High School Graduate Earnings by Industry and District

Average annual earnings data tracks Massachusetts high school graduates into the workforce by industry and school district. Records originate from the Massachusetts Department of Unemployment Assistance via an anonymized matching process. Data updates were paused as of June 2025 due to a linking issue.

Use Cases

• Compare average earnings (`AVG_EARNINGS`) across different industries (`NAICS_DESC`) for graduates from specific school districts (`DIST_NAME`).
• Analyze employment rates by calculating the ratio of employed graduates (`EMP_CNT`) to total graduates (`GRAD_CNT`) within an industry (`NAICS_CODE`).
• Track earnings progression over time by comparing `AVG_EARNINGS` for a specific `HS_GRAD_YEAR` cohort across multiple `EARNINGS_YEAR` values.
• Identify industries with the highest or lowest average earnings for graduates from a particular district (`DIST_CODE`).

Strengths

• Data covers 22 distinct industries (`NAICS_DESC`) plus an 'All Students' aggregate.
• Provides multiple key metrics per record: average earnings, graduate count, and employee count.

Limitations

• Sample size and row count are unknown, preventing assessment of statistical significance.
• Data updates are paused as of June 2025, limiting analysis of recent labor market trends.
• Geographic coverage is limited to Massachusetts school districts.

Provenance

Source

Massachusetts Department of Unemployment Assistance (DUA).

Collection Method

Secure, anonymized matching of wage records to high school graduates.

Freshness

Last platform update was March 2026, but underlying data updates are paused since June 2025.

Geography

Massachusetts, United States (by school district).