Objective This study examines how trajectories of depressive symptoms from the age of 16–25 are related to early adult education and employment outcomes in Canada and the United States.

Methods Data came from the Canadian National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (n=2348) and the American National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 Child/Young Adult Survey (n=3961). Depressive symptom trajectories from the age of 16–25 were identified separately for each country using growth-mixture modeling, and linked to respondents’ education and employment status (working with a post-secondary degree; working with no degree; working with a high school degree; in school; and, not in employment, education, or training i.e., NEET), and part/full-time employment (less than 30 hours/week, 30–40 hours/week, more than 40 hours/week). We assessed the association of depressive symptom trajectories with these outcomes using multivariable multinomial logistic regressions, calculating the adjusted predicted probability of each outcome using marginal standardization.

Results In both countries four similar depressive symptom trajectories were identified: low-stable, increasing, decreasing, and first increasing then decreasing symptoms (i.e., mid-peak). In both countries, increasing, decreasing, and mid-peak trajectories were associated with higher odds of working with low educational credentials, and/or NEET relative to low-stable trajectories. In Canada, however, all trajectories had a higher predicted probability of either being in school or working with a post-secondary degree than the other outcomes; in the USA, all trajectory groups were most likely to be working with a high school degree. In the USA but not in Canada, increasing and decreasing trajectories were associated with higher odds of part-time work than full-time work.

Conclusions Higher levels of depressive symptoms during the transition to adulthood are associated with working with no or low credentials, NEET, and working part-time in young adulthood. Country-level differences may modify the influence of depressive symptoms.