Insights on Post-Prison Job Quality from the NC Reentry Outcome Reporting System

Article by NC Department of Commerce, Labor & Economic Analysis

04.15.24

Last November, we used data from the North Carolina Reentry Outcome Reporting System (NC-RORS) to highlight the employment outcomes of individuals exiting prison. This month, in recognition of Second Chance Month, we dive back into the data to reveal how post-prison job quality has changed in recent decades.

Our last article showed that fewer than half of individuals exiting North Carolina state prisons find employment within a year after release. Despite returning home to one of the tightest labor markets on record, individuals released from prison in 2021 had a lower rate of employment than those released back in the late 1990s.



Not only is it hard to find a job after prison, but finding a good job has also gotten more difficult over the past 24 years. Individuals who were fortunate enough to find employment after leaving prison in 2021 earned a median of only around $7,300 per year [Figure 1]. Although a tight labor market helped lift the wages of the formerly incarcerated in recent years, earnings after prison remained lower in 2021 in inflation-adjusted terms than they were in 1999. Moreover, earnings after prison were even lower than the federal poverty line of $12,900 and far below the statewide median of $32,700 in 2021.

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