Job-related Education and Training

Table 9. | Median weekly earnings of full-time workers who needed training to qualify for their current jobs and
who took training to improve their skills, January 1991
No qualifying Qualifying Training taken to | Qualifying training
Total employed training needed = training needed, | improve skills, no needed and
age 16 and older andno training | no training taken | qualitying training | training t
taken fo improve | to improve skills needed improve skills
skills
Median Median Median Median
Education level weekly weekly weekly weekly
and degree status earnings earnings earnings earnings
as as as
percent percent percent
Median Median Median | peresion| Median |.fmreaian| Medien | of median
weekly weekly weekly earnings weekly | cernings weekly earnings
earnings | of ail tull- |earmIng® earnings | of ati full-| °°°P!9%| of ait tull- }O8"TM"99| of all full-
time time time time
workers workers workers workers workers
aged 16 aged 16 aged 16 aged 16 aged 16
and older and older and older and older and older
Total employed, aged 16
andolder..... 00... .00ceec eee saga | 1000 | $314 714 | $436 992 | $420 95.5 | $566 | 126.9
Highest education level completed:
Fewer than 12 years........ 287 65.3 263 59.8 319 72.7 333 57 405 | 921
High school graduate... .. 374 85.2 314 15 380 86.5 396 90.0 465 | 105.9
4-3 years of college 459 | 1046 353 80.4 422 96.0 471 | 107.3 915 | 117.3
College graduate 639 | 1456 461 | 105.0 616 | 140.1 601 | 136.7 683 | 155.5
Occupations generally requiring a
college degrae:"
All education levels......... sot | 134.4 458 | 104.3 567 | 129.0 546 | 124.4 629 | 143.3
High school graduate or less... 469 | 1068 407 92.8 453 | 103.2 480 | 109.3 503 | 114.5
1-3 years of college sea | 119.3 483 | 110.0 495 | 1128 540 | 122.9 563 | 128.2
College graduate... 676 | 1538 604 | 137.5 654 | 149.0 669 | 1524 694 | 158.0
Occupations not generally requiring a
college degree:
All education levels... . 348 79.4 297 677 358 81.5 388 88.4 464 | 108.7
High school graduate or less 333 75.8 289 65.9 349 795 363 82.5 433 | 98.5
1-3 years of college 395 89.9 325 74.0 383 87.41 442 | 100.5 474 | 107.9
College graduate ......... 454 | 1033 390 88.7 381 86.8 458 | 104.1 581 | 132.3
Workers with college degrees in executive and managerial, professonal specialty, or technician occupation groups, as well as sales representatives and
sales supervisors, insurance adjusters and investigators, police officers, farm managers, and craftworker supervisors, are considered to be in jobs that generally
require a collage degree.
Source: Current Population Survey.

reported that they had had both kinds of training
eamed slightly more than college graduates with

neither type of training.

gree are higher than those of workers in jobs that
do not require a college degree. This is so, irre-
spective of whether or not the workers needed

No comparison by occupation and education
group of the earnings of those with and those with-
out the two types of training is possible, because
the distribution of educational attainment by oc-
cupation is skewed and the sample is too small to
obtain reliable data for all occupations.* To
obtain some measure of the occupational impact
on earnings, occupations were categorized by
whether a college degree was or was not re-
quired, using Bis categorizations developed for an
analysis previously completed.”*

The data presented in table 9 on earnings by
whether a college degree is or is not generally re-
quired for a job prompt two observations. First, for
all education groups, the earnings of workers in
occupations that generally require a college de-

34 Monthly Labor Review October 1993

training to get their job or took training to improve
their skills. Even with less education, workers in
occupations that generally require a college degree
have higher earnings than their counterparts in
occupations that do not generally require a college
degree. Also, college graduates in occupations that
generally require a college degree and who both
required training to qualify for their jobs and took
training to improve their skills receive the highest
compensation, about $130 a week more than those
with some college who took the same training and
about $90 a week more than college graduates in
occupations generally requiring a college degree
and who did not take either form of training.

The second observation prompted by table 9
relates to the premium paid college graduates who


Table 5. Projected annual average job openings, 1990-2005, and awards and degrees from institutional
education and training programs In related flelds, 1989-90

Annual

average Job
openings, | Total | Awards, Total | Bachelor's! Doctoral
Occupation 1900-2005: | degrees | curriculums} 1-!04 | associate| bachelor’s} F°0TCCS | proster'y| and first
growth plus! and =| ofundert | 84" | decrees | and higher! "@qUIFING | Gecregs | profes-

net awards year awards degrees | 4or5 ‘sional
t yeers degrees
needs

Total, all occupations'.................] 4,384,000 |2,887,465 531,443 375,452 473,645 | 1,506,925 | 1,066,511 | 328,260} 112,154
Executive, administrative, and managerial . . . 436,000 506,830 21,025 15,394 63,321 407,090 | 293,306 | 109,932 3,852

