Heavy drinking in college lowers job prospects later: Study

Do you know drinking habits formed in college may impact future careers? Researchers have found that heavy drinking six times a month could lower chances that a new college graduate will land a job by 10 per cent.

"The manner in which students drink appears to be more influential than how much they drink when it comes to predicting the likelihood of getting a job upon graduation," said study co-author Peter Bamberger of Tel Aviv University in Israel.

Each individual episode of student binge-drinking during a month-long period can lower the odds of attaining full-time employment upon graduation, said the study published in the Journal of Applied Psychology.

"Binge-drinking" is defined as ingesting four or more alcoholic drinks within two hours by a woman and five or more alcoholic drinks within two hours by a man, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism in the US.

The research found that a non-binge pattern of drinking does not adversely impact job search results unless and until their drinking reaches binge levels.

Data for the study was provided by 827 individuals who graduated in 2014, 2015, and 2016 from Cornell University, the University of Washington, the University of Florida, and the University of Michigan in the US.

"A student who binge-drinks four times a month has a six per cent lower probability of finding a job than a student who does not engage in similar drinking habits. Those students who drank heavily six times a month increased their unemployment probability to 10 per cent," Bamberger said.