School to work transitions

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As participants got older, the proportion attending school decreased as the proportion of those working increased (Chart 7).  High school participation eventually dropped to zero. While postsecondary education participation was 46% when they were 18 to 20 years old, as they got older, postsecondary participation decreased consistently to reach 15% eight years later when they were 26 to 28 years old.  Among those working and not attending school, full-time work increased as participants got older, and the percentage of part-time workers decreased and varied slightly over time.  Over the eight years of the survey, there was a larger proportion of females than males attending school and a smaller proportion of females in the labour market (Table 4).  Among those working and not in school, there was a larger proportion of females working part-time than males.  Though there were initially as many females as males who were not in school and not working, by the time participants were 26 to 28 years old, there were more than twice as many females as males in this situation.

Chart 7 - School to work transitions

Table 4 - School to work transitions over time

How is education attainment related to labour outcomes?

Generally, between the age of 26 and 28, independently of their level of schooling, 15% of young adults were still in school and close to 70% of them had a full-time job. There were, however, significant differences by gender. The proportion of males holding a full-time job was significantly higher than the proportion of females, who were more likely than males to work part time or to not have a job (Table 5).  The situation was even more frequent for women with lower levels of education attainment.

Table 5 - Highest level of education attained by school/work status and gender

However, since respondents in the Youth in Transition Survey were not asked if they were looking for work during the months when they were not in school and not working, it is impossible to determine if an individual was part of the labour force or not (see text box).  Other information available in the survey can shed some light on the differences in labour outcomes between genders.

Compared with men, a very high proportion of women had children, especially those with a lower level of education and those working part time or not working (Table 6). For example, 87% of the women who had less than a high school diploma and did not have a job had children, as did 78% of the women who had a high school diploma and did not have a job.  Even among women with university degrees and children, 44% did not work. This suggests that they may have not worked by choice as they were caring for their children.

Table 6 - Proportion of youth with children by highest level of education attained, school/work status and gender

Returns of Education

Education pays off.  For both men and women, a higher income was associated with a higher level of education, independently of their situation on the labour market (Table 7).  On average, a university graduate's income was $13,000 higher than the income of someone who had less than a high school diploma.  Generally, men had higher income than women.  It seems that men had better income than women even when they had a lower level of education.  Men who had less than a high school diploma had an income almost twice as high as the income of women with similar qualifications.  This may be related to the fact that the proportion of women who were not in school and not working was two or three times higher than the proportion of men in the same situation, depending on their level of education.

The premium for higher education was higher for women than men.  The gap between the income associated with the lowest and highest level of education was over $18,000 for women holding full-time jobs.  For men, the differential was also at its highest point for full-time job holders, reaching $13,000.  These findings were in line with Hansen (2007) who based his analysis on wages per hour and found similar results, where the effect of education on wages was larger for women than for men.

Table 7 - Average income by highest level of education attained, school/work status and gender