Managerial and administrative occupations 305,000 | 427,980 16,526 12,938 56,295 | 342,221 | 237,240 | 101,276 3,705
Communication, transportation, and

utilities operations managers 2,720 180 62 583 1,895] 1,207 667 24
Construction managers . 825 57 100 358 310 310 ° 9
Education administrators x 12,163 0 0 26| 12,197 27 | 10,091] 2,019
Financial managers 24,000 | 32,896 154 63 493] 32,120| 26,484 | 5,588 48
Food service and lodging managers . 23,000 | 14.837 3,751 1,871 4,932 4283) 4,125 187 1
Funeral directors and morticians : 1,000 4,460 36 751 594 73 79 0 0
Government chief executives and

legislators ...... 2,000 | 35,801 236 314 2,707| 32,544| 14,449 | 17,598 497
Industrial production managers . 6,000 | 6,449 203 216 1342] 4.688] 4,488 196 4
Marketing, advertising, and

public relations managers ...... 23,000 | 66,416 1144 sea | 2611] 62,073| 57,706 | 4,126 241
Allother managers and administrators .:| 200,000 | 254,473] 10,765 | 0,967 | 42,649| 192,092| 128,965 | 62.853 874

Management support occupations . 131,000 | 78,850] 4,499 | 2,456 | 7,026| 64,869] 56,066 | 8,656 147
Accountants and auditors . 38,000 | 57,646 4,452 1,978 | 5,828| 48,388) 45,038 | 3,290 60
Construction and building inspectors 2,000 | 2597| 2,492, 0 45 0 0 0 0
Management analysts .. - 7,000 7,704 28 345 715| 6616; 4818 | 1,778 20
Personnel, training, and labor relations

specialists . . 11,000 | 8,185 209 C) 291 7,685| 5462 | 2,156 67
Purchasing agents, axcept wholesale,

retail, and farm products . 7,000 1,437 2 69 146 1,220 748 472 CO)
All other management support workers .| 66,000 1341 316 64 1 960 0 960 0

Professional specialty occupations ........| 623,000 |1,120,063] 47,768 | 43,591 | 101,273] 927,431 | 618,835 | 205,295 | 103,301
Engineers . . 61,000 | 94,611 367 521 3,071 90,652] 62,652 | 23,108} 4,892
Architects and surveyors ......... 7,000 | 12,192 104 311 1,981 9796| 7,424] 2,941 31
Architects, except tendsrape and marine 4,000 | 10,480 at 232 1.776| 8391] 6,366 | 1,997 28
Landscape architects ... 1,000 1241 1 0 3 1,287 918 318 t
Surveyors . 2,000 474 22 79 202 168 140 26 2
Life scientists : 8.000 | 67,822 1,261 4,362 3.066] 59,133| 46664} 7,555] 4,914
‘Computer, mathematical, ‘and
operations research analysts . -| 32,000 | 96,592] 14,895 3,470 6072} 62,155| 44,698 | 15,749] 1,708
Actuaries bee ® 275 0 0 0 275 229 46 0
Systems Bnalysts and computer

Scientists . 28,000 | 64,421| 14,309 | 3,417 5.312] 41,383] 29,089 | 11,550 744
Statisticians . c) 1,317 0 ° 0 4,317 ‘457 671 189
Mathematicians and all othe

mathematical scientists ............, © | 19,080 586 53 760| 17,681] 13,988 | 2,967 726
Operations research analysts : 4,000 1,499 0 0 0 1,499 935 515 49

Physical scientists... 2... 0.22... cee 8,000 | 35,136 642 at 6082} 28,981/ 18513) 5660/ 4,208
Chemists . .. _ 3,000 | 12,417 7 5 166} 12,189) 9289) 1.711] 2,189
Geologists, ger hye, and

‘oceanographers .... 2,000 | 4,977 582 16 33] 4346] 2416 | 1,998 532
Meteorologist... . ® 623 0 0 0 623 360 198 65
Physicists and astronomers 1,000 7,640 2 10 7 7,551] 4,933 | 1,924] 1,294
All other physical scientists 2,000 | 9,479 1 o| 5a06/ 3672) 3,115 429 128

Social scientists : 10,000 | 216,121 2,447 158 | 8,492 | 205,024) 175,475 | 23,003| 6,546
Economists .... 2,000 | 29,198] 2,269 33 162] 26,744] 23.949 | 1,973 822
Psychologists . : : 6,000 | 68,651 2t 78 1,118] 67,434] 54,023 | 9.991] 3,420
Urban and regional planners : 1,000 | 3.348 5 0 49| 3294] 1,689 | 1/502 103
All other social scientists... 5.0.2... 4,000 | 114,924 152 47 7,173 | 107,552| 95,814 | 9537] 2,201
Social, recreational, and religious workers 34,000 | 61,634 1,117 | 4,120 | 3,829] 52,568] 26,958 | 17,346] 8,264
Lawyers and judicial workers... 28,000 | 44,314 556 1,195 871| 41,692] 1,581 | 2,686 37,425
Teachers, librarians, and counselors... 208,000 | 225,298] 6,913 4,533 | 9,431] 204.421] 115,966 | 81,346 | 7,109
Teachers, elementary .........4..- -| 48,000 | 64,514 6 82 1,198| 63,231] 50,566 | 12,577 88

See footnotes at end of table

Monthly Labor Review October 1993 25


Job-related Education and Training

training. In all, almost 95 million sources of qualifying train-
ing were identified by 65 million workers.

