School Enrollment and Work Status: 2011
American Community Survey Briefs
By Jessica Davis Issued October 2012
ACSBR/11-14

INTRODUCTION
This brief presents data on school enrollment and student work status for the nation based on the 2011 American Community Survey (ACS). It takes a look at the proportion of students who worked and how much they worked over the previous year. Work status questions in the ACS are asked of persons aged 16 and over, so in addition to college students, high school students are included in this analysis. College students have a history of working, independent of the type of institution they attend, their age or family responsibilities, or even their family income.1 College professors and administrators generally recommend that students work 10 to 15 hours per week on campus.2 While 10 to 15 hours per week is considered optimal for college students, many of them work longer hours and not necessarily on campus. This report is one in a series to promote results from the 2011 ACS. The ACS provides detailed estimates of demographic, social, economic, and housing characteristics for congressional districts, counties, places, and other localities every year. A description of the ACS is provided in the text box.

ENROLLMENT AND WORK STATUS
In this analysis, full-time, year-round workers include those who usually worked 35 hours or more per week for 50 to 52 weeks in the past 12 months. Most high school students are dependents, living at home, and do not need employment to pay for school or other living expenses. In 2011, there were 11.1 million students aged 16 and over in high school and the majority of them did not work (71 percent). Another 28 percent of high school students aged 16 and over worked less than full-time, year-round, while 1 percent of them were full-time, year-round workers (Appendix Table 1-A). Of the high school students who worked less than full-time, yearround, only a minority worked more than 20 hours per week. In fact, of the 3.1 million who worked less than full-time, year-round, half (1.5 million) worked 13 weeks or less and 70 percent of them worked less than 20 hours per week (Figure 1). In 2011, of the 19.7 million students aged 16 and over enrolled in undergraduate college, 72 percent worked (20 percent full-time, year-round workers and 52 percent less than that). Of college students who worked less than full-time, year-round, more than half of them worked more than 26 weeks, and of those, half of them worked over 20 hours. The percentage of college undergraduate students who worked full-time, year-round in 2011 varied by state (Figure 2). Some states with higher percentages of college students working full-time, year-round were in the West and Mid-Atlantic. States with the lowest percentage of college students working full-time, year-round were in the Northeast and West. Alaska had the highest

See American Council on Education issued brief, Working Their Way Through College, May 2006, at . 2 See Perna, Laura W., “Understanding the Working College Student,” Academe, July–August 2010, at .
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U.S. Department of Commerce
Economics and Statistics Administration
U.S. CENSUS BUREAU

census.gov

percentage of college students working full-time, year-round (37 percent) and Massachusetts had the lowest percentage of college students working full-time, yearround (14 percent). In 2011, there were 4.1 million graduate students and 82 percent of them worked (Appendix Table 1-A). Almost half of graduate students were full-time, year-round workers. Of graduate students who worked less than full-time, year-round, 68 percent of them worked more than 26 weeks per year and over half of those worked over 20 hours.

Figure 1.

Hours and Weeks Worked for Students Enrolled in High School, College, and Graduate School: 2011
(For information on confidentiality protection, sampling error, nonsampling error, and definitions, see www.census.gov/acs/www)

Percent 100

More than 20 hours/week 20 or less hours/week

90

80

What Is the American Community Survey? The American Community Survey (ACS) is a nationwide survey designed to provide communities with reliable and timely demographic, social, economic, and housing data for the nation, states, congressional districts, counties, places, and other localities every year. It has an annual sample size of about 3.3 million addresses across the United States and Puerto Rico and includes both housing units and group quarters (e.g., nursing facilities and prisons). The ACS is conducted in every county throughout the nation, and every municipio in Puerto Rico, where it is called the Puerto Rico Community Survey. Beginning in 2006, ACS data for 2005 were released for geographic areas with populations of 65,000 and greater. For information on the ACS sample design and other topics, visit .

70

60

50

40

30

}

}}
}

Full-time, year-round

27+ weeks

14–26 weeks 1–13 weeks

20

10

0 High school College Graduate or professional school

}

Did not work

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2011 American Community Survey.

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U.S. Census Bureau

AK

Percentage of College Undergraduates Who Work Full–Time, Year–Round by State: 2011
0 500 Miles

Figure 2.

WA MT OR ID SD WY NE UT CA CO KS MO KY TN AR MS TX AL GA SC NC IA OH IL IN WV VA ME ND MN WI MI PA
MD
! !
!! !

VT NH NY
MA CT

RI

NV

NJ
! !
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

! ! ! !

DE
! ! ! ! !

DC

AZ

OK NM

Percent by state
25.0 or more 20.0 to 24.9 15.0 to 19.9 Less than 15.0
FL

LA

U.S. percent is 19.6

0

100 Miles

HI
0 100 Miles

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2011 American Community Survey.

