CLASS OF 2016 EMPLOYMENT REPORT (CORRECTED)

[I made a few unfortunately significant errors when I compiled the data and created the table for full-time, long-term, bar-passage-required outcomes by law school in my first post on this topic. I overlooked the fact that the ABA now separates school-funded jobs in its employment status breakdown, meaning I subtracted school-funded jobs needlessly. I also mis-sorted the employment data for the class of 2015. Rather than correct that post, I am reposting the data, along with the information from this morning’s “second cut” to keep it all in one place. I will keep the previous posts up but will replace their text with links redirecting readers to this site to preserve links to that information and comments.

I hate making these kinds of preventable mistakes, so I apologize to readers. However, I greatly appreciate those of you who reached out to me to notify me of the errors.]

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On Thursday, the ABA updated its Employment Summary Report Web site, which provides employment data for each law school class going back to 2010. Many if not all law schools have uploaded their individual reports, and some intrepid researchers have already dug into them, but I prefer to wait until the easy-to-use spreadsheet comes out. The ABA may revise these data over the next few months, but this first cut gives a good sense of the class of 2016’s employment outcomes. Also, completionists will note that while Indiana Tech graduated a small number of students last year, it did not report their employment outcomes. I exclude it.

36,618 people graduated from 200 ABA-accredited law schools outside of Puerto Rico roughly between September 1, 2015, and August 31, 2016. The employment information should be good as of about March 15, 2017.

Here’s the pie chart of the employment status distribution.

I’ll analyze these numbers in more depth in my second cut, but overall the percentages look slightly better than last year. However, even though there are fewer graduates (down 15 percent from two years ago) the proportion obtaining work hasn’t risen dramatically.

More tables appear below the fold to conserve blog space.

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Here’s the table of graduate unemployment:

STATUS (EXCL. P.R.)	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016
Unemployed – Not Seeking	1,245	1,014	939	795	553	494	466
Unemployed – Seeking	2,686	4,016	4,770	5,060	4,103	3,744	3,142
Status Unknown	1,458	1,453	1,073	979	841	766	580
Total Grads	43,526	43,735	45,757	46,112	43,195	39,423	36,618
Unemployed – Not Seeking	2.9%	2.3%	2.1%	1.7%	1.3%	1.3%	1.3%
Unemployed – Seeking	6.2%	9.2%	10.4%	11.0%	9.5%	9.5%	8.6%
Status Unknown	3.3%	3.3%	2.3%	2.1%	1.9%	1.9%	1.6%
Total Percent	12.4%	14.8%	14.8%	14.8%	12.7%	12.7%	11.4%

The good news is the 1 percent decline in unemployed graduates seeking work, but the rest of the figures are largely the same. Still, despite such a large drop in graduates it’s bizarre that more than 10 percent haven’t found work after graduating. The bar-failure issue is probably contributing.

Pertinently, 62.4 percent of graduates held full-time, long-term jobs requiring bar passage, up from 60.0 percent for the class of 2015 and 58.7 percent for the class of 2014. (None of these figures include school-funded jobs.) The absolute number of such jobs fell again, to 22,856 from 23,651 last year. That’s a 3.4 percent drop. I’m not surprised that demand for new full-time lawyers continues to fall with graduates. The same thing happened last year.

And now, what you crave: the year-over-year comparison table for each law school, sorted by their 2016 percentage of graduates in full-time bar-passage required jobs:

