Study Questions

Key Findings

Some 60 percent of 2009 ninthgraders in 2016 expected to earn a bachelor’s degree or higher (figure 2).
In 2016, the majority of 2009 ninth-graders (64 percent) specified a job they planned to have at age 30. The most common industries for planned jobs were healthcare (16 percent) and business and management (11 percent) (figure 3).
Overall, the median expected yearly earnings at age 30 for 2009 ninth-graders in 2016 was $60,000. Expected yearly earnings at age 30 were higher among those who expected to complete higher levels of education. Those who thought they would obtain a high school diploma or less education expected their yearly earnings to be $40,000, while those who thought they would earn more than a bachelor’s degree expected their yearly earnings to be $70,000 (figure 4).
In 2016, 2009 ninth-graders who planned to work in a STEM career field expected to make $75,000 a year at age 30 and those who planned to work in the service industry expected to make $40,000 a year at age 30 (figure 5).

Approximately half of 2009 ninth-graders in 2016 rated aspects of a job such as job security, contributing to society, and working with a team, among others, as equally important to salary (figure 6).
The two aspects of a job with the greatest percentages of cohort members rating them as more important than salary were job security and balancing work and personal life (figure 6).
Approximately half of cohort members said job security is more important than salary, with the exception of those who planned to go into arts and entertainment (35 percent), service (43 percent), other occupations (42 percent), and those who did not know their expected occupation (38 percent) (figure 7).
Approximately 40 percent or more of 2009 ninth-graders who planned in 2016 to have a job in education, the military or protective services, the service industry, or healthcare industries rated contributing to society as more important than salary (figure 8).
There were differences in responses of 2009 ninth-graders around valuing teamwork as more or less important than salary based on their expected career field: 32 percent of those planning to go into military or protective services rated teamwork as more important than salary compared to 13 percent of those planning to go into a STEM field (figure 9).