Overall legal employment for the Class of 2018 improved somewhat

Despite poor, and in some cases declining, bar passage rates in many jurisdictions over the last four years, we’ve seen steady overall improvement in the market for law school graduates, and the Class of 2018 is no exception. All trends are fairly positive, even if small, and even if some of those are driven by shrinking class sizes. Below are figures for the ABA-disclosed data (excluding Puerto Rico’s three law schools).

	Graduates	FTLT BPR	Placement	FTLT JDA
Class of 2012	45,751	25,503	55.7%	4,218
Class of 2013	46,112	25,787	55.9%	4,550
Class of 2014	43,195	25,348	58.7%	4,774
Class of 2015	40,205	23,895	59.4%	4,416
Class of 2016	36,654	22,874	62.4%	3,948
Class of 2017	34,428	23,078	67.0%	3,121
Class of 2018	33,633	23,314	69.3%	3,123

Placement in bar passage-required jobs continued to improve, and graduates shrank. That put placement in full-time, long-term, bar passage-required jobs up to 69.3% (excluding school-funded positions). Unlike recent years, we also saw a small increase in J.D.-advantage position placement.

We can also compare the Class of 2018 to the Class of 2013—a recent high-water mark in total graduates and bar passage-required jobs (even if the percentage placed in those jobs was relatively low). We can look at placement by firm size, and by industry.

FTLT	Class of 2013	Class of 2018	Net	Delta
Solo	926	313	-613	-66.2%
2-10	6,947	4,999	-1948	-28.0%
11-25	1,842	1,689	-153	-8.3%
26-50	1,045	1,020	-25	-2.4%
51-100	846	821	-25	-3.0%
101-205	1,027	1,002	-25	-2.4%
251-500	1,041	949	-92	-8.8%
501+	3,978	4,749	771	19.4%
Business/Industry	5,494	3,085	-2409	-43.8%
Government	4,360	3,860	-500	-11.5%
Public Interest	1,665	1,504	-161	-9.7%
Federal Clerk	1,259	1,174	-85	-6.8%
State Clerk	2,043	2,075	32	1.6%
Academia/Education	490	302	-188	-38.4%

The sharp demise of sole practitioners and small law firm placement is significant. Last year, I noted that placement in these positions might be the most at-risk when bar passage rates decline. Also of note is the decline in “business” jobs, which were typically J.D.-advantage positions and less desirable for graduates. Note, too, the continued rise of big law jobs—up nearly 800 placements since the Class of 2013. There had been some speculation during the recession that those jobs might be disappearing and that alternative positions would be needed for future classes, but this seems to be the healthiest market.

We can also compare the year-over-year placement in these job types, which are perhaps more volatile but still illuminating.

FTLT	Class of 2017	Class of 2018	Net	Delta
Solo	392	313	-79	-20.2%
2-10	5,145	4,999	-146	-2.8%
11-25	1,628	1,689	61	3.7%
26-50	953	1,020	67	7.0%
51-100	779	821	42	5.4%
101-205	956	1,002	46	4.8%
251-500	983	949	-34	-3.5%
501+	4,569	4,749	180	3.9%
Business/Industry	3,241	3,085	-156	-4.8%
Government	3,812	3,860	48	1.3%
Public Interest	1,419	1,504	85	6.0%
Federal Clerk	1,151	1,174	23	2.0%
State Clerk	1,984	2,075	91	4.6%
Education	303	302	-1	-0.3%

Even year over year, we saw placement in large firms increase 180 positions, while solo and firms of 10 or fewer attorneys decline by over 220 positions.