Earnings of Kansas State University Agricultural Graduates: 1978-1988

Survey data were utilized to identify salary determinants of agriculture graduates at Kansas State University. Findings include a secular decline in real annual starting salaries for Bachelor of Science degree holders. Salary determinants include major field, double major, job location, type of occupation, grade point average, sex, marital status, and highest degree earned. Implications for teaching, advising, and curricula change are discussed. Key words: college of agriculture, earnings, labor markets. Faced with declining enrollments, colleges of agriculture must determine the future direction of instructional programs (Schuh, Conner). In order to respond appropriately to evolving labor market conditions for agriculture graduates, in-formation on the college and career experiences of agricultural alumni must be analyzed. Most previous studies of labor markets for agricul-tural degree holders concern Ph.D. recipients only (Broder and Ziemar, Strauss and Tarr, Davis, Melichar, Schrimper, Huffman and Orazem). Although the Ph.D. market is of direct concern to professional agricultural economists, it is im-portant to study the labor markets of other ag-ricultural alumni as well. Previous research on the determinants of undergraduate agricultural alumni salaries includes Broder and Deprey; and Preston, Broder, and Almero. The purpose of the present study is to analyze data on college and career experiences of agricultural graduates at Kansas State University (KSU) from 1978 t