Internships play a key role in the production of inequality in the U.S. labor market, yet are often unobserved in analyses of youth employment. This study makes two empirical contributions to the study of internships. First, I use nationwide data from the 1994–2017 College Senior Survey to evaluate the association between internship participation and individual and institutional markers of privilege over time, net of grades, college major, and demographic controls. Second, I test if disparities in internship participation narrowed, persisted, or widened over three decades, independent of controls. Results indicate that internship participation has more than doubled since the mid-1990s, marking a period of rapid internship expansion, but these gains were not equal for all students. Those with the highest family income, with college-educated parents, from the most selective colleges, and from private colleges were consistently more likely to participate. Further, these internship participation gaps persisted or widened over time. Findings indicate that internships follow similar patterns of stratification as formal credentials, despite their more ambiguous nature. They also suggest that persistent barriers to internship participation remain for less-privileged students.
Carrie L. Shandra (Thu,) studied this question.