Where did the soldiers go? The effects of military downsizing on college enrollment and employment

This paper examines how the military drawdown in the early 1990s influenced aggregate trends in employment and college enrollment, evaluating whether the loss of military jobs resulted in observable increases or decreases in employment rates and/or college enrollment rates. Contrary to the expectation of worsening employment among black men in particular, the drawdown had little effect on employment. However, changes in military service did have a considerable impact on college enrollment among black men. The loss of military jobs was actually associated with substantial increases in college going; college enrollments among black men may have been as much as 10% points lower had they served in the military at the same levels observed in the early 1980s.