"Information about training obtained in schools can be
compared because the educational attainment of workers is
known. The proportion of company and other types of train-
ing actually used cannot be determined because the total
training these sources provide is unknown.

"Shelley, “The future of jobs for college graduates.”

'S How Workers Get Their Training, Bulletin 2226 (Bureau
of Labor Statistics, February 1985), reports on data collected
in the January 1983 Current Population Survey. The ques-
tions used to collect information on training in the January
1983 and January 1991 Current Population Surveys were vir-
tually identical.

"Much of the increase in training received from friends or
relatives and in other nonwork-related training is probably
attributable to a change in the January 1991 questionnaire, in
which the data from two sources are combined: (1) friends or
relatives or other nonwork-related training and (2) other. In
January 1983, only the former category was cited. The avail-
ability of the additional, specific category, “other,” may have
increased the number of responses for what had previously
been one source.

% Because individuals could have taken more than one
type of training, 58 million sources of training to improve
skills were identified by 47 million workers. See How Work
ers Get Their Training: A 1991 Update, table 46, p. 36.

> Blementary and secondary school teachers alone ac-
counted for 24 percent of all training to improve skills that
was obtained in 4-year college or longer programs; by con-

38 Monthly Labor Review October 1993

trast, they accounted for only 3 percent of employment.

» How Workers Get Their Training, table 45, pp. 51-56.

To the extent that individuals with greater ability acquire
more education and receive more training, the data may over-
state the impact of education and training.

>For example, regarding skew, college graduates are con-
centrated in the professional specialty; executive, administra
tive, and managerial; and technician and related support
occupations, and conversely, few persons with the least edur-
cation were employed in the occupation groups in which col-
lege graduates were concentrated. Regarding sample size, no
reliable data on the earnings of those with and those without
both kinds of training were available for groups other than
college graduates,

25 Workers with college degrees who are in the executive
and managerial, professional specialty, or technician occupa-
tion groups, as well as sales representatives and sales supervi-
sors, insurance adjusters and investigators, police officers,
farm managers, and craftworker supervisors, are considered
to be in jobs that generally require a college degree. See
Hecker, “Reconciling conflicting data,” p. 4.

The 1983 data on earnings are based on unpublished
tabulations of data from the January 1983 Current Population
Survey.

7’ See, for example, Anthony P, Carnevale, America and
the New Economy (Washington, American Society for Train-
ing and Development, 1991).

TM Jennifer M. Gardner, “Recession swells count of dis-
placed workers,” Monthly Labor Review, June 1993, pp. 14
2B.



Job-related Education and Training

Table 5.  Continued—Projected annual average job openings, 1990-2005, and awards and degrees from
Institutional education and training programs in related flelds, 1989-90
Annual
average 5
soon. Total | Awards, Total | Bachelor's Doctoral
‘Occupation 1990-2008: | degrees | curriculums | 1-4 | associate | bachelor’s | SOUT? | aisster’s | snd first
growth plus | and | ofundert | Y® | degrees |and higher! "°UITING | decrees | Profee-
ret awards |  yeor | awards degrees | 40°5 sional
years degrese
needs
Operators, fabricators, and laborers... 477,000 | 41,504| 35,935 | 4,507! 1.572 90 90 0 0
Machine setters, setup operators,
operators, and tenders ...... seen 129,000 | 1,164 810 81 184 86 86 0 °
‘Numerical control machine tool
operators and tenders ........-... 3,000 ° 0 0 0 0 ° ° 0
‘Combination machine tool setters,
setup operators, and tenders 4,000 0 0 0 0) 0 0 0 0
Machine too! cut-and-form setters,
operators, and tenders . 18,000 0 ° ° 0 0 0 0 0)
Metal-fabricating machine setters,
operators, and tenders .........-.. 4,000 ° o) 0 0 0 ° ° °
Metal- and plastic-processing machine
setters, operators, and tenders ...... 14,000 308 95 7 114 86 86 ° 9
Printing, binding, and related workers . . 13,000 401 263 70 68 0 9 ° 0
Printing press operators .......... 7,000 400 262 70 68 0 0 ° 0
Photoengraving and lithographing
machine operators and
photographers ........... 4,000 1 1 0 0 ° 0 0 0
All other printing, binding, and
related workers... . : 2,000 0) 0 ° ) ° 0 0 °
Textile and related setters, operators,
and related workers . . 26,000 0 ° 0 0 0 0 0) 0
Woodworking machine setters,
operators, and other related workers 5,000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Other machine setters, setup operators,
operators, and tenders . . | 42,000 454 452 ° 2 ° 0 0 0
Handworkers, including asse
fabricators ......... { 49,000 | 12,276} 9,333 | 2,666 277 0 ° 0 °
Welders and cutters 9000 | 12,276| 9,333 | 2,666 277 0 0 0 0
All other handworkers we 40,000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 °
‘Transportation and material moving
machine and vehicle operators . . 154,000 | 28,067] 25,192 | 1,760 4014 4 4 Cy 0
Motor vehicle operators 118,000 | 24,625] 24,171 631 23 0 0 0 0
Rall transportation workers ...... 4,000 0 ) 0 0 0 0 0 0
Water transportation and related workers 4,000 | 2,963 938 | 1,066] — 1,085 4 4 0 0
Material-moving equipment operators . 27,000 279 183 63 33 0 0 0 0
All other transportation and material-
moving equipment and operators . ... 1,000 ° 0 0 0 0 ° 0 °
Helpers, laborers, and material movers,
HANG Lee eveeeeeeeeeee weenie 145,000 ° 0 0 0 0 ° ° 0
Nonmatches of awards and degrees
with any occupation ...... 2.0... es 310,130| 29,452 | 29,478 | 141,630 | 109,570 | 102,442 ]| 5,630} 1,498
‘ Totals include degrees and awards that could not be matched with any occupation. The last entry in the stub identifies categories of nonmatches.
2500 or fewer.
Source: Occupational Projections and Training Data, Bulletin 2401 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1992).

