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Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics

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Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes (PSEO)

Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes (PSEO) are experimental tabulations developed by researchers at the U.S. Census Bureau. PSEO data provide earnings and employment outcomes for college and university graduates by degree level, degree major, and post-secondary institution. These statistics are generated by matching university transcript data with a national database of jobs, using state-of-the-art confidentiality protection mechanisms to protect the underlying data.

The PSEO are made possible through data sharing partnerships between universities, university systems, State Departments of Education, State Labor Market Information offices, and the U.S. Census Bureau. PSEO data are available for post-secondary institutions whose transcript data has been made available to the Census Bureau through a data-sharing agreement.

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Download Public-Use Data


We release two classes of files for each of the tabulations, Graduate Earnings and Employment Flows:

  • Comprehensive dataset, which includes all institutions and crossings
  • State datasets, which includes all institutions in a state and is a subset of the above release

Data files are provided in zipped CSV and XLS formats and can be downloaded below. The XLS files have variable labels attached, but do not include all the possible rows from Employment Flows, due to size constraints.


PSEO data can also be accessed via the PSEO Explorer visualization tool. This interactive tool allows for comparisons of employment outcomes through dynamic grouped bar charts and employment flows through Sankey diagrams. To browse the PSEO data files in their directory structure or to access them with a FTP program (must be able to access HTTP), go to: lehd.ces.census.gov/data/pseo/. Column definitions and other important information can be found in the schema files located in: lehd.ces.census.gov/data/schema/latest/lehd_public_use_schema.html.

PSEO Help

Learn more about PSEO by choosing one of the links below.

PSEO Coverage Map

State Data Partners Share of State Graduates*
Colorado Colorado Department of Higher Education 72%
Connecticut Connecticut State Colleges and Universities 27%
Indiana Indiana Commission for Higher Education 77%
Louisiana Louisiana Board of Regents 74%
Maine Maine Community College System 17%
Michigan Institute for Research on Innovation and Science (University of Michigan - Ann Arbor) 10%
New York The State University of New York
The City University of New York		 44%
Ohio Ohio Department of Higher Education 60%
Pennsylvania The Pennsylvania State University 11%
Texas University of Texas System
Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board		 77%
Wisconsin Institute for Research on Innovation and Science (University of Wisconsin - Madison) 14%

* Note: Coverage based on the share of public and private graduates sourced from 2015 Completions Data from IPEDS.


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