Labour market outcomes of graduates from universities in the Maritime provinces

This study uses a new longitudinal dataset that combines information from the Postsecondary Information System (PSIS) with personal income tax data to examine the labour market outcomes of graduates from universities in the Maritime provinces (Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick). In this pilot study, the outcomes of six cohorts of young people who graduated from a university in the Maritime provinces between 2006 and 2011 are examined, including 37,425 undergraduate degree holders (those with a bachelor's degree) and 6,740 graduate degree holders (those with a master's degree or a doctorate).

Key findings include: (1) from 2006 to 2011, at least 95 per cent of graduates from the Maritime universities reported employment earnings in their first year after graduating, which suggests that most of them had a paid job at some point in the year after graduating; (2) one year after graduating with a bachelor's degree, the earnings of graduates from the 2009 cohort (who graduated in the aftermath of the 2008/2009 recession) were eight per cent lower than the earnings of their counterparts from the 2008 cohort; (3) subsequent cohorts did not recover - undergraduate students who graduated in 2010 and 2011 also had lower first-year earnings than those who graduated in 2008; (4) in comparison with the 2008 cohort, the first-year earnings of undergraduate degree holders from the 2011 cohort were lower for both men and women, for those who left and those who stayed in the Maritime provinces, and for nearly all fields of study; and (5) approximately two-thirds of graduates were still living in the Maritimes one year after graduating - those with a degree in education were the most likely to stay in the Maritimes, while those with a degree in architecture, engineering and related technologies were the least likely to stay.

Edited excerpts from publisher's website. Show less