vocational training, training from the Armed
Forces, or correspondence courses.'*

The proportion of workers who reported need-
ing training varied extensively by educational at-
tainment. Only 28 percent of those with fewer
than 12 years of education said that they needed
training to get their current jobs. This contrasts
with 84 percent for college graduates who said
that they needed such training. At 18 percent, in-
formal on-the-job training was the largest source
of training for persons with fewer than 12 years of
schooling who reported that they needed qualify-

30 Monthly Labor Review October 1993

ing training, but even that figure was significantly
below the 26 to 32 percent with informal on-the-
job training reported by the other education
groups. These data indicate that workers who are
not high school graduates are much less likely than
others to obtain jobs that require training.

There was also great variation in the proportion
of workers among the major occupation groups
who reported needing qualifying training. Not sur-
prisingly, professional specialty workers had the
highest proportion needing special skills or train-
ing, 92 percent; handlers, equipment cleaners, and



Table 5. _ Continued—Projected annual average job openings, 1990-2005, and awards and degrees from
Institutional education and training programs in related fields, 1989-90
Annual
pln a Total Awards, Total | Bachelor's) Doctoral
Occupation 1990-2005: | degrees | curricutums| 1104 | associate| bachelor’s| F0re® | mastery | and first
pan growth plus| and ofunder1 | year degrees | and higher| "eauiring | decreas | profes-
net awards year awards degrees | 40r5 sional
replacement years degrees
needs
Drafters 20... eee eeee . 14,000 | 14,725 4,707 4047 | 5,713 258 258 ) °
Science and mathematics technicians. 10,000 5,005 1,534 2,273 994 204 129 66 9
Technicians, except health, engineering,
and science... . veseseeef 52,000 | 65,952] 22.771 | 17,213 | 12,520 2,848 | 2,279 569 °
Aircratt pilots and flight engineers 5,000 9820] 4,353 3,747 844 876 508 368 0
Air traffic controllers. a 4,000 127 12 ° 92 23 23 0 °
Computer programmers 34,000 | 31,361| 13,719 9,243 7,058 1341] 1,144 197 0
Paralegals . . 6,000 | 14,044 4687 | 4,223 4,526 608 604 4 0
All other technicians. 6,000 ° ty) 0 0 0 0 o 9
Marketing and sales occupations ..........| 584,000 | 154,118] 106,967 | 24,879 | 15,297 6975| 6,521 452 2
Cashiers ......... : 129,000 389 ) 0 244 145 144 1 0
Insurance sales workers... 17,000 1,627 1,602 0 25 0 ° 0 °
Real estate agents, brokers, and
appraisers . ce 11,000 | 82,484} 67,221 | 13,527 622 4114 824 290 °
Securities and financial services sales
workers ...... se 7,000 3,205 759 712 1,304 430 428 2 °
Travel agents... feces 9000 | 24,317] 16119 | 5,483 | 2.399 322 293 29 0
Allother sales and related workers... 1] 411,000 | 42,096] 21.266 | 5.157 | 10.709/ 4964 4,892 130 2
Administrative support occupations,
including clerical... 654,000 | 157,387] 58,311 | 54,065 | 41,628] 3,383] 3,349 34 °
Adjusters, investigators, and collectors. . . 29,000 14 4 0 10 0 0 0 °
Communications equipment operators . .. 9,000 0 0 0 0 0 0 ° 0
Computer operators and peripheral
‘equipment operators . .... 6,000 | 19,645] 3953 | 5,142 5,155 995 387 8 0
Financial records-pracessing ecupations 67,000 | 26,692 7,775 | 7933 | 10.621 363 345 18 0
information clerks... . 62,000 1,103 302 794 7 0 0 0 0
Mail clerks and messengers .. 9,000 0 0 0 t) 0 0 0 0
Postal clerks and mail carriers . 14,000 0 0 0 0 0 ° 0 0
‘Material-recording, scheduling,
aispatching, and distributing operations ..| 66,000 57 55 ° 2 0 0 0 C)
Records-processing occupations, except
financial......... 0... ..| 34,000 0 0 0 ° 0 0 C) t)
Segretares, stenographer, and typists ...| 198,000) g4ea2] 31226 | 92873 | 19,902 4,431 | 1,430 1 0
Secretaries .... -| 116.000 | 53,770) 17,923 | 18717 | 15,816 1314] 1,314 0 0
Legal secretaries 15,000 | 7,387 3,379 2/374 1,890 14 14 0 t)
Medical secretaries... : 16,000 | 4,755 4,138 2/360 1,287 0 0 0 0
Secretaries, except legai and medical.| 85,000 | 41,658; 13,406 | 13983 | 12.969 1,300} 1,300 0 C)
Stenographers... : 3,000 2,952 503 4,710 713 26 26 0 0
Typists and word processors. 19,000 | 28,110] 12,800 | 12,446 | 2,773 9 90 1 0
Other clerical and administrative
Support workers ....................] 220,000 | 25,044 9996 | 7,323 | 6,531 1,194] 1,187 7 0
Bank tellers . : 19,000 | 2,074 639 797 616 22 22 0 0
Clarical supervisors and managers . 47,000 | 4,210 538 781 1,763 4128} 1,421 7 0
Data entry keyers, except composing . 41,000 4783] 3,521 1,018 244 0 0 0
Goneral office clerks ........... -| 85,000 3473) 2512 791 170 0 0 0 0
Teacher aides and educational assistants .| 32,000 151 0 225 3 3 0 °
All other clerical and administrative
Support workers...................{ 26,000 | 10,125 2635 | 3,936 | 3.513 a“ a 0 °
Service occupations ...............04, 882,000 | 287,062] 117,984 { 77.056 | 23,401] 18,621| 16,821 | 1,736 64
Cleaning and building service occupations,
except private household ... . 108,000 382 380 ° 2 0 0 0 °
Food preparation and service occupations :| 432,000 6411 4,268 688 1,455 0 0 0 0
Cooks, excapt short order . .. 52,000 3,297 1,179 688 1,430 0 0 0 0
Bartenders... cesses] 14,000 3114 3,089 ty) 25 0 0 0 0
Al other food preparation and
service workers ....-..............] 966,000 0 0 ° 0 0 0 0
Health service occupations.............] 84,000 | 72,216| 46,896 | 17,933 5.641 1,746 | 1,190 832 24
See footnotes at end of table.

