The National Association for Law Placement (NALP) Employment Report and Salary Survey for the Class of 2009 was released today. For the most part, what was revealed was nothing that law students, lawyers, law schools, law school career services, and everyone else didn’t know already: The job market for law school graduates is not very good (Or has the NALP report put it, “The Class of 2009 Faced New Challenges”).
However, after reviewing the report, there are 3 things I learned:
1. It may be a few years until the employment rate is above 90%. The report states that there was an overall employment rate of 88.3% for the Class of 2009. This statistic is based on graduates for whom employment status was known (employment information was provided for 40,833 graduates or 92.8% of law graduates). Further, the report says that since 1985 there have only been six classes with an overall employment rate of 88.3% (all occurring after the 1990-1991 recession). Those numbers were: 85.9% for 1991, 83.5% for 1992, 83.4% for 1993, 84.7% for 1994, 86.7% for 1995, and 87.4% for 1995. The class of 2008’s employment rate was 89.9%. Therefore, based on the trend from the 90’s, it looks as though the rate for the Class of 2010 should be the same if not lower then the Class of 2009, with steady increases in the following years.
2. Decreases in Jobs that required Bar Passage or a J.D. This year, 70.8% of graduates have jobs that require bar passage (down 4%). Further, 9.2% of graduates obtained jobs which a J.D. was preferred but for which bar passage was not required (up 1%).
3. Part-time Employment On Rise. The Class of 2009 saw a 3.5% increase in part time employment from 6.5% in 2008 to 10% in 2009.