NALP Bulletin+
October 2024
This month, NALP is releasing the 50th edition of our annual Jobs & JDs report, a publication that provides detailed analyses on the employment and salaries of each class — including how these metrics vary by factors such as job type, location, and graduate demographics. Over the past five decades, NALP's research has not only been essential to understanding how the employment market has evolved in the face of economic and societal changes, but it has played a critical role in highlighting where disparities in outcomes exist and assessing the progress of the profession in narrowing those gaps.
NALP's long-time Director of Research (now retired), Judy Collins, explored a more extensive history of the evolution of NALP's Employment Report and Salary Survey in her April 2021 column for NALP's 50th anniversary. This column will examine long-term trends in employment rates, employment sectors, and graduate salaries from the survey.
Chart 1 displays employment rates for new law graduates dating back to the Class of 1982, when NALP began reporting employment based on all graduates with a known employment status. Economic recessions have frequently affected law graduate employment rates, with some of the greatest impacts observed during the early 1990s and Great Recession. More recently, the COVID-19 pandemic caused a disruption in the post-Great Recession recovery for the Class of 2020, but this setback was short-lived. Just three years later, the Class of 2023 attained a record-high employment rate of 92.6%.
In addition to changing overall employment patterns, there have also been shifts in employment sector trends. Table 1 and Chart 2 explore changes in law firm, business, and public service employment. For NALP reporting purposes, public service encompasses the government, judicial clerkships, and public interest employer types. Law firms consistently account for the largest share of jobs each year, but employment in this sector was especially high from 1983-1992, when private practice comprised approximately 58-64% of all jobs. During the Great Recession, law firm employment fell to near record lows. However, in the post-recession recovery, it has now reached a 30+ year high of 58.2% for the Class of 2023.
In contrast, business employment often moves counter-cyclically with law firm employment and fell to historically low levels of below 8% of all jobs, for the Classes of 1987-1991. During the Great Recession, as law firm employment declined, business employment surged to record levels of approximately 18%, before beginning to falloff again. For the Class of 2023, business sank to a 30+ year low of just 8.1% of jobs.
Public service provides a final perspective on employer types. In the early years of the survey from 1974-1979, public service careers accounted for more than 30% of all jobs, but then settled into the mid-high 20s for the next four decades. Since 2018, public service careers have once again surpassed 30%, reaching 32.2% for the Class of 2023 - the highest level since the Class of 1977.
Trends in graduate salaries dating back to the Class of 1985 are presented in Chart 3. Notably, both average law firm and overall salaries decreased during the Great Recession. Much of the drop in law firm salaries can be attributed to a decline in both the percentage and number of jobs in firms of more than 500 lawyers — the firms that typically pay the highest salaries. The twin effects of the changing nature of law firm employment, in addition to the overall decline in private practice jobs, also caused a deterioration in overall average salaries. However, in the post-Great Recession period salaries recovered, and are now at record highs.
The special 50th anniversary edition of Jobs & JDs: Employment and Salaries of New Graduates for the Class of 2023 will explore the history of NALP's employment reporting in more detail. Click here for more information on the Class of 2023.
Table 1. Trends in Employer Types, Class of 1974-2023 (Percent of Jobs in Each Employer Type)
Year | Law Firms | Business | Public Service |
2023 | 58.2% | 8.1% | 32.2% |
2022 | 58.0% | 9.8% | 30.7% |
2021 | 57.0% | 11.0% | 30.5% |
2020 | 56.8% | 10.5% | 31.1% |
2019 | 55.2% | 11.3% | 32.1% |
2018 | 54.8% | 12.9% | 30.5% |
2017 | 54.4% | 13.9% | 29.9% |
2016 | 52.9% | 15.6% | 29.5% |
2015 | 51.3% | 17.2% | 29.4% |
2014 | 50.9% | 18.0% | 28.6% |
2013 | 51.1% | 18.4% | 27.6% |
2012 | 50.7% | 17.9% | 28.2% |
2011 | 49.5% | 18.1% | 28.7% |
2010 | 50.9% | 15.1% | 28.8% |
2009 | 55.9% | 13.5% | 25.8% |
2008 | 56.2% | 13.4% | 27.0% |
2007 | 55.5% | 14.1% | 27.3% |
2006 | 55.8% | 14.2% | 26.9% |
2005 | 55.8% | 13.3% | 27.1% |
2004 | 56.2% | 12.0% | 27.7% |
2003 | 57.8% | 11.5% | 26.9% |
2002 | 58.1% | 10.7% | 27.0% |
2001 | 57.8% | 11.3% | 27.6% |
2000 | 54.8% | 12.5% | 27.5% |
1999 | 55.1% | 13.3% | 27.2% |
1998 | 55.0% | 13.8% | 27.2% |
1997 | 55.6% | 14.0% | 27.4% |
1996 | 55.7% | 14.2% | 26.5% |
1995 | 56.1% | 13.4% | 26.6% |
1994 | 55.0% | 12.0% | 27.9% |
1993 | 57.1% | 10.6% | 27.2% |
1992 | 59.0% | 8.9% | 28.2% |
1991 | 60.8% | 7.5% | 28.1% |
1990 | 62.9% | 6.9% | 28.5% |
1989 | 62.4% | 5.8% | 27.0% |
1988 | 64.3% | 6.9% | 27.8% |
1987 | 63.5% | 7.9% | 27.6% |
1986 | 62.3% | 9.0% | 26.9% |
1985 | 60.6% | 10.4% | 27.3% |
1984 | 58.9% | 11.1% | 26.0% |
1983 | 58.9% | 10.1% | 27.5% |
1982 | 57.5% | 10.4% | 25.6% |
1981 | 56.6% | 11.0% | 27.0% |
1980 | 54.0% | 10.8% | 29.6% |
1979 | 53.0% | 10.4% | 31.2% |
1978 | 51.8% | 10.4% | 31.5% |
1977 | 52.1% | 9.9% | 32.2% |
1976 | 50.4% | 9.6% | 32.1% |
1975 | 49.2% | 9.2% | 34.0% |
1974 | 51.9% | 9.7% | 32.2% |
Note: Percentages do not add up to 100% because the education and unknown employer types are not shown.
Source: NALP's Employment Report and Salary Survey, Classes of 1974-2023.
Chart 1. Employment Rates for New Law Graduates, Class of 1982-2023 (in percentages)
Note: NALP began tracking employment rates based on all graduates for whom employment status was known with the Class of 1982. Figures for the Classes of 1990-1998 exclude a small number of graduates known to be employed, but for whom basic job type was unknown. With the Class of 2014, NALP began measuring the employment rate as of March 15, or ten months after a typical May graduation. From 1996-2013 employment status was measured as of February 15 (nine months post-graduation), and prior to 1996 employment was measured as of six months post-graduation.
Source: NALP's Employment Report and Salary Survey, 1982-2023.
Chart 2. Trends in Employer Types, Classes of 1974-2023 (percent of jobs in each employer type)
Note: Percentages do not add up to 100% because the education and unknown employer types are not shown. Public service includes graduates employed in government, judicial clerkships, and public interest.
Source: NALP's Employment Report and Salary Survey, 1974-2023.
Note: Salaries are displayed in current dollars.
Source: NALP's Employment Report and Salary Survey, 1985-2023.