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Digest of Education Statistics
1998 Tables and Figures All Years of Tables and Figures Most Recent Full Issue of the Digest

Table 383. -  Labor force status of 1979-80 to 1996-97 high school dropouts, by sex and race/ethnicity: October 1980 to October 1997 [Numbers in thousands]
___________________________________________________________________________________________
               |             |         Dropouts in civilian labor force\1\  |  Not in
               |  Dropouts   |______________________________________________| labor force
Year, sex, and |             |    |  Labor   |    Employed   | Unemployed   |______________
               |_____________|    |  force   |_______________|______________|Num- |Percent
               |Num-|Percent |Num-|participa-|Num-|Percent of|Num-|Unemploy-| ber |of popu-
               |ber |of total|ber |tion rate |ber | dropouts |ber |ment rate|     | lation
_______________|____|________|____|__________|____|__________|____|_________|_____|________
       1       | 2  |   3    | 4  |    5     | 6  |    7     | 8  |    9    | 10  |   11
_______________|____|________|____|__________|____|__________|____|_________|_____|________
               |    |        |    |          |    |          |    |         |     |
All dropouts\2\|    |        |    |          |    |          |    |         |     |
1980 ..........|739 |  100.0 |471 |     63.7 |322 |     43.6 |149 |    31.6 | 268 |   36.3
1985 ..........|612 |  100.0 |413 |     67.5 |266 |     43.5 |147 |    35.6 | 199 |   32.5
1986 ..........|562 |  100.0 |359 |     63.9 |259 |     46.1 |100 |    27.9 | 203 |   36.1
1987 ..........|502 |  100.0 |333 |     66.4 |207 |     41.2 |126 |    37.8 | 169 |   33.7
1988 ..........|552 |  100.0 |327 |     59.2 |240 |     43.5 | 87 |    26.7 | 225 |   40.8
1989 ..........|446 |  100.0 |292 |     65.4 |210 |     47.1 | 82 |    28.0 | 154 |   34.5
1990 ..........|405 |  100.0 |280 |     69.0 |189 |     46.7 | 90 |    32.3 | 125 |   30.9
1991 ..........|380 |  100.0 |235 |     61.8 |140 |     36.9 | 95 |    40.3 | 145 |   38.2
1992 ..........|406 |  100.0 |242 |     59.6 |147 |     36.3 | 95 |    39.1 | 164 |   40.4
1993 ..........|399 |  100.0 |254 |     63.8 |187 |     47.0 | 67 |    26.3 | 145 |   36.3
1994 ..........|510 |  100.0 |311 |     61.1 |219 |     42.9 | 93 |    29.8 | 198 |   38.8
1995 ..........|604 |  100.0 |409 |     67.7 |288 |     47.7 |121 |    29.6 | 195 |   32.3
1996 ..........|496 |  100.0 |289 |     58.4 |210 |     42.3 | 80 |    27.6 | 206 |   41.5
1997 ..........|502 |  100.0 |302 |     60.2 |225 |     44.9 | 77 |    25.4 | 200 |   39.8
               |    |        |    |          |    |          |    |         |     |
               |    |        |    |          |    |          |    |         |     |
      Men      |    |        |    |          |    |          |    |         |     |
1980 ..........|422 |   57.1 |305 |     72.3 |212 |     50.2 | 93 |    30.5 | 117 |   27.7
1985 ..........|321 |   52.5 |261 |     81.3 |163 |     50.8 | 98 |    37.5 |  60 |   18.7
1990 ..........|215 |   53.1 |173 |     80.2 |110 |     51.2 | 63 |    36.2 |  42 |   19.5
1992 ..........|189 |   46.6 |130 |     69.1 | 85 |     45.2 | 45 |    34.7 |  59 |   31.2
1993 ..........|213 |   53.4 |156 |     73.5 |132 |     61.8 | 25 |    15.9 |  57 |   26.8
1994 ..........|259 |   50.8 |198 |     76.5 |151 |     58.2 | 47 |    23.9 |  61 |   23.6
1995 ..........|339 |   56.1 |251 |     74.0 |179 |     52.8 | 72 |    28.7 |  88 |   26.0
1996 ..........|241 |   48.6 |178 |     74.0 |123 |     51.0 | 56 |    31.1 |  63 |   26.1
1997 ..........|289 |   57.6 |207 |     71.8 |165 |     57.2 | 42 |    20.3 |  81 |   28.0
               |    |        |    |          |    |          |    |         |     |
     Women     |    |        |    |          |    |          |    |         |     |
1980 ..........|317 |   42.9 |166 |     52.4 |110 |     34.7 | 56 |    33.7 | 151 |   47.6
1985 ..........|291 |   47.5 |152 |     52.2 |103 |     35.4 | 49 |    32.2 | 139 |   47.8
1990 ..........|190 |   46.9 |107 |     56.3 | 79 |     41.6 | 28 |    26.1 |  83 |   43.7
1992 ..........|218 |   53.7 |112 |     51.4 | 62 |     28.6 | 50 |    44.3 | 106 |   48.6
1993 ..........|186 |   46.6 | 98 |     52.6 | 56 |     30.1 | 42 |    42.9 |  88 |   47.3
1994 ..........|251 |   49.2 |113 |     45.2 | 68 |     27.1 | 45 |    40.0 | 137 |   54.6
1995 ..........|265 |   43.9 |157 |     59.5 |109 |     41.1 | 49 |    30.9 | 107 |   40.4
1996 ..........|255 |   51.4 |111 |     43.6 | 87 |     34.1 | 24 |    21.8 | 144 |   56.5
