By the numbers
While young adults in Wisconsin have seen generally higher rates of full-time employment since the Great Recession, according to Census data, full-time employment fell between 2023 and 2024, the most recent year for which data are available.
Analysis of Census microdata shows that the share of Wisconsin residents aged 25 to 34 working full-time, full-year jobs has shifted considerably between 2008 and 2024 across education levels. “Full-time” is defined as 35 or more hours per week; “full-year” as 48 or more weeks per year.
The figures represent the share of all Wisconsin residents within a particular age bracket and education level — including those who are outside the labor force entirely, neither working or seeking a job — who are employed.
All three groups reached high points in 2018 before retreating modestly in 2019. No data are available for 2020. The 2021 figures were sharply lower than 2019 levels across all groups. By 2023, all education brackets reached new highs, but employment rates slipped in 2024.
The improvement has been most sustained among those with some college experience or an associate’s degree. Their full-time employment rate stood at 64.3 percent in 2008, fell sharply through the recession years, and recovered to 69.7 percent by 2024, representing a net gain of 5.4 percentage points over the period — a recovery far exceeding the pre-recession baseline.
Young adults with a high school diploma or less tell a more complicated story. Starting at 57.2 percent in 2008, this group saw the sharpest recessionary decline of the three, bottoming at 42.9 percent in 2010. While their employment rate briefly exceeded its 2008 baseline, it has since fallen to 55.5 percent in 2024.
Among bachelor’s degree holders, the trend is comparatively narrow but begins from an already high baseline: rising from 71.3 percent in 2008 to 75.6 percent in 2024, just below a 2023 peak of 77.6 percent. This group has been the most insulated from cyclical disruption throughout the period.
Wyatt Eichholz is a policy and legislative associate at the Badger Institute.
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