Monthly Labor Review October 1993 27


Job-related Education and Training

Table 5. | Continued—Projected annual average job openings, 1990-2005, and awards and degrees from
institutional education and training programs In related flelds, 1989-90

Annual
average job
‘openings, | Totel | Awards, Total | Bachelors Doctoral
Occupation 1990-2008: | degrees | curriculums | 1! | associate| bachelor’s| S08 | tasters | and first
growth plus| and | cfunder1 | Y*"_ | decrees | and higher! @QUIrING | Georgy | profes:
net awards | year | “wards Gogrees | 40°5 ‘lonal
years degrees
needs
Teachers, preschool and kindergarten . . 14,000 7,569 79 241 736 6,513 4,880 1,616 17
Teachers, special education . 12,000 16,667 183 88 164 3 4 6,966 9,053 213
Teachers, secondary school . 58,000 81,513 653 2,455, 4,823 42,544 28,874 2,164
College and university faculty 32,000 4.731 oO oO 2 7” 525 163 1,862 2,704
All other teachers and instructors 33,000 29,764 5,926 1,592 2,301 19,944 7,156 11,453 1,335
Librarians, archivists, curators, and
related workers 5,000 4,744 35 75 12 4,522 84 4,397 41
Counselors ... 6,000 15,797 HW oO 98 15,668 3,607 11,514 ‘547
Health diagnosing occupation: 37,000 31,277 797 2,254 568 27,658 1,494 834 26,330
Dentists .. . 6,000 4,877 91 0 27 4,759 134 449 4,176
1,000 1,388 oO 0 18 1,370 252 17 1,101
27,000 21,557 706 2,254 402 18,195 855, 208 17,132
1,000 736 0 O O 736 5 56 675
Veterinarians and veterinary inspectors . 2,000 2,719 0 o 121 2,598 248 104 2,246
Health assessment and treating
‘occupations 105,000 125,163 3,425 13,594 44,480 63,664 48,724 13,037 1,903
Dietitians and nutritionists - 000 3,230 25 29 129 3,047 2,513 479 55
Pharmacists . 6,000 7,768 16 O 7 7,745 6,100 267 1,358
Physician assistants . . . 2,000 1,090 65 226 130 669 638 EL oO
Alegistered nurses . 78,000 90,580 1,847 11,024 40,911 36,798 29,668 6,797 333
Therapists ..... 17,000 22,495 1,472 2,315 3,303 15,405, 9,805, 5,443 157
‘Occupational therapists 2,000 2,597 0 7 132 2,388 2,009 379 O
Physical therapists ... 6,000 4,832 o 110 269 4,453 3,532 919 2
Recreational therapists 2,000 2,191 170 632 1,008 381 363 18 0
Respiratory therapi: 3,000 2,403 46 1,145 1,194 18 18 oO 0°
Speach-language pathologis
and audiologists 3,000 5,873 oO 0 22 5,851 2,839 2,920 92
All other therapists. 1,000 4,599 1,256 351 678 2,314 A 4,207 63
Writers, artists, and entertainers . 55,000 105,825, 8,893 12,734 75,137 63,238 10,986 913
Artists and commercial artists . 10,000 27,263 1,299 4,001 20,100 17,017 2,935 148
Athletes, coaches, umpires, and referees 1,000 2,268 o 0 ) oO oO 0
Dancers and choreographers beeen eee (2) 1,067 110 39 833 638 187 8
on ‘ 11,000 21,685 5,149 4,344 10,364 9,880 462 22
eee 7,000 13,126 21 680 10,781 6,935 3,263 583
camera operators os 5,000 1,737 274 691 52 52 °
Producers, directors, actors, and
entertainers... deeeenee 4,000 14,357 371 1,791 2,294 9,901 7,991 1,811 99
Public relations specialists and
publicity writers . §,000 1,922 0 ) 9 1,913 1,804 109 °
Radio and TV ‘announcers. and
Mewscasters ©... . 6... eee eee eee 2,000 7,721 442 vy 339 6,940 6,634 294 12
Writers and editors, including technical
writers 8,000 14,659 10 59 337 14,253 12,287 1,925 41
All other pr ional rke 32,000 14,078 6,183 149 596 7,150 5,448 1,644 58
Technicians and related support occupations 183,000 212,767 51,291 70,983 63,867 26,626 19,055 4,346 3,225
Health technicians and technologists .... . 79,000 71,804 10,432 33,341 13,260 14,771 8,139 3,423, 3,209
Clinical lab technologists and technicians x : 957 852 : 3122] 2.814 205 103
Dental hygienists 4,000 4115 14 241 3,140 720 703 17 0
Emergency medical technicians . 3.000 | 3111| 1,812 972 ‘321 6 8 0 0
Licensed practical nurses . 29,000 25,984 2,463 22,729 617 175 169 6 OY)
Medical records technicians 3,000 | 3.073 494 10 | 1,120 649 639 10 0
Nuclear medicine technologists . 1,000 478 3 130 205 140 140 ° 0
Opticians, dispensing and measuring . 3,000 835 197 7 461 0 0 0 0
Radiologic technologists and technicians 9,000 5,844 81 1,884 3,492 387 374 13 0
Surgical technologists ..........--... 2,000 | 2,806 442 | 1,854 210 () 0 0 0
All other health professionals,
pareprofessionals, and technicians....| 16,000 | 19,001 3.960 | 3692 | 1,768] 9,672] 3204] 3,172] 3,108
Engineering and sclence technicians and
technologists 52,000 | 85,611| 18,088 | 20,429 | 38,087) 9,007] 8,637 354 16
Engineering technicians 28,000 65,881 11,847 14,109 31,380 8,545 8,250 288 7

