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With over 300,000 graduates of 2005 being represented by the National Graduates Survey, educational and labour market pathways were analyzed for the graduating class of 2005 and compared with the previous NGS graduating class of 2000. This enabled an overall analysis of employment patterns, unemployment levels, earnings, use of student loans, level of debt and further education. It also provided information about graduates who undertook co-operative education or education outside of Canada as part of their program.

Females from the Class of 2005 made up the majority of graduates at the college, bachelor and master levels and their proportion increased slightly across all levels except for the master level compared to the Class of 2000. Males continued to dominate in historically male-dominated fields of study such as Mathematics, computer and information sciences and Architecture, engineering and related technologies. Conversely, the proportions of females in traditionally female-dominated fields such as Nursing and Social and behavioural sciences have increased.

Although labour market conditions appeared to be fairly strong at the time 2005 graduates entered the labour market, higher proportions of them went back to school for further education compared to the graduating class of 2000. Moreover, almost one-fifth of 2005 bachelor graduates had previously completed university studies, resulting in a number of "lateral" movements within the postsecondary education system, and prolonging their time spent on higher education.

Labour market outcomes of graduates within fields of study, in terms of earnings and employment, improved as educational attainment rose. Furthermore, compared to 2000 graduates, 2005 graduates had higher earnings (in constant dollars). These higher earnings may suggest that 2005 graduates working full-time in 2007 had better labour market matches to their credentials, or that the wages paid in jobs available to individuals with a postsecondary credential rose since 2002. Despite higher earnings among 2005 graduates, there remained a gender earnings gap. Additionally, the distribution of earnings varied greatly across fields of study.

Students financed their education in diverse ways. About half of the 2005 graduates relied on either government or non-government student loans. The proportion of 2000 and 2005 graduates owing to both types of loans was roughly similar. However, graduates of 2005 were more likely to owe solely to non-government sources, and less likely to owe exclusively to government sources. Additionally, graduates of 2005 who owed only to non-government sources had higher average debt levels compared to graduates of 2000. The opposite was true for those owing to government sources only: they had lower average debt levels compared to graduates of 2000. More importantly, graduates had higher average debt if they owed to both sources. These findings may indicate that the attractiveness of loans from the two sources has changed, which merits further investigation. With a third of master graduates and over a quarter of bachelor graduates, a higher proportion of graduates of 2005 than 2000 had paid off their debt two years after graduation (to all sources). A quarter of all 2005 graduates reported difficulties repaying their government student debt. As expected, graduates with large debt loads were consistently more likely to report such difficulties.

At the bachelor level, participation in co-op programs is associated with more favourable labour market outcomes. Bachelor graduates with a co-operative educational experience had higher earnings, higher employment and full-time employment rates, and lower incidences of unemployment compared to graduates without such an experience. Moreover, bachelor graduates with co-operative experience were more likely to have paid off their debt (to any source) two years after graduation. However, graduates from a college co-op program had similar earnings and similar full-time employment rates compared to graduates without such experience. The value of co-operative education, which combines practical work experience with classroom learning, appeared to be recognized in the labour market for bachelor graduates and not college graduates two years after graduation.

Two years after graduation, the pay-offs from investments in postsecondary education varied by field of study. For example, at the bachelor level, graduates in Humanities had an average government debt load of just under $20,000, median earnings of $36,000 and a full-time employment rate of 75%. In contrast, graduates in Architecture, engineering and related technologies had an average government debt load of around $15,000, median earnings of $58,300 dollars and a full-time employment rate of 93%. This type of information provides insight into the employment and earnings potential of workers with specific types of postsecondary credentials as well as their capacity to borrow and pay back debt related to investments in their higher education.