1/23/2009
The West Virginia work participation rate increased in 2007 for state public higher
education graduates, according to a report, “From Higher Education To Work In West Virginia
2007,” issued today by the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission (HEPC) and the
West Virginia University (WVU) College of Business and Economics.
The second in a series of studies commissioned by HEPC to examine the impact of the
higher education system on the state’s economy, the report analyzes work participation and
wages for state public higher education graduates during the past decade, with results by
residency status, degree, major, gender and race. The first “From Higher Education to Work”
report was released in January 2008.
The new study shows that, excluding federal government employees, the West Virginia
work participation rate increased from 46.4 percent in 2006 to 47.1percent in 2007, according
to Dr. George W. Hammond, associate director of the WVU Bureau of Business and Economic
Research and lead author of the report.
According to Hammond, wages earned by state higher education graduates working in
West Virginia in 2007 rose by 4.5 percent over 2006, again excluding federal government
employees. Annualized wages for higher education graduates during the previous decade hit
$39,317 in 2007, including federal government employees.
“Overall, of the 107,455 state public higher education graduates during the past decade,
52,186 were working in West Virginia in 2007,” said Hammond. “These graduates earned a
total of $2.0 billion in gross wages, not including fringe benefits.”
“We are pleased to see that we are doing a fairly good job at keeping our graduates in fields
like the legal, health and education professions,” said Dr. Brian Noland, HEPC chancellor, “but
we would like to improve our work participation rate in high-tech fields like engineering and
the sciences. The state’s new ‘Bucks for Brains’ Research Trust Fund will make significant longterm
contributions to these efforts to keep the best and brightest of our own students here
after they graduate.”
The Research Trust Fund, which was created by the West Virginia Legislature last year, will
match state dollars with private donations to strengthen the research programs at the state’s
leading universities and stop the “brain drain” of talented citizens who leave West Virginia to
seek employment.
The data analyzed in the report cover graduates from state public institutions of higher
education during the academic years from 1996-97 to 2005-06. Data on graduates is matched
by Workforce West Virginia, with data on employment and wages covered under the state
unemployment compensation system. The employment data is well known to be of high
quality, but it does not include all individuals working in a state at a given time. For instance, the
dataset excludes the self-employed.
Highlights of the Report
Work Participation in 2007
• For recent graduates (2005-06 academic year), work participation rates are higher, averaging
58.1 percent in 2007. Work participation rates fall to 40.5 percent for graduates during the
1996-97 academic year.
• Work participation tends to be higher for in-state graduates than for out-of-state graduates.
Indeed, of the graduates working in the state in 2007, 93.9 percent had been classified as instate
for fee purposes.
• Graduates with associate degrees were most likely to work in the state (66.5 percent),
followed by those with master’s (51.1 percent), first professional (physicians, lawyers, 46.2
percent), bachelor’s (43.4 percent) and doctoral (24.6 percent) degrees.
• Areas of concentration with high work participation rates and large numbers of graduates
include interdisciplinary studies (60.7 percent), legal professions (59.2 percent), security and
protective services (58.3 percent), health professions (58.3 percent), education (58 percent)
and engineering technologies (54.6 percent).
• Areas of concentration with low work participation rates and large numbers of graduates
include parks and recreation (25.5 percent), visual and performing arts (29.2 percent),
engineering (29.7 percent), family and consumer sciences (32 percent), physical sciences
(33.7 percent) and biological sciences (35.6 percent).
• Work participation rates for women exceeded those for men in 2007. Indeed, 52.7 percent
of female graduates during the past decade were working in the state in 2007, compared to
43.1 percent of male graduates.
Wages In 2007
• Annualized wages rise with experience. Indeed, graduates during the 2005-06 academic year
earned $28,634, while graduates during the 1996-97 academic year (those with 10 years of
experience) earned $49,786.
• Graduates that had been classified as in-state for fee purposes initially earned higher
annualized wages than out-of-state graduates. However, by the sixth year after graduation
out-of-state graduates earned more.
• Graduates with first professional degrees earned the highest wages in 2007, at $96,653,
followed by doctoral ($63,502), master’s ($48,703), bachelor’s ($34,539) and associate
($32,071) degrees.
• Graduates with associate and bachelor’s degrees earned similar wages through the first five
years after graduation. Thereafter, a bachelor’s degree premium emerges and reaches
$6,251 by the 10th year after graduation.
• Areas of concentration with the highest wages (and more than 1,000 graduates during the
decade) in 2007 were engineering ($61,409), health professions ($53,867), legal professions
($51,799), engineering technologies ($46,353), and computer and information sciences
($44,267).
• Areas of concentration with the lowest wages (and more than 1,000 graduates during the
decade) in 2007 were family and consumer sciences ($22,821), visual and performing arts
($22,982), English ($25,688), history ($25,704) and psychology ($27,507).
• Annualized wages for men averaged $46,146 in 2007, which was well above the $35,083
average annual wage for women. These wage differences arise from a variety of factors,
including differences in degrees and majors across men and women, as well as differences in
work participation decisions.
• Asian graduates posted the highest annualized wages in 2007, at $48,352, followed by
Caucasian ($39,557), American Indian ($35,035), Hispanic ($34,812) and African American
($29,936).
The full report is available at www.wvhepc.org and www.bber.wvu.edu.
Contact Information
Rob Anderson
304-558-1112