‘See footnotes at end of table.

26 Monthly Labor Review October 1993



Table 5.  ContInued—Projected annual average Job openings, 1990-2005, and awards and degrees from
Institutional education and training programs In related fields, 1989-90

Annual
cpaninge, Total | Awards, | sg Tota! | Bachelors Doctoral
Occupation 1990-2005: | degrees | curtculume| 1 Associate} bachelor's | 2006 | tastgrg| and first
growth plus} and ‘otunder1 | year degrees | and higher! Tequiring | Georees | profee-
net awards year awards degrees | 40r5 ‘sional
replacement yeare degrees
needs
Mechanics, installers, and repairers . . 160,000 91,758 39,033 38,193 13,667 865 B48 15 2
Communications equipment mechanics,
installers, and repairers ...... . 1,000 0 Oo 0 c) oO oO 0 0
Electrical and electronic equipment
mechanics, installers, and repairers . . 16,000 18,722 7,558 8,341 2,644 179 179 oO oO
Data-processing equipment repairers . . . 4,000 7,540 3,424 3,040 1,074 2 2 ° oO
Electrical power line installers
and repairers .....-...........0.05 4,000 4,058 2,721 1,098 237 2 2 o 0
All other electrical and electronic
equipment mechanics and repairers . . . 8,000 7,124 1,413 4,203 1,333 175 175 to) oO
Machinery and related mechanics,
installers, and repairers ............. 49,000 4,426 824 948 2,244 410 408 2 Oo
Vehicle and mobile equipment mechanics
and repairers . . eae 65,000 40,227 19,891 16,055 4,043 238 233 4 1
Aircraft mechanics and engine
Specialists ....... 5,000 §,203 2,869 1,697 631 6 6 Oo) 0
Automotive body and related repairers 9,000 3,806 1,256 2,308 242 oO O 0 0
Automotive mechanics ........ 33,000 19,218 8,723 8,140 2,355, oO oO 0 oO
Bus and truck mechanics and diesel
engine specialists ..... 11,000 6,876 3,109 3,113 654 Qo 0 0 0
Farm equipment mechanics . . 2,000 753 165 209 147 232 227 4 1
Mobile heavy equipment mechanics . 4,000 0 0 0 oO 0 i) 0 oY)
Motorcycle, boat, and smalt-engine
mechanics 1,000 4.371 3,769 588 14 oO 0 ° to)
‘Other mechanics, installers,
and repairers 6.6... eee 29,000 28,383 10,760 12,849 4,736 38 28 9 1
Coin and vending machine servicers
and repairers... . . ® 59 23 36 0 0 0 0 0
Electromedical and biomedi
‘equipment repairers ..... . e 71 ° 87 481 3 3 ° °
Heat, air conditioning, and refrigeration.
mechanics and installers............ 6,000 14,139 6,691 5,987 1,455, 6 6 oO 0
Home appliance and power too! repairers| 2,000 1,387 255 1,116 16 0 °o to) oO
Musical instrument repairers and tuners . iv) 142 ° 138 4 ° Oo 0 0
Office machine and cash register
servicers ..... 6. 2,000 280 54 202 24 o 0 0 o
Precision instrument repairers 1,000 527 9 178 326 14 4 9 1
Watchmakers . e 85 4 80 1 oO 0 0 co)
All other mechanics, installers,
and repairers . 18,000 11,193 3,724 5,025 2,429 15 15 0 0
Production ‘occupations, precision eee 98,000 20,773 9,755, 6,701 3,370 947 B47 100 °
Assemblers, preci: . 8,000 vy) 0 oO oO oO ) 0 i)
Food workers, precision . . 8,000 298 156 137 5 te) i) 0 tt)
Inspectors, testers, and graders,
precision 16,000 to) o 0 0 oO 0 o 0
Metal workers, precision 31,000 8,599 3,393 4,113 1,092 1 1 oO 0
Jewelers and silversmiths 2,000 636 481 108 47 0 ° 0 0
Sheet metal workers and
duct instaliers......... . rr 9,000 386 59 320 7 tt) o 0 oO
Tool and die makers .... 4,000 559 40 325 193 1 1 ° Oo
All other precision metal workers 16,000 7,018 2,813 3,360 845 0 0 Oo 0
Printing workers, precision .... 7,000 5,104 1,578 1,530 1,723 273 273 te) 0
Textile, apparel, and furnishings
workers, precision . 9,000 1,255] - 563 9394 166 132 132 0 °
Woodworkers, precision 9,000 478 12 319 44 3 tC) 3 Oo
Other precision workers . 10,000 5,039 3,953 208 340 538 441 7 to)
Dental lab technicians, precision . . 2,000 592 115 204 267 6 1 5 0
Optical goods workers, precision 1,000 84 3 0 61 0 oO 0 i
All other precision workers. 6,000 4,383 3,835, 4)- 12 532 440 92 0
Plant and system occupations . 10,000 796 573 40 162 21 14 7 0

