Youth employment during school: results from two longitudinal surveys; students who worked 20 or fewer hours per week during the school year were more likely to attend college; youths who worked a greater percentage of weeks during the school year worked more consistently when they reached ages 18 to 30

Monthly Labor Review, August, 2001 by Donna S. Rothstein

The article begins by looking at differences in characteristics of youths who worked while they were in school in 1979 and in 1997. It then examines the relationship between NLSY79 youths' employment and their long-term educational and labor market outcomes. As noted earlier, this relationship does not necessarily imply cause and effect.

Youth employment in 1979 and 1997

Data and variables. This section compares the employment of two groups of 15- and 16-year-olds born nearly 20 years apart. It uses two data sets that focus specifically on youth: the NLSY79 and the new NLSY97. The NLSY79 consists of data on more than 12,000 youths aged 14 through 21 as of December 31, 1978. The NLSY97 data set has information on 9,000 youths aged 12 through 16 as of December 31, 1996. The discussion that follows uses information on the employment of 15- and 16-year-olds from the first interview year of each of the two surveys. (5)

In comparing youth employment over time, it is important to have a measure that is based on similar questions with the same reference period. This is possible with the NLSY79 and the NLSY97, because both cohorts received a section that consists of questions from the Current Population Survey (CPS) on their employment status and hours of work in the week prior to the interview. Only NLSY97 respondents who were aged 15 and older received these questions, while all NLSY79 youths received them. Thus, this measure can be constructed for 15- and 16-year-olds across both surveys. (6) Because the focus in this article is on the employment of youths during the school term, only enrolled youths who were interviewed during the months of January through May are included in tabulations.

Studies have found that gender, race, ethnicity, family income, family structure, and maternal employment are predictors of the likelihood of a person's working while young. (7) Similar measures of these factors were constructed across the two surveys, and the tables that follow tabulate youth employment by the various factors. For example, past studies have found that white males are more likely to work than other groups. Comparable measures of gender, race, and ethnicity can be formed for both cohorts. Grade might also be a factor. Holding age constant (at 15 or 16), being in a higher grade, perhaps with peers who are older and thus more likely to work, could increase the likelihood of a youth's working while he or she is in school.

Household income can have an ambiguous effect on the likelihood of working. On the one hand, those in households with lower income may be more likely to work because they need to help support their families. On the other hand, youths in low-income households may live in areas with less economic opportunity and have less access to transportation, decreasing the likelihood of their working. The NLSY79 contains a measure of family income in the year prior to the survey, and the NLSY97 has a measure of household income in the previous year. The two measures are fairly similar and are categorized into four income levels in the analysis that follows.