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PERCENT GRADUATES EMPLOYED FULL-TIME/LONG-TERM IN BAR-PASSAGE-REQUIRED JOBS (EXCL. LAW-SCHOOL-FUNDED JOBS)
RANK	LAW SCHOOL	’15	’16	CHANGE
1.	Chicago	90.8%	93.5%	2.7%
2.	Duke	88.9%	92.4%	3.5%
3.	Columbia	87.2%	91.5%	4.3%
4.	Michigan	85.0%	91.1%	6.1%
5.	Cornell	89.6%	90.2%	0.6%
6.	Stanford	85.1%	89.6%	4.5%
7.	Pennsylvania	89.8%	89.1%	-0.7%
8.	Virginia	84.7%	88.8%	4.0%
9.	New York University	87.4%	88.7%	1.2%
10.	Harvard	85.9%	88.0%	2.1%
11.	Vanderbilt	78.4%	86.3%	7.9%
12.	California-Berkeley	85.3%	84.2%	-1.0%
13.	Penn State (Dickinson Law)	59.6%	82.4%	22.7%
14.	Northwestern	81.3%	81.5%	0.3%
15.	Seton Hall	79.4%	80.7%	1.4%
16.	Boston College	77.3%	80.6%	3.3%
17.	Washington University	76.3%	80.1%	3.8%
18.	Texas	75.7%	79.8%	4.1%
19.	Illinois	65.2%	78.9%	13.7%
20.	Yale	81.2%	78.3%	-2.9%
21.	Georgia	72.3%	78.3%	6.0%
22.	Baylor	81.5%	77.2%	-4.3%
23.	Washington and Lee	75.3%	76.8%	1.6%
24.	Ohio State	75.0%	76.5%	1.5%
25.	Lincoln Memorial	40.0%	76.5%	36.5%
26.	Notre Dame	73.7%	76.2%	2.4%
27.	Alabama	72.2%	75.9%	3.6%
28.	California-Los Angeles	73.7%	75.6%	1.9%
29.	Oklahoma	69.0%	75.5%	6.5%
30.	Drexel	64.8%	75.5%	10.7%
31.	Southern Methodist	76.6%	75.2%	-1.4%
32.	Wyoming	58.9%	74.6%	15.7%
33.	Fordham	66.8%	74.5%	7.6%
34.	Minnesota	67.6%	74.4%	6.8%
35.	Georgetown	67.3%	74.4%	7.1%
36.	Cardozo, Yeshiva	68.0%	74.3%	6.3%
37.	Wake Forest	66.7%	73.4%	6.7%
38.	Hofstra	66.8%	73.2%	6.5%
39.	Rutgers	65.9%	72.8%	6.8%
40.	Nevada	74.0%	72.4%	-1.6%
41.	St. John’s	69.8%	72.1%	2.4%
42.	William and Mary	66.3%	72.0%	5.7%
43.	Florida State	72.6%	72.0%	-0.7%
44.	Pace	63.3%	71.9%	8.7%
45.	Montana	64.6%	71.8%	7.2%
46.	Connecticut	59.2%	71.5%	12.3%
47.	Florida	76.6%	71.2%	-5.4%
48.	Wisconsin	64.8%	71.2%	6.4%
49.	California-Irvine	64.5%	71.2%	6.6%
50.	Cincinnati	61.5%	71.2%	9.7%
51.	Boston University	75.5%	71.0%	-4.4%
52.	Belmont	60.2%	71.0%	10.8%
53.	Iowa	78.1%	71.0%	-7.1%
54.	Kentucky	80.3%	70.7%	-9.6%
55.	South Dakota	55.7%	70.7%	15.0%
56.	Florida International	66.7%	70.6%	3.9%
57.	Albany	65.0%	70.2%	5.2%
58.	Emory	75.3%	70.1%	-5.3%
59.	Southern California	72.8%	70.0%	-2.8%
60.	Indiana (Bloomington)	64.6%	69.6%	5.0%
61.	Villanova	62.0%	69.2%	7.2%
62.	Arizona State	70.3%	68.9%	-1.4%
63.	Texas Tech	65.4%	68.7%	3.3%
64.	Arizona	61.8%	68.5%	6.7%
65.	South Carolina	64.5%	68.4%	3.9%
66.	New Mexico	73.2%	68.1%	-5.1%
67.	Marquette	62.4%	68.1%	5.6%
68.	Washburn	60.8%	68.0%	7.2%
69.	Colorado	70.4%	67.9%	-2.5%
70.	Missouri (Columbia)	69.2%	67.5%	-1.7%