‘See footnotes at end of table.

Monthly Labor Review October 1993 29


Alan Eck

Alan Eck is an economist in
the Office of Employment
Projections, Bureau of
Labor Statistics.

Job-related education and training:
their impact on earnings

A worker’s education and an appropriate job

requiring education or training are significant determinants
of earnings; qualifying training and training taken

to improve skills play different roles in the workplace,

but both contribute to greater earnings

n the 1980’s and early 1990’s, a long-term

decline in real average earnings of many U.S.

workers, a trade deficit, and reductions in
manufacturing employment growth became pub-
lic concerns. The notion was bandied about that
both education and job training would have to be
strengthened in order for the United States to im-
prove the economic status of its workers, as well
as its competitive position in the global market-
place. The following excerpts from published
sources are illustrative of official concern about
the situation:

The quality of the U.S. workforce matters now
more than ever. Well-trained, motivated workers
who can produce high quality goods and services at
low cost help enhance industrial productivity and
competitiveness and keep American living stan-
dards high. In today’s international economy, work-
ers must be prepared to change the way they do
their jobs in order to capture the benefits from rap-
idly evolving technology. Training goes hand-in-
hand with productivity, quality, flexibility, and au-
tomation in the best performing firms.'

Our nation is facing a major crisis in education,
one larger and more significant than was realized
even a few short years ago... .

‘What is required are far more Americans who
can understand mathematical and scientific prin-
ciples and can apply them to everyday problems
on the factory floor and in the executive suite.
What is required are far more Americans who can

read and understand complex technical material—
and use that knowledge to perform new tasks.
What is required are more Americans who can
work in teams to identify and solve problems with-
out relying on direct supervision or rigid rules.
What is required are far more Americans who can
converse in foreign languages and be cognizant of
events beyond our borders. What is required are
for more Americans who can live and work effec-
tively with people from diverse cultures and back-
grounds.?

Although essentially policy statements, these
excerpts reflect an uneasiness about the state of
U.S education and argue consistently for improv-
ing worker education and training. However, some
general views expounded on the relationship of
education to earnings and on how to improve our
education and job training systems have raised
anomalies. For example, if the Nation has lost
ground to international competitors during the
past decade, why have postsecondary institution
al training in 2-year and bachelor’s degree pro-
grams in the United States expanded signifi-
cantly and educational attainment risen during
that decade? In addition, will improving the read-
ing, mathematics, and communication skills of our
secondary school students ensure that they subse-
quently enjoy increased earnings? This article at-
tempts to assess the data pertinent to these ques-
tions and other closely related subjects.

Monthly Labor Review October 1993 21


Job-related Education and Training

Table 7.

