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How is the employment scene looking for recent law school graduates? We’ll start with the good news: compared to the class of 2018, a larger percentage of 2019 law school graduates were able to find full-time, long-term jobs where bar passage was required or for which a law degree offered an advantage within 10 months of receiving their degrees. About 81 percent of 2019 graduates landed these plum jobs, up from 78.6 percent in 2019. In fact, these are strongest entry-level employment statistics in more than a decade. Hooray! Congratulations, one and all.
Now, for the bad news: the good news we just discussed wasn’t so good after all, because while the total number of desirable law jobs recent graduates landed increased by 720, more than 300 fewer law school graduates were trying to secure jobs. This is the sixth straight year that the declining number of law graduates has propped up their employment rate.
So, with fewer law school graduates competing for jobs, one would assume, or hope, that would mean that fewer law school graduates were unemployed 10 months after receiving their degrees, right? Wrong (and this data pre-dates the pandemic, so things could look even worse now for 2019 graduates).
Law.com produced several helpful charts based on law school employment data for the class of 2019. Today, we will highlight the most alarming chart of all, the law schools with the highest percentage of unemployed graduates. Here are the top 10 law schools on that chart for your sadistic viewing pleasure:
1. Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico: 30.99 percent
2. Inter American University of Puerto Rico: 26.37 percent
3. Appalachian School of Law: 25.81 percent
4. North Carolina Central University: 23.93 percent
5. Western Michigan University: 22.26 percent
6. Golden Gate University: 21.50 percent
7. University of San Francisco: 21.01 percent
8. University of Puerto Rico: 20.24 percent
8. Southern Illinois University: 20.24 percent
9. Santa Clara University: 17.54 percent
10. Western State College of Law: 16.98 percent
That was depressing. (Once again, we suspect that all three Puerto Rico law schools landed on the list due to the fact that the island was devastated by Hurricane Maria and later by earthquakes and has been in recovery mode ever since.)
Click here to see the rest of the law schools with the highest percentage of unemployed graduates, as well as other informative charts detailing the law schools with the highest percentage of graduates working in Biglaw and in state and federal clerkships.
Are you a recent law school graduate who hasn’t been able to find a job? What has your law school done to help you? We’re interested in learning about your experiences — good or bad — and may anonymously feature some of your stories on Above the Law. You can email us, text us at (646) 820-8477, or tweet us @atlblog.
Law Grads Hiring Report: Job Stats for the Class of 2019 [Law.com]
Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.