United States Census Bureau on a new online searchable data tool to provide public access to information on the employment outcomes of postsecondary education and training. The Census Bureau’s Center for Economic Studies links state data on college and university graduates with state and federal employment data to create the Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes (PSEO) tool. The data tools show job placement and earnings outcomes across the country for graduates of each of Oregon’s 17 community colleges and seven public universities. Currently, Oregon is one of 23 states participating in this program partnership with the U.S. Census to provide this data to the public.
Amy Cox, director of research and data for the HECC says, “We are often asked about the job patterns of Oregon graduates by discipline, and how many Oregon graduates stay in state for their careers. While students make choices on their fields of study for a variety of reasons, and employment outcomes are just one of the many lifelong benefits of postsecondary education, this tool offers critical information for students, families, and policymakers alike to better understand current employment patterns.”
The tool allows users to explore data on the patterns of graduates of Oregon’s 24 public institutions by major field of study (i.e., Psychology, Biology and Biomedical Sciences, etc.), by years since graduation (one year, five years and 10 years depending on data availability), and by industry and region of employment. For each institution and field of study, users can explore national earnings of graduates as well as employment “flows,” which illustrate the wide range of industries that students enter with their degrees and where they go in the U.S. to live and work. The tool shows that while earnings and employment outcomes vary across fields of study and institutions, earnings increase consistently in the five to ten years after graduating, and graduates enter a broad spectrum of industries.
Ben Cannon, executive director of HECC, says, “This is an incredible tool for exploring one key piece of the puzzle on postsecondary benefits, but readers should remember this is a snapshot of a changing landscape. It is encouraging to see the rising earnings trajectories and the wide range of industries in which graduates contribute their skills in the years after graduating. The data should also give policymakers pause to consider the importance of ensuring that graduates in community-strengthening fields like teaching or social services—fields that generally pay less—are not burdened with excessive loan debt when they enter the workforce.”
There are some limitations to the tool that readers should keep in mind. At this time, the tool does not show aggregate statewide data. The tool is most helpful for identifying outcomes for particular groups of graduates than for comparing across institutions, as specific academic programs vary by institution, even within the same major field of study. The tool represents college graduates and does not include the outcomes of those who do not complete their degrees before they enter the workforce, nor does it differentiate by graduates who were in-state or out-of-state students. Further, at this time, the data excludes self-employed individuals as well as employees of the Department of Defense and Postal Service. Other background on the data is described in our fact sheet here.
The HECC thanks the U.S. Census Bureau for their partnership and work creating the PSEO tool, the Oregon Employment Department for providing wage data, and Oregon public universities and community colleges for sharing student records.
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