2012 Employment Experience of Youths: Results from a Longitudinal Survey — 2012-02-09

At age 24, a clear gender gap in educational attainment persists. While nearly 28 percent of women had received a bachelor�s degree by the October when they were age 24, only 19 percent of men had done so, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Additionally, nearly the same percentage of men and women (12 and 13 percent, respectively) were enrolled in college at age 24, so it is unlikely the gap in educational attainment will close. These findings are from the first 13 annual rounds of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, which is a nationally representative survey of about 9,000 men and women who were born during the years 1980 to 1984. These respondents were ages 12 to 17 when first interviewed in 1997, and ages 24 to 30 when interviewed for the 13th time in 2009-10.