Educational attainment, early leaving from education and training, transition from school to work

version 17/01/2019

Complementary methodological information                                                

home page

 

Section 3 – Employment rates few years after graduation

EU data on employment rates of young people not in education and training by years since completion of highest level of education are presented in the tables edat_lfse_24 and edat_lfse_31 to edat_lfse_34 on Eurostat's online database. Three additional tables present the unemployment rates, activity rates and inactivity rates: edat_lfse_25 to edat_lfse_27.

3.1 Calculation of the indicator

The aim of the eight tables (edat_lfse_24 to edat_lfse_27 and edat_lfse_31 to edat_lfse_34) is to measure the employment status of young people who are no longer in (formal or non-formal) education and training and only few years after their graduation. A benchmark has been set for the EU employment rate few years after graduation (see section 3.2 below).

These indicators are calculated as an annual average of quarterly EU Labour Force Survey data. See more information on this source in the following statistics explained articles:

- the EU Labour Force Survey – methodology (in particular, user guide for the coding)

- the EU Labour Force Survey – main features and legal basis

- the EU Labour Force Survey – data and publication (in particular, publication guidelines)

The indicators are derived from answers to the following LFS variables:

(a) the ILO employment status (variable ILOSTAT categories 'employed' for tables edat_lfse_24 and edat_lfse_31 to edat_lfse_34, 'unemployed' for the table edat_lfse_25, 'active (employed or unemployed)' for the table edat_lfse_26 or 'inactive' for the table edat_lfse_27),

(b) the variables on participation in education and training EDUCSTAT and COURATT (neither in formal education nor in non-formal education and training).

(c) the time elapsed since the highest level of educational attainment was obtained (variable HATTIME – see below).

The rates are calculated as follows: RATE = 100 * POP_TGET / POP with the following conditions:

(a) Numerator: the numerator (POP_TGET) is defined according to status in employment (e.g. ILOSTAT = "1" for the employment rate).

(b) Denominator: for the employment/activity/inactivity rates the denominator is the population of a given age group (POP). For the unemployment rates, the denominator is the active population of a given age group (i.e. the employed and the unemployed, POP_ACT). As there are always responses to ILOSTAT in the LFS, there is no correction for "no answers".

(c) Filter: all populations are restricted to people neither in formal education nor in non-formal education and training (EDUCSTAT = "2" and COURATT = "2") and to people within a given period after graduation (HATTIME less or equal to a given value in years). The variable HATTIME (time elapsed since the highest level of educational attainment) is calculated as follows (SAS statements):

if REFYEAR not in ('9999',blank) and HATYEAR not in ('9999',blank) then do;

        HATTIME=input(REFYEAR,4.)-input(HATYEAR,4.);

        if HATTIME < 0 then HATTIME=0;

     end;

 

     else if HATYEAR='9999' then HATTIME=9999;

 

     if 0 le HATTIME le 1000 then do;

        HATAGE=input(HATYEAR,4.)-input(YEARBIR,4.);

        if HATAGE < 6 then do; HATTIME=.; HATAGE=.; end;

     end;

     else if HATYEAR='9999' then HATAGE=9999;

 

More concretely, the formulas for the four indicators are:

Table

Indicator

ILOSTAT (numerator)

Rate

edat_lfse_24 edat_lfse_31 edat_lfse_32

edat_lfse_33

edat_lfse_34

Employment rates

POP_EMP: ILOSTAT = ’1’

POP_EMP / POP * 100

edat_lfse_25

Unemployment rates

POP_UNP: ILOSTAT = '2'

POP_UNP / POP_ACT * 100

edat_lfse_26

Activity rates

POP_ACT: ILOSTAT in ('1','2')

POP_ACT / POP * 100

edat_lfse_27

Inactivity rates

POP_INA: ILOSTAT = '3'

POP_INA / POP *100

 

3.2 EU benchmark on the employment rates of recent graduates

The Education, youth, culture and sport Council meeting of 10 and 11 May 2012 adopted the following benchmark on the share of employed graduates from education and training:

By 2020, the share of employed (20-34 year olds) having left education and training no more than three years before the reference year should be at least 82%.

The term "graduate" refers to any person aged 20-34 who has left education and training with at least upper-secondary or post-secondary, non-tertiary qualifications  or with tertiary qualifications.

“No more than three years before the reference year” is measured as the share of the employed population aged between 20 and 34 years old who graduated 1, 2 or 3 years before and are not currently enrolled in any further (formal or non-formal) education or training activity.

More details on the decision are available on the Council's website (conclusions of the May 2012 meeting).

The decision was based on a methodological note presented by the Joint Research Centre of the Commission in cooperation with Eurostat.

3.3 Coherence between annual LFS data and LFS ad-hoc module data

The indicator focusses on persons who left education and training (variables on participation in education and training).

To measure the time elapsed since leaving education, there are two options:

- using the date when the highest level of educational attainment (diploma) was obtained

- using the actual date when leaving education for the last time

Most statistics prefer to use the former as the latter is more difficult to obtain in interviews in particular when this happened few years ago.

However an ad-hoc module of the Labour Force Survey was the opportunity to collect the information related to actual date when leaving education for the last time.

Based on these data, Eurostat and the Centre for Research on Lifelong Learning (CRELL, Directorate-General 'Joint Research Centre' of the European Commission) produced a report on the sensitivity of the indicator to the measure of the time elapsed since leaving education.

3.4 Related publications, skills mismatch

The statistics explained article on young people – education and employment patterns provides information on the status of people aged 18-24 in the EU as regards their participation in education and / or in the labour market.

The 2012 report on Employment and Social Developments in Europe gives an overview of possible approaches to analyse the (mis)match between education qualifications and jobs in particular for young people (from page 351, chapter 6).

The literature distinguishes between two forms of mismatching:

- vertical mismatch (between the current occupation and the level of qualifications)

- horizontal mismatch (between the current occupation and the field of study)

The most reliable measure on vertical mismatch relates to graduates from tertiary education. The 2012: Bologna process – Implementation report provides statistical information on this topic (pages 123 to 126).

Experimental statistics based in EU-LFS data on both vertical and horizontal mismatch are available on Eurostat’s website.