Author: Andrew Berger-Gross
Last November, we used data from the North Carolina Reentry Outcome Reporting System (NC-RORS) to highlight the employment outcomes of individuals exiting prison. This month, in recognition of Second Chance Month, we dive back into the data to reveal how post-prison job quality has changed in recent decades.
Insights on Post-Prison Job Quality
Our last article showed that fewer than half of individuals exiting North Carolina state prisons find employment within a year after release. Despite returning home to one of the tightest labor markets on record, individuals released from prison in 2021 had a lower rate of employment than those released back in the late 1990s.
Not only is it hard to find a job after prison, but finding a good job has also gotten more difficult over the past 24 years. Individuals who were fortunate enough to find employment after leaving prison in 2021 earned a median of only around $7,300 per year [Figure 1]. Although a tight labor market helped lift the wages of the formerly incarcerated in recent years, earnings after prison remained lower in 2021 in inflation-adjusted terms than they were in 1999. Moreover, earnings after prison were even lower than the federal poverty line of $12,900 and far below the statewide median of $32,700 in 2021.
Figure 1
Formerly incarcerated workers are earning lower wages in part because they’re now working in lower-paying sectors. In 1999, individuals exiting prison were just as likely to find employment in the higher-paying Construction sector as they were in the lower-paying Accommodation and Food Services sector [Figure 2]. Since then, the share employed in Accommodation and Food Services has increased, while the share employed in Construction has declined. By 2021, only 8% of those who found work after prison were employed in Construction, compared to 24% in Accommodation and Food Services. According to Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) for North Carolina, Construction jobs in North Carolina pay a median of around $47,300 per year, compared to $25,300 for Accommodation and Food Services jobs.
Figure 2
You can access these data—and much more—using our NC-RORS dashboard. Stay tuned to the LEAD Feed for more insights on post-release employment from NC-RORS and the North Carolina Common Follow-up System.