The National Longitudinal Surveys (NLS) are a set of surveys designed to gather information at multiple points in time on the labor market activities and other significant life events of several groups of men and women. For more than 4 decades, NLS data have served as an important tool for economists, sociologists, and other researchers.

NLS General Overviews

 

NLS News Releases

Number of Jobs, Labor Market Experience, and Earnings Growth: Results From A Longitudinal Survey

June 27, 2008

The average person born in the later years of the baby boom held 10.8 jobs from ages 18 to 42, with most of these jobs held from ages 18 to 27. Although job duration tends to be longer the older a worker is when starting the job, they continued to have large numbers of short-duration jobs as they approached middle age. More...
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Current

  • January 23, 2008: America's Youth at 20: School Enrollment, Training and Employment Transitions between ages 19 and 20 [NLSY97 Round 9] (HTML) (PDF)

Archived

 

NLS Tables

  • Average number of jobs started by individuals from age 18 to age 42 in 1978-2006 by age and sex (PDF 5K)

  • Distribution of number of jobs held by individuals from age 18 to age 42 in 1978-2006 by educational attainment, sex, race, Hispanic ethnicity, and age (PDF 5K)

  • Number of unemployment spells experienced by individuals from age 18 to age 42 in 1978-2006 by age, sex, race, and Hispanic ethnicity (PDF 5K)

  • Number of unemployment spells experienced by individuals from age 18 to age 42 in 1978-2006 by educational attainment, sex, race, and Hispanic ethnicity (PDF 5K)

 

NLS Data

 

NLS Publications

General publications

  • NLS Handbook (2005)
  • "NLS News" Newsletter --This quarterly newsletter includes information about new data releases, error notices, completed NLS research and other information of interest to researchers.

Technical Manuals at NLSinfo.org

NLS Publications

 

Frequently Asked Questions

 

NLS Special Notices

  • NEW To receive email messages alerting you to NLS product updates including the NLS News newsletter, user conferences, data changes and important NLS publications please sign up at http://www.bls.gov/nls/nls_subscribe.htm.
  • NLSY97 Round 9 Press Release: America's Youth at 20: School Enrollment, Training and Employment Transitions between ages 19 and 20 (HTML) (PDF)

 

 

Contact Us

NLS Contacts

E-mail: (NLS_INFO@bls.gov)
(NLS_INFO@bls.gov)
Phone: (202) 691 - 7410

Email updates: To receive email updates about NLS data visit:
www.bls.gov/nls/nls_subscribe.htm

Technical Help: For help with NLS data downloads, software, or NLSinvestigator:
(usersvc@chrr.osu.edu)
(usersvc@chrr.osu.edu)
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