Employment After Foster Care

Employment After Foster Care

Between 2017 and 2023, the gap between employment rates for young adults who have experienced foster care and those who have not, remained fairly consistent in Washington State. During the same time period however, the gap in median earnings between the two groups widened, and that increase cannot be attributed to differences in number of hours worked. Longitudinal analysis shows that over time, while the employment gap remains steady, the gap in median earnings continues to increase. It is widest for people without post-secondary education credentials, and narrowest for those with four-year post-secondary credentials, but the earnings gap between people who have experienced foster care and those who have not persists across all levels of educational attainment.

Read the Education Research and Data Center (ERDC) Report

Employment Among 2017 Cohort of Young Adults, by Former Foster Status, 2017-2023

  Line graph showing employment rates from 2017-2023 for a cohort of young adults who turned 18 in 2017, by former foster status. Employment rates declined during those years for both those who had experienced foster care and those who had not, with a persistent gap of about 11 percentage points. In 2017, when they were 18 years old, 56% of the former foster youth had employment, compared to 68% of those who had not experienced foster care. By 2023, when they were 23 years old, 51% of the former foster youth had employment, compared to 62% of those who had not experienced foster care.
 
Child Welfare
Strategic Priority Outcome
Youth
Create Successful Transitions into Adulthood for Youth and Young Adults in Our Care