71.	Houston	58.6%	67.5%	8.9%
72.	Washington	68.6%	67.3%	-1.3%
73.	George Washington	64.7%	67.2%	2.5%
74.	Idaho	78.5%	67.2%	-11.3%
75.	Memphis	53.7%	67.0%	13.3%
76.	Georgia State	64.3%	67.0%	2.7%
77.	Temple	58.9%	66.8%	7.9%
78.	North Carolina	65.9%	66.8%	0.9%
79.	City University	59.5%	66.3%	6.9%
80.	Penn State (Penn State Law)	53.1%	66.3%	13.3%
81.	St. Louis	59.9%	66.2%	6.3%
82.	Brooklyn	64.0%	66.1%	2.1%
83.	Nebraska	69.6%	65.3%	-4.3%
84.	Missouri (Kansas City)	61.7%	65.2%	3.5%
85.	Tennessee	65.6%	65.2%	-0.4%
86.	Kansas	63.7%	65.1%	1.4%
87.	Regent	56.8%	64.8%	8.0%
88.	Miami	61.6%	64.7%	3.1%
89.	George Mason	61.8%	64.7%	2.8%
90.	Brigham Young	56.4%	64.6%	8.2%
91.	Arkansas (Fayetteville)	64.6%	64.5%	-0.1%
92.	Richmond	61.0%	64.2%	3.2%
93.	Louisiana State	69.5%	63.6%	-5.9%
94.	New Hampshire	64.3%	63.5%	-0.8%
95.	Oklahoma City	56.7%	63.5%	6.8%
96.	Maine	42.9%	63.4%	20.6%
97.	Tulane	60.2%	63.3%	3.2%
98.	SUNY Buffalo	62.3%	63.2%	0.9%
99.	California-Davis	67.6%	63.0%	-4.5%
100.	Denver	60.6%	62.9%	2.3%
101.	Duquesne	53.1%	62.9%	9.8%
102.	West Virginia	72.8%	62.6%	-10.2%
103.	Touro	56.1%	62.6%	6.4%
104.	Loyola (CA)	62.0%	62.1%	0.1%
105.	Wayne State	60.0%	61.8%	1.8%
106.	Pittsburgh	53.6%	61.7%	8.1%
107.	Gonzaga	64.5%	61.6%	-2.9%
108.	Tulsa	62.8%	61.4%	-1.3%
109.	Louisville	65.6%	60.7%	-5.0%
110.	Mercer	64.3%	60.6%	-3.7%
111.	Concordia	41.7%	60.5%	18.9%
112.	St. Mary’s	52.8%	60.5%	7.7%
113.	Syracuse	55.0%	60.2%	5.2%
114.	Utah	64.3%	59.5%	-4.8%
115.	Mississippi College	62.3%	59.3%	-3.0%
116.	Drake	68.4%	59.3%	-9.1%
117.	Maryland	57.6%	59.2%	1.6%
118.	Northern Illinois	59.4%	59.1%	-0.3%
119.	Texas A&M [Wesleyan]	60.4%	59.0%	-1.3%
120.	Faulkner	53.7%	58.1%	4.4%
121.	Mitchell|Hamline	48.8%	57.6%	8.8%
122.	Creighton	63.6%	57.5%	-6.2%
123.	Southern Illinois	56.6%	57.3%	0.7%
124.	Northeastern	64.1%	57.2%	-6.8%
125.	Ave Maria	35.2%	57.1%	21.9%
126.	Mississippi	51.1%	57.0%	6.0%
127.	Loyola (IL)	51.0%	56.9%	6.0%
128.	Samford	54.5%	56.9%	2.4%
129.	Case Western Reserve	59.7%	56.6%	-3.2%
130.	Stetson	62.3%	56.5%	-5.9%
131.	Michigan State	49.5%	56.2%	6.7%
132.	Chicago-Kent, IIT	52.0%	56.2%	4.2%
133.	St. Thomas (MN)	55.8%	55.7%	-0.1%
134.	Liberty	50.8%	55.2%	4.4%
135.	Pepperdine	52.8%	54.1%	1.4%
136.	DePaul	55.3%	53.8%	-1.4%
137.	New York Law School	49.1%	53.3%	4.1%
138.	Charleston	48.9%	53.2%	4.3%
139.	Hawaii	54.5%	53.2%	-1.3%
140.	Lewis and Clark	47.3%	53.1%	5.8%
141.	Cleveland State	52.3%	53.0%	0.7%
142.	South Texas	59.0%	52.9%	-6.2%
143.	American	44.2%	52.8%	8.6%
