New Data Show How Far Graduates Move from Their College, and Why It Matters. Upjohn Institute Policy and Research Brief

Although the government collects data on the state origins of undergraduate students at each college, no publicly available data exist for where graduates of specific colleges end up, even though this information is vital for local economic and workforce development and estimating the state and local return on public funding of higher education. To address these questions, the authors used data from LinkedIn to develop a new dataset of the destinations of graduates for most colleges and universities in the United States. The authors use these data to characterize how labor markets vary across types of colleges based on ownership (public vs. private non-profit), sector (community college vs. baccalaureate-offering), and selectivity. Findings reveal that the labor markets where a college sends its graduates help explain how colleges affect economic outcomes for students from low-income families. Regional public universities tend to produce more graduates who stay local than do state flagships.