The extent to which graduates who have been out of school for several years, and consequently have more work experience, are in a better economic situation than recent graduates is illustrated in tables 3 and 4. About 10 percent of the men employed in October 1962 were professional workers among those who graduated from high school in 1960, compared with only 2 percent of the young men who graduated in June 1962, 4 months prior to the survey. Skilled craftsmen accounted for 12 percent of the employed men who graduated earlier and 6 percent of the recent graduates. The earlier graduates had smaller proportions employed as farm and nonfarm laborers (18 as against 34 percent) and as service workers (3 as against 7 percent). Occupational upgrading among women is difficult to measure, because of the substantial proportion of them in the clerical group, which embraces a wide range of job duties and responsibilities. The rate of unemployment for 1960 graduates was 10 percent in October 1962, compared with the 14-percent rate for those graduates of 1962. Similarly, only 4 percent of the persons at work on nonfarm jobs worked part time for economic reasons among those who graduated in 1961 (data not available for 1960) as against 10 percent of the June 1962 graduates. TABLE 2.-Employment status and major occupation group of June 1962 and June 1961 high school graduates not enrolled in college, by sex [Thousands of persons 16 to 24 years of age] TABLE 3.-Major occupation group of employed high school graduates not e rolled in college by year of high school graduation and of school dropouts by year last attended school, by sex, October 1962 [Percent distribution of persons 16 to 24 years of age] 1 Percent not shown where base is less than 100,000. SCHOOL DROPOUTS The survey sustained earlier findings showing the less favorable labor market position of school dropouts compared with high school graduates. Furthermore, the situation for dropouts can be expected to worsen in the coming years, because little growth or some declines are expected in occupations with low educational and skill requirements, and workers without at least a high school diploma will have increasing difficulty entering expanding occupations where educational and training qualifications are high. In addition to their educational handicap, many school dropouts suffer in the job market because of their extreme youth. Of the approximately 300,000 young people 16 to 24 years of age in October 1962 who dropped out of school between January and October, about three-fourths were either 16 or 17 years old. Only one-fifth of the June graduates were in these ages, while three-fifths of the graduates were 18 years old. Other characteristics of dropouts distinguishing them from high school graduates are the higher proportions who are in farm areas (judging from the number in farm jobs) or who are nonwhite. Twenty-one percent of the 1962 school dropouts employed in October were in farmwork, compared with 10 percent of the June graduates. Considering that a large portion of farm residents work at nonfarm jobs, the proportion of all dropouts residing on farms would be sig nificantly higher. Nonwhite youth accounted for about one-fourth of the 1962 school dropouts, about twice the proportion they comprised of the June 1962 graduates. TABLE 4.-Unemployment and economic part-time work1 for high school graduates not enrolled in college and school dropouts, 16 to 24 years of age, October 1962 Includes slack work, material shortages, repairs to plant or equipment, start or termination of job during survey week, and inability to find full-time work. Data not available for 1960. Percent not shown where base is less than 100,000. Age 16 was the most common age (as of October) for the 1962 dropouts and a sizable number were reported as having left school at an even earlier age. TABLE 5.-Employment status of June 1962 high school graduates not enrolled in college and of 1962 school dropouts, by sex, color, and marital status, October 1962 1 Not available. Percent not shown where base is less than 100,000. • Includes widowed, divorced, and separated women. NOTE.-Because of rounding, sums of individual items may not equal totals. |