144.	Texas Southern	35.4%	52.3%	16.9%
145.	Seattle	48.7%	52.2%	3.5%
146.	John Marshall (Chicago)	50.9%	51.7%	0.8%
147.	California-Hastings	56.5%	51.3%	-5.2%
148.	North Dakota	58.2%	51.3%	-6.9%
149.	Baltimore	53.6%	51.3%	-2.3%
150.	Oregon	49.2%	51.2%	2.0%
151.	Roger Williams	52.3%	51.2%	-1.1%
152.	Vermont	47.5%	50.9%	3.3%
153.	Arkansas (Little Rock)	52.4%	50.4%	-2.0%
154.	Campbell	50.3%	49.5%	-0.8%
155.	Dayton	51.6%	49.4%	-2.2%
156.	Chapman	47.0%	49.4%	2.4%
157.	Widener (Commonwealth)	51.3%	49.1%	-2.2%
158.	Nova Southeastern	60.5%	49.0%	-11.5%
159.	Indiana (Indianapolis)	58.8%	48.8%	-10.0%
160.	Ohio Northern	41.3%	48.6%	7.3%
161.	Northern Kentucky	44.0%	48.3%	4.4%
162.	St. Thomas (FL)	43.0%	48.0%	5.0%
163.	Howard	49.1%	47.8%	-1.3%
164.	Santa Clara	39.3%	47.4%	8.2%
165.	Widener (Delaware)	48.8%	47.4%	-1.4%
166.	San Diego	55.9%	46.8%	-9.1%
167.	Akron	51.4%	46.8%	-4.6%
168.	Loyola (LA)	47.0%	46.8%	-0.2%
169.	California Western	40.2%	46.6%	6.4%
170.	Southern University	36.1%	45.5%	9.4%
171.	Quinnipiac	50.4%	44.7%	-5.7%
172.	Suffolk	43.5%	43.2%	-0.3%
173.	Western New England	43.3%	42.7%	-0.6%
174.	Pacific, McGeorge	46.1%	40.3%	-5.8%
175.	Massachusetts — Dartmouth	34.5%	39.6%	5.1%
176.	Southwestern	37.0%	38.9%	2.0%
177.	Willamette	57.3%	38.6%	-18.7%
178.	New England	42.8%	38.6%	-4.2%
179.	Catholic	44.4%	38.4%	-6.0%
180.	Arizona Summit [Phoenix]	39.8%	38.0%	-1.8%
181.	Capital	38.5%	37.8%	-0.7%
182.	Florida A&M	38.1%	37.5%	-0.6%
183.	Toledo	45.7%	36.4%	-9.4%
184.	Florida Coastal	38.8%	36.1%	-2.7%
185.	Appalachian	48.3%	35.7%	-12.6%
186.	Valparaiso	42.0%	35.6%	-6.4%
187.	North Carolina Central	32.7%	35.0%	2.3%
188.	Atlanta’s John Marshall	26.7%	35.0%	8.2%
189.	District of Columbia	22.1%	34.0%	12.0%
190.	Elon	48.1%	33.7%	-14.3%
191.	Barry	34.5%	33.6%	-0.9%
192.	Detroit Mercy	36.8%	33.6%	-3.2%
193.	San Francisco	36.1%	32.9%	-3.3%
194.	Western State	41.8%	31.9%	-10.0%
195.	WMU Cooley	27.5%	30.5%	3.0%
196.	Puerto Rico	23.8%	30.4%	6.6%
197.	Whittier	21.3%	29.7%	8.4%
198.	Golden Gate	36.7%	26.8%	-9.9%
199.	Charlotte	26.3%	23.5%	-2.8%
200.	Thomas Jefferson	24.5%	21.9%	-2.6%
201.	La Verne	38.5%	13.7%	-24.7%
202.	Inter American	7.6%	9.9%	2.3%
203.	Pontifical Catholic	16.6%	0.0%	-16.6%
TOTAL (EXCL. P.R.)		60.0%	62.4%	2.4%
10TH PERCENTILE (EXCL. P.R.)		38.8%	37.8%	-1.0%
25TH PERCENTILE (EXCL. P.R.)		49.2%	51.2%	2.0%
MEDIAN (EXCL. P.R.)		60.0%	62.9%	3.0%
75TH PERCENTILE (EXCL. P.R.)		67.6%	71.2%	3.6%
90TH PERCENTILE (EXCL. P.R.)		78.5%	80.1%	1.6%
MEAN (EXCL. P.R.)		58.8%	60.7%	1.9%