1997 ..........|213 |   42.4 | 95 |     44.4 | 60 |     28.1 | 35 |    36.6 | 119 |   55.9
               |    |        |    |          |    |          |    |         |     |
   White\3\    |    |        |    |          |    |          |    |         |     |
1980 ..........|580 |   78.5 |392 |     67.6 |286 |     49.3 |106 |    27.0 | 188 |   32.4
1985 ..........|458 |   74.8 |330 |     72.1 |214 |     46.7 |116 |    35.2 | 128 |   27.9
1990 ..........|303 |   74.8 |211 |     69.8 |156 |     51.4 | 56 |    26.3 |  92 |   30.4
1992 ..........|319 |   78.6 |190 |     59.7 |128 |     40.3 | 62 |    32.5 | 129 |   40.4
1993 ..........|304 |   76.2 |209 |     68.8 |159 |     52.2 | 50 |    24.1 |  95 |   31.3
1994 ..........|382 |   74.9 |252 |     66.0 |177 |     46.3 | 75 |    29.8 | 130 |   34.0
1995 ..........|448 |   74.2 |312 |     69.8 |227 |     50.8 | 85 |    27.2 | 135 |   30.1
1996 ..........|365 |   73.6 |238 |     65.1 |178 |     48.6 | 60 |    25.3 | 127 |   34.8
1997 ..........|386 |   76.9 |250 |     64.8 |199 |     51.5 | 51 |    20.5 | 136 |   35.2
               |    |        |    |          |    |          |    |         |     |
   Black\3\    |    |        |    |          |    |          |    |         |     |
1980 ..........|146 |   19.8 | 73 |     50.0 | 33 |     22.6 | 40 |   (\4\) |  73 |   50.0
1985 ..........|132 |   21.6 | 69 |     52.3 | 39 |     29.5 | 30 |   (\4\) |  63 |   47.7
1990 ..........| 86 |   21.2 | 56 |     65.3 | 26 |     29.9 | 30 |   (\4\) |  30 |   34.9
1992 ..........| 66 |   16.3 | 35 |    (\4\) |  7 |    (\4\) | 28 |   (\4\) |  31 |   47.0
1993 ..........| 80 |   20.1 | 34 |     42.9 | 21 |     26.2 | 13 |   (\4\) |  46 |   57.5
1994 ..........|100 |   19.6 | 48 |     47.9 | 34 |     34.1 | 14 |   (\4\) |  52 |   52.0
1995 ..........|109 |   18.0 | 66 |     61.0 | 40 |     36.4 | 27 |   (\4\) |  42 |   38.5
1996 ..........|111 |   22.4 | 40 |     35.7 | 23 |     20.7 | 17 |   (\4\) |  71 |   64.0
1997 ..........| 90 |   17.9 | 41 |     45.1 | 18 |     20.4 | 22 |   (\4\) |  49 |   54.4
               |    |        |    |          |    |          |    |         |     |
  Hispanic\5\  |    |        |    |          |    |          |    |         |     |
1980 ..........| 91 |   12.3 | 60 |     65.9 | 43 |     47.3 | 17 |   (\4\) |  31 |   34.1
1985 ..........|106 |   17.3 | 73 |     68.9 | 40 |     37.7 | 33 |   (\4\) |  33 |   31.1
1990 ..........| 67 |   16.5 | 32 |    (\4\) | 22 |    (\4\) | 10 |   (\4\) |  35 |   52.2
1992 ..........| 80 |   19.7 | 40 |     49.9 | 23 |     28.4 | 17 |   (\4\) |  40 |   50.0
1993 ..........| 60 |   15.0 | 43 |    (\4\) | 28 |    (\4\) | 15 |   (\4\) |  17 |   28.3
1994 ..........|108 |   21.2 | 51 |     47.5 | 31 |     28.6 | 20 |   (\4\) |  57 |   52.8
1995 ..........|174 |   28.8 |119 |     68.6 | 84 |     48.5 | 35 |    29.3 |  55 |   31.6
1996 ..........|105 |   21.2 | 71 |     67.7 | 57 |     54.5 | 14 |   (\4\) |  34 |   32.4
1997 ..........|121 |   24.1 | 88 |     73.1 | 73 |     60.4 | 15 |    17.4 |  32 |   26.4
_______________|____|________|____|__________|____|__________|____|_________|_____|________

\1\The labor force includes all employed persons plus those seeking employment. The labor force participation rate is the percentage of persons either employed or seeking employment. The unemployment rate is the percent of persons in the labor force who are seeking employment.
\2\Persons 16 to 24 years old who dropped out of school in the 12-month period ending in October of years shown.
\3\Includes persons of Hispanic origin.
\4\Data not shown where base is less than 75,000.
\5\Persons of Hispanic origin may be of any race.

NOTE.--Data are based upon sample surveys of the civilian noninstitutional population. Includes dropouts from any grade, including a small number from elementary and middle schools. Percents are only shown when the base is 75,000 or greater. Even though the standard errors are large, smaller estimates are shown to permit users to combine categories in various ways. Detail for the above race and Hispanic-origin groups will not sum to totals because data for the "other races" group are not presented and Hispanics are included in both the white and black population groups. Because of rounding, sum of individual items may not equal totals.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, College Enrollment of High School Graduates, various years. (This table was prepared June 1998.)


1998 Tables and Figures All Years of Tables and Figures Most Recent Full Issue of the Digest