Class of 2010 Graduates Faced Worst Job Market Since Mid-1990s

NALP (f/k/a the National Association for Law Placement) now refers to itself at the Association for Legal Career Professionals, "is a nonprofit educational association established to meet the needs of all participants in the legal employment process (career planning, recruitment and hiring, and professional development of law students and lawyers) for information, coordination and standards. NALP’s membership includes virtually every ABA-approved law school in the US, Canadian law schools and hundreds of legal employers from both the public and private sectors. NALP is dedicated to continuously improving career counseling and planning, recruitment and retention, and the professional development of law students, lawyers, and its members."

Here are some findings from a newly published report from NALP:

Standing at 87.6%, the overall employment rate for new law school graduates is the lowest it has been since 1996, when the rate stood at 87.4%. In addition to a lower overall employment rate than that measured for the classes that immediately preceded it, the Class of 2010 employment data reveal a job market with many underlying structural weaknesses, and the employment profile for this class marks the interruption of employment patterns for new law school graduates that have been undisturbed for decades.

The NALP Employment Report and Salary Survey for the Class of 2010 measures the employment rate of graduates as of February 15, 2011, or nine months after a typical May graduation.  Analyses of these data reveal an employment rate that has fallen more than four percentage points since reaching a 20-year high of 91.9% in 2007 and marks the lowest employment rate since the aftermath of the last significant recession to affect the U.S. legal economy. The Class of 1996 was the last class with an employment rate lower than that for the Class of 2010, and since 1985 there have only been six classes with an overall employment  rate below 87.6%.

All of those occurred in the aftermath of the 1990-1991 recession:  85.9% for 1991, 83.5% for 1992, 83.4% for 1993, 84.7% for 1994, 86.7% for 1995, and 87.4% for 1996. (For information on trends in graduate employment going back to 1985, see www.nalp.org/trends.)