Investment in Higher Education: Do Labor Market Opportunities Differ by Age of Recent College Graduates?

This study examined the post-graduation labor market experiences of recent college graduates for evidence of age-related barriers to employment. Older graduates were considerably less likely than younger graduates to seek new jobs following graduation, but, among those who did, the two age groups showed little difference in their job-seeking behaviors or their susceptibilities to unemployment. Despite these similarities, older graduates, on average, had fewer post-graduation job interviews and fewer job offers than younger graduates. The relationship between age and number of job interviews disappeared after controlling for the effects of other variables, but the relationship between age and number of job offers remained. Nonetheless, older graduates appear to have been employed in better jobs one year after graduation. Their higher average salaries were not explained by sociodemographic, educational, or employment-related variables. Thus, findings are generally inconsistent with the view that older graduates face age-related barriers to employment.