ERDC Newsflash

August 2015

Data Warehouse

Unemployment insurance wage records are now integrated into the research database. Cross-sector linking to the other data sources is currently in process. Apprenticeship information has also been loaded.

Feedback reports

The Earnings for Graduates report that displays earnings data for higher education completers (including Apprenticeship programs) now includes an earnings dashboard! A summary report was also published.

Research

Earning Premium Studies

Analyses of earnings data for STEM bachelor’s degrees and Associate degrees. Both reports found differences in earnings by gender. Earnings Premium Estimates by Gender and Race Category for STEM Bachelor’s Degrees in Washington state uses propensity scoring to control for selection bias. The paper indicates that STEM degrees have a much higher payoff for males than for females. Findings from Earnings Premium Estimates for Associate Degrees also indicates positive earnings impacts for males, but only modest earnings benefits for females with an associate degree.

Other work

STATS-DC Data Conference

ERDC staff made two presentations at this national conference in Washington DC. One presentation shared the amount of information publicly available and the other described the linking procedures used at ERDC.

Workforce Data Quality Initiative Round 5

The Employment Security Department, in collaboration with the Education Research and Data Center, was recently awarded a $1.16 million three-year Workforce Data Quality grant. Deliverables include comprehensive documentation of workforce data, definitions and metrics over the years; the development of additional analytical data marts for researchers; standardization of the process to link data provided by the customer to internal data sources; creation of additional employment outcome measures; a retrospective study of high school, workforce and post-secondary success that ties outcome measures to prior education and training; use of workforce data to analyze the characteristics and outcomes that can be applied to various studies; and labor supply analysis using WRIS 2.

Multi-state Longitudinal Data Exchange

ERDC continues to work with WICHE (Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education) on a project that explores the possibility of exchanging education and employment data across state lines. ERDC participated in the pilot project that included Oregon, Idaho and Hawaii. Phase 2 has a goal of including at least six more states. Washington post-secondary institutions educate students to be successful anywhere and this information will help provide education and employment information from outside of Washington.

Find out more about the ERDC.