How Many Law School Graduates Per Year Are Out of Work?
As a law student, you’ll spend your days studying case law and practicing moot court. But you’ll also form relationships among fellow students and professors that will aid your future career – from helping secure jobs to offering advice about your plans.
In 2023, more recent law school graduates found full-time and long-term Bar Passage Required or JD Advantage jobs 10 months post graduation than any class over the previous decade.
Class Size
As law school applicants become scarcer, many institutions must adjust admission standards and decrease class sizes accordingly.
Amid falling scores on the LSAT, law schools that typically admit students with 170+ scores on the exam (i.e. the top 14 schools) would likely struggle to fill classes with individuals scoring above that threshold (they would need to go significantly below the national average class size of current cycle) at times of test administration.
These low enrollment numbers suggest greater competition for spots in new law school classes – an encouraging sign for students looking to attend law school and become lawyers themselves.
This year’s headlines regarding record employment figures for graduates of ABA-approved law schools risk creating an artificial sense of security about the job market for 2023 graduates, when in reality they still need time to reach pre-recession recovery levels.
Graduation Rates
Law school can be an arduous journey. A high academic attrition rate could indicate that the law school admits students who struggle to meet its rigorous academic requirements or demands; or perhaps its academic rigor simply surpasses some students’ capabilities. Whatever it may be, any high academic attrition rate should be carefully investigated before making your decision to attend law school.
An increased other attrition rate should also serve as a warning sign, suggesting that the law school may not be providing sufficient support structures to its students while they’re studying or entering the job market. This factor becomes even more critical if your desired law school has high attrition among minority students as these schools usually experience greater rates than white counterparts.
Employment Rates
Employment rates of law school graduates provide a critical measure of both benefits and costs associated with legal education. Ideally, recent graduates find jobs that pay at least equal or greater than their total student debt owed, which allows them to repay it without negatively affecting their lifestyles.
ABA data shows that 85.6% of graduates from the Class of 2023 found full-time jobs requiring bar passage within 10 months after graduating – setting a record high and surpassing even last year’s record high! This represents a new record high for this class, surpassing even its previous best record high.
Data also show that 67.7% of employed graduates were working in jobs that required or advantaged them having a law degree; others held professional and nonprofessional jobs, with some working for corporate legal departments or in legal process outsourcing/e-discovery shops.
Trends
The American Bar Association’s (ABA’s) Standard 509 enrollment data offers law schools accurate, verifiable information regarding their entering classes. Each year, this data is sent to all 196 ABA-approved US law schools.
This fall’s graduating class set a number of records in many respects. By most measures, it was the most diverse law school class ever seen before while at the same time being one of the smallest classes ever on average.
Employment was very successful for this class; approximately 85% secured full-time long-term jobs that required bar passage but weren’t entirely subsidized by law school tuition fees.
As in past years, most graduates landed large firm employment. But as opportunities at big firms shrank, more graduates secured positions at smaller firms; NALP research shows this tendency across various cycles of economic expansion and contraction – smaller firms tend to provide shelter when large firm jobs disappear – this seems to have continued this year as well.