SOURCE AND ACCURACY
The data presented in this report are based on the ACS sample interviewed in 2011. The estimates based on this sample approximate the actual values and represent the entire household and group quarters population. Sampling error is the difference between an estimate based on a sample and the corresponding value that would be obtained if the estimate were based on the entire population (as from a

census). Measures of the sampling errors are provided in the form of margins of error for all estimates included in this report. All comparative statements in this report have undergone statistical testing, and comparisons are significant at the 90 percent level unless otherwise noted. In addition to sampling error, nonsampling error may be introduced during any of the operations used to collect and process survey data such as editing,

reviewing, or keying data from questionnaires. For more information on sampling and estimation methods, confidentiality protection, and sampling and nonsampling errors, please see the 2011 ACS Accuracy of the Data document located at .

U.S. Census Bureau

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Appendix Table 1-A.

Hours and Weeks Worked for Students Enrolled in High School, College, and Graduate School: 2011
(Population 16 years and over enrolled in public or private school. For information on confidentiality protection, sampling error, nonsampling error, and definitions, see www.census.gov/acs/www)

Population Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Did not work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Worked less than full-time, year-round . . . . 13 weeks or less . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 to 10 hours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 to 20 hours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Over 20 hours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 to 26 weeks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 to 10 hours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 to 20 hours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Over 20 hours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 to 49 weeks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 to 10 hours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 to 20 hours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Over 20 hours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Worked full-time, year-round . . . . . . . . . . . .
Source: 2011 American Community Survey .

High school Number 11,149,446 7,934,795 3,068,911 1,480,619 508,828 535,855 435,936 525,155 141,453 247,264 136,438 1,063,137 272,489 534,501 256,147 145,740 Percent 71 .2 27 .5 13 .3 34 .4 36 .2 29 .4 4 .7 26 .9 47 .1 26 .0 9 .5 25 .6 50 .3 24 .1 1 .3

College Number 19,730,695 5,595,655 10,276,460 2,667,249 541,600 771,693 1,353,956 1,748,397 251,304 592,286 904,807 5,860,814 640,277 2,265,686 2,954,851 3,858,580 Percent 28 .4 52 .1 13 .5 20 .3 28 .9 50 .8 8 .9 14 .4 33 .9 51 .8 29 .7 10 .9 38 .7 50 .4 19 .6

Graduate or professional school Number 4,127,319 726,475 1,504,510 280,087 50,080 65,634 164,373 197,127 23,819 57,765 115,543 1,027,296 82,377 329,928 614,991 1,896,334 Percent 17 .6 36 .5 6 .8 17 .9 23 .4 58 .7 4 .8 12 .1 29 .3 58 .6 24 .9 8 .0 32 .1 59 .9 45 .9

Appendix Table 1-B.

Hours and Weeks Worked for Students Enrolled in High School, College, and Graduate School: 2011
(Margin of error values for Appendix Table A-1a. Population 16 years and over enrolled in public or private school. For information on confidentiality protection, sampling error, nonsampling error, and definitions, see www.census.gov/acs/www)

High school Population Number Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Did not work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Worked less than full-time, year-round . . . . 13 weeks or less . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 to 10 hours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 to 20 hours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Over 20 hours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 to 26 weeks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 to 10 hours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 to 20 hours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Over 20 hours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 to 49 weeks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 to 10 hours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 to 20 hours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Over 20 hours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Worked full-time, year-round . . . . . . . . . . . .
1

College Number 19,730,695 46,500 48,560 26,976 11,266 14,168 22,709 18,962 7,738 12,409 15,779 44,074 11,195 34,497 32,495 38,480 Margin of error1 0 .195 0 .200 0 .123 0 .378 0 .516 0 .566 0 .100 0 .432 0 .641 0 .617 0 .210 0 .187 0 .478 0 .427 0 .153

Graduate or professional school Number 4,127,319 18,665 24,650 8,571 3,584 4,314 7,299 8,044 2,201 4,239 6,082 19,871 4,805 12,008 14,584 24,962 Margin of error1 0 .389 0 .475 0 .195 1 .166 1 .413 1 .760 0 .188 1 .068 1 .749 1 .818 0 .418 0 .464 0 .857 0 .986 0 .510

Margin of error1 0 .233 0 .243 0 .177 0 .593 0 .641 0 .592 0 .112 0 .915 1 .120 1 .036 0 .163 0 .722 0 .715 0 .774 0 .062

11,149,446 40,456 27,653 19,823 11,531 11,716 10,338 12,594 5,287 9,025 6,358 18,324 8,419 11,617 10,018 7,097

Data are based on a sample and are subject to sampling variability . A margin of error is a measure of an estimate’s variability . The larger the margin of error in relation to the size of the estimate, the less reliable the estimate . This number when added to or subtracted from the estimate forms the 90 percent confidence interval . Source: 2011 American Community Survey .

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U.S. Census Bureau