Institutional Determinants of Labor Market Outcomes for Community College Students in North Carolina

Abstract

Objective: The labor market success of community college students depends on both the attributes of individual students and the characteristics of the community colleges they attend. In this article, we examine the impact of community college characteristics on the earnings of first-time college students who enrolled in the North Carolina Community College System in 2002-2003. Method: We estimate multilevel models that incorporate variables representing institutional features of community colleges along with individual characteristics obtained from student-level administrative college transcript data, Unemployment Insurance wage data, and enrollment and graduation data from the National Student Clearinghouse across 830,000 community college students between 2001 and 2010. Results: We find that a number of characteristics of community colleges enhance earnings independently of the attributes of individuals. In particular, males attending community colleges in service areas with higher unemployment rates receive lower earnings, and students in colleges with larger enrollments earn more. Contributions: There are relatively few studies of how institutional factors affect community college effectiveness and those that do this usually concentrate on the attainment of particular awards or transfer rates to 4-year colleges. We address this gap by examining how institutional factors influence the labor market returns to community college participation. Our results underscore the importance of social contexts for explaining student achievement and success as well as highlight the need for much more research to understand differences in labor market outcomes of community college participation and the economic value of credentials and credits.