Discussion Paper Series

Pergamit, Michael R., "Assessing School to Work Transitions in the United States." NLS Discussion Paper, Report: NLS 96-32

The transistion from school to work is very smooth for some youth and less smooth for others. Many factors influence the transition: the level of education, quality of schooling, intelligence, opportunities, and family background. This paper addresses several measurement issues related to the assessment of the school-to-work transition. To illustrate these issues, several existing findings from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) are disucssed. Each finding relates to alternative measures or methods employed to assess the school-to-work transition in the U.S. Conclusions are drawn regarding the data necessary to support the assessment of the school-to-work transition, including a new survey beginning in the United States which attempts to meet these requirements.

Copies of this and other papers in this series are available from BLS by contacting Rita Jain at Jain.Rita@bls.gov or at (202) 691 - 7405.

Last Modified Date: July 09, 2003