Exploring the effect and influential factors of labor education in universities contributes to accurately grasping the direction and improving the quality of labor education in universities. This study, based on the data of questionnaire survey of 19 universities in Tianjin, fi nds that labor education in universities is still in its primary stage, with labor cognition as its initial power source, and the oretical teaching and professional practice as its key elements. Moreover, teachers' subject and professional literacy and labor literacy affect the effectiveness of labor education; the practice base and management system are indispensable for labor education, and assessment and evaluation are the means of guarantee for the effectiveness of labor education; campus labor culture also has an important impact on the effect of labor education. The researchers propose that in the new stage of labor education, it is necessary to strengthen the internal drive of individuals, the ability of universities in self-organizing, as well as its ability of support and safeguard to combine "learning by doing" and "doing by learning"; it is also essential to enrich labor education cognition, accelerate professional teacher training, promote diversifi ed and integrated labor education, improve assessment and evaluation system, and create special labor education.