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This table comes with no notes or caveats, unlike previous years. At last we have a stable, merger- and splitting-free year for law school employment data. Closures on the way though.

Previous posts on this topic:

• CLASS OF 2015 EMPLOYMENT REPORT
• CLASS OF 2014 EMPLOYMENT REPORT (Updated)
• CLASS OF 2013 EMPLOYMENT REPORT
• Quick Comment on the 2012 Employment Data
• Class of ’11 This is Your JD on Versatility
• Those of You Who Wanted Transparency… [Class of 2010]

Be seeing you.

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[I am reposting my second cut on the class of 2016 graduate employment outcomes to keep the information consistent and correct any errors.]

Change in 2016 Graduate Outcomes Driven by the Underemployed

My second cut at the class of 2016 employment data:

Comparing the law-school classes of 2016 to 2015 (and excluding our three Puerto Rico law schools), there were 2,806 fewer graduates, a decline of 7.1 percent. Five employment status categories accounted for 88 percent of this change: bar-passage-required jobs (38.3%), unemployed grads seeking jobs (21.5%), law-school-funded jobs (9.8%), JD-advantage jobs (9.6%), and professional-position jobs (8.3%).

Changes among the employment types accounted for 69.9 percent of the 2,806 graduates. The four largest drivers were business-and-industry jobs (29.7%), 2-10-lawyer practices (17.2%), public-interest jobs (8.6%), and solo practices (5.1%). Notably, jobs at 501-plus-lawyer firms grew by 241, so it pushed back against the graduate decline (-8.4%).

Finally, I looked at the distribution of graduates among the employment statuses and types by their Gini coefficients. Some of these are more informative than others given the small number of grads that fall into them, e.g. the 22 grads whose employment is undeterminable. There’s nothing unexpected here. Aside from solos and unknowns, outcome inequality at law firms increases with firms’ sizes. Federal clerkships and positions at 501-plus-lawyer firms are still doled out like income in a landlocked, kleptocratic, military dictatorship. Public-interest jobs aren’t so easy to come by either, which casts some doubt on the argument that student-loan burdens deter graduates from taking them.

Editorial: The employment categories accounting for the change in graduates differed quite noticeably from last year. The bright piece of news is that much of the decline in law grads came out of the unemployed-seeking status, the law-school-funded status, and the business-and-industry employment type. Small-law jobs absorbed much of the shift, which is also good because these probably aren’t stellar jobs anyway. However, it suggests that many grads who found these jobs in past years probably did not thrive much or for long. In future years, the graduate decline will flatten because of stabilizing enrollments in prior years (2014+). When that becomes apparent, shifts in graduate outcomes will indicate changes in the legal economy rather than dwindling interest in law school.

Finally, credit to the ABA Journal for reporting the bad news when it could have reported the good news. Its story on the subject showcased the 4 percent drop in bar-passage-required jobs over last year without mentioning the 16 percent plunge in unemployed-seeking jobs, which is much more salient if you’re looking at within-category relative changes. I believe the distribution analysis I’m presenting is more balanced, but I don’t usually think of myself as putting more optimistic spins on law-school data than the Journal.

Here’s an analytic table I base these opinions on.

