Postsecondary education access has expanded across the nation, but many states still struggle to understand how credentials and degrees translate to meaningful employment outcomes. Nationally, only half of bachelor’s degree graduates work in roles aligned with their level of education. Fragmented data systems, limited access to wage records and restrictions on cross-agency data sharing make it challenging to evaluate the economic value of postsecondary education.
The Postsecondary Employment Outcomes (PSEO) Coalition, in partnership with the U.S. Census Bureau’s Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics (LEHD) program, addresses this gap by linking graduate-level records from more than 900 institutions across 36 states and the District of Columbia with anonymized federal wage data. By linking postsecondary education data with workforce wage records, states can better assess graduates’ earnings, their workplaces and how well programs match current employer needs.
PSEO members submit graduate records to the U.S. Census Bureau including a student’s birth date, graduation year, degree or credential earned, major and Social Security number. A key technical requirement is that these records must also include federal Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) codes to identify fields of study.
This linkage allows states to track student:
- Earnings 1, 5 and 10 years after graduation.
- Earnings for the 25th, 50th and 75th percentiles.
- Industry of employment.
- Geographic locations where students work.
These records are then matched with Census employment data such as Quarterly Workforce Indicators and Unemployment Insurance records. Results are accessible through the PSEO Explorer tool, which shows earnings percentiles, industries of employment and geographic employment patterns.
Member State Examples
The University of Texas System was the first to partner with the LEHD program in 2016 and helped lay the groundwork for the PSEO Coalition. Building upon the PSEO data infrastructure, the UT System is improving students’ job prospects in fields with lower post-graduation earnings. Through a partnership with Grow with Google, students can embed job-aligned micro-credentials like data analytics into their majors. In tandem with this approach, the UT System also integrated PSEO data into its seekUT tool, which combines national wage and institutional financial aid data to provide students and families with information on earnings, debt and ROI by major.
Following the passage of S.B. 444/H.B. 634 in 2024, Maryland authorized the Maryland Higher Education Commission to share data with the U.S. Census Bureau. The Commission and the Maryland Longitudinal Data System Center have since joined PSEO and finalized a data-sharing agreement. The Commission can now provide the required student-level data and record its enrollment and degree files to meet PSEO specifications. Since participation requires five years of data with CIP codes (i.e., longer than they have been collecting), the Commission is applying for a grant through the PSEO Coalition to back-code earlier records.
Proper data, like that provided by the PSEO Coalition, helps state policymakers fill critical data gaps to challenge assumptions about program value and better align academic offerings with workforce and student needs. Looking ahead, the PSEO Coalition is focused on expanding its reach and increasing the value of the data it provides. States seeking to better align workforce outcomes with education data can turn to the PSEO Coalition Data Explorer Step-by-Step Guide for a breakdown of how to use the dashboard.