EMPLOYMENT STATUS	NO. OF GRADS		GRADS PCT. OF TOTAL		PCT. CHANGE IN GRADS	DISTRIBUTION OF CHANGE IN GRADS	GINI COEFFICIENT
	2015	2016	2015	2016	2016	2016	2015	2016
Employed – Bar Passage Required	24,893	23,819	63.1%	65.0%	-4.3%	38.3%	0.33	0.34
Employed – JD Advantage	5,429	5,159	13.8%	14.1%	-5.0%	9.6%	0.37	0.36
Employed – Professional Position	1,623	1,391	4.1%	3.8%	-14.3%	8.3%	0.55	0.55
Employed – Non-Professional Position	535	435	1.4%	1.2%	-18.7%	3.6%	0.54	0.54
Employed – Law School	1,036	760	2.6%	2.1%	-26.6%	9.8%	0.79	0.80
Employed – Undeterminable	30	22	0.1%	0.1%	-26.7%	0.3%	0.95	0.94
Employed – Pursuing Graduate Degree	651	599	1.7%	1.6%	-8.0%	1.9%	0.49	0.49
Unemployed – Start Date Deferred	289	245	0.7%	0.7%	-15.2%	1.6%	0.62	0.63
Unemployed – Not Seeking	509	466	1.3%	1.3%	-8.4%	1.5%	0.59	0.57
Unemployed – Seeking	3,745	3,142	9.5%	8.6%	-16.1%	21.5%	0.47	0.46
Employment Status Unknown	684	580	1.7%	1.6%	-15.2%	3.7%	0.65	0.67
Total Graduates	39,424	36,618	100.0%	100.0%	-7.1%	100.0%	0.29	0.28
EMPLOYMENT TYPE	NO. OF GRADS		GRADS PCT. OF TOTAL		PCT. CHANGE IN GRADS	DISTRIBUTION OF CHANGE IN GRADS	GINI COEFFICIENT
	2015	2016	2015	2016	2016	2016	2015	2016
Solo	659	516	1.7%	1.4%	-21.7%	5.1%	0.55	0.60
2-10	6,740	6,257	17.1%	17.1%	-7.2%	17.2%	0.33	0.34
11-25	1,754	1,739	4.4%	4.7%	-0.9%	0.5%	0.40	0.41
26-50	954	942	2.4%	2.6%	-1.3%	0.4%	0.45	0.43
51-100	814	797	2.1%	2.2%	-2.1%	0.6%	0.46	0.48
101-250	959	958	2.4%	2.6%	-0.1%	0.0%	0.52	0.51
251-500	1,062	1,008	2.7%	2.8%	-5.1%	1.9%	0.67	0.68
501-PLUS	4,007	4,244	10.2%	11.6%	5.9%	-8.4%	0.78	0.79
Unknown	242	228	0.6%	0.6%	-5.8%	0.5%	0.82	0.91
Business Industry	5,749	4,915	14.6%	13.4%	-14.5%	29.7%	0.37	0.35
Government	4,611	4,403	11.7%	12.0%	-4.5%	7.4%	0.33	0.31
Public Interest	1,880	1,639	4.8%	4.5%	-12.8%	8.6%	0.52	0.47
Federal Clerkship	1,222	1,196	3.1%	3.3%	-2.1%	0.9%	0.70	0.72
State/Local Clerkship	2,018	2,095	5.1%	5.7%	3.8%	-2.7%	0.59	0.57
Other Clerkship	114	20	0.3%	0.1%	-82.5%	3.3%	0.86	0.93
Education	634	581	1.6%	1.6%	-8.4%	1.9%	0.49	0.48
Unknown Employer Type	127	48	0.3%	0.1%	-62.2%	2.8%	0.93	0.93
Total Employed by Type	33,546	31,586	85.1%	86.3%	-5.8%	69.9%	0.30	0.30

Similar editions of this post from prior years can be found here:

• “Change in Graduate Outcomes Driven by Small Jobs” [’15]
• “Law Grad Jobs Unequal Like Income in Corrupt Countries” [’14]