[Percent of total employed]

Workers who needed training and those who obtained training in schools, by
educational attainment, January 1991

School
Post-
Workers High Junior | 4-year
Total who Total | choo! | tah college or
Education level employed | needed tn} voca- | school | ortech- | longer
training | pemane tlonal voce nical | college
3 | training taining institute | program
Total employed, aged 16
and older . . 400.0 56.7 32.1 3.9 27 77 18.8
Highest education level
completed: ....... wees
Fewer than 12 years ... 13.5 3.8 6 2 a A ()
High school graduate ..... 39.5 18.3 5.9 24 1.3 24 4
1-3 years of college... . 22.1 14.0 79 1.0 a 43 24
College graduate ........ 24.7 20.7 17.7 3 4 VW 16.0

* Less than .05 percent
Note

individual entries in that catagory.

Source: Current Population Survey.

Because identification of mora than one source was permitted, the total percent of sources of training from schools
exceeds the percent who reported needing training. Also, because of rounding, total in each category may not equal sum of

that they needed training to get their current job
increased from 54 million to 65 million." This 20-
percent increase was roughly equivalent to em-
ployment growth over the 1983-91 period. In con-
trast, significant changes occurred among the
types of training reported on the two dates. Train-
ing reported by friends or relatives and other
nonwork-related training increased by 165 percent
during the period, more than 8 times the 19-per-
cent increase in employment, although such train-
ing remained a relatively small portion of the to-
tal.’? Qualifying training obtained from junior
colleges and technical institutes grew 79 percent,
formal company training programs 48 percent,
and 4-year or longer college programs 35 percent.
Informal on-the-job training increased 16 percent,
slightly less than the 19-percent increase in em-
ployment, while qualifying training obtained in
high school and post-high school vocational edu-
cation programs declined 4 and 14 percent, re-
spectively. Thus, training obtained in educational
institutions and formal company programs pro-
vided the bulk of the additional qualifying skills
needed by the work force during the 1980's.

Training to improve skills. In addition to train-
ing needed to qualify for their jobs, many workers
take training to improve their skills. In January
1991, 47 million workers, 41 percent of all em-
ployees, reported taking such training since ob-
taining their present job. (See table 8.)”°

Formal company training and informal on-the-
job training shared the distinction of being the
largest source of training to improve skills, with
about 15 percent of all workers identifying each of

32 Monthly Labor Review October 1993

them. Other sources of training—from friends,
relatives, and others—was the next largest cat-
egory, but, at 7 percent, was less than half the size
of either formal or informal company training.
With just under 5 percent each, 4-year or longer
college programs and junior colleges and technical
institutes were less prominent as sources of train-
ing to improve skills than they were as sources of
qualifying training. Relatively few persons identi-
fied post-high school or high school vocational
training as a source of training to improve skills.

For the major occupation groups, data on train-
ing to improve skills reflect the fact that the inci-
dence of such training increases with educational
attainment. Professonal specialty workers, who
generally require a college degree, had the highest
proportion who took this kind of training, 68 per-
cent; the group accounted for 23 percent of all
training to improve skills, but only 14 percent of
employment. Most training to improve skills—58
percent of the total taken in 4-year or longer col-
lege programs—accrued to workers in profes-
sional specialty occupations.”

Unlike the situation with qualifying training,
the proportion of workers reporting that they had
taken training to improve their skills increased sig-
nificantly—from 35 percent to 41 percent-—be-
tween 1983 and 1991.” The number of workers
reporting such training rose from 34 million to 47
million, a 39-percent increase, compared with a
19-percent increase in employment over the pe-
riod. Other types of training increased the fastest
(85 percent), followed by formal company train-
ing (69 percent). The number of workers reporting
that they had had formal company training grew



laborers had the lowest proportion, 20 percent.
College graduates who are in a job that requires
training are more likely than college graduates
who are in a job that does not require training to be
a professional specialty worker. Their numbers
underlie the high proportion of professional spe-
cialty workers who needed qualifying training.
Similarly, those with the least education who did
not need training are more likely to work as han-
dlers, equipment cleaners, and laborers than to be
in other occupation groups; thus, they are the rea-
son for the low proportion of those requiring
qualifying training for this occupation group.

To measure the utility of college training in the
labor market, one can compare the proportion of
employees who are college graduates with the
Proportion who are college graduates and who
also reported that they needed training to qualify
for their jobs.'* As shown in table 7, 25 percent of

employees were college graduates, but only 16
percent reported needing training obtained in a 4-
year or longer college program. This indicates that
about 1 in 3 college graduates may have acquired
training that is not being used in his or her current
job. Again, such a conclusion is consistent with
the results of another sis study.'’ A more diver-
gent pattern exists for workers with 1 to 3 years of
college. This group constitutes 22 percent of all
workers, but only about 1 in 5 of the group re-
ported needing training from a junior college or
technical institute, an indication that much of the
training received was not appropriate for the jobs
these workers obtained. Of course, the group also
includes those who started in a 4-year bachelor’s
degree program, but who did not complete it.
Between January 1983—the only other date
for which comparable data are available—and
January 1991, the number of workers reporting

Table 6. Workers who needed training to qualify for their current jobs and the source of training, by
educational attainment and occupation, January 1991
[Percent of category]
School Friends
Workers Post: Informal Corre- | OF rele-
Total | who | sora | High | high | Junior | 4-year cuery con-the- | Armed | spond-| tes oF
Education level employed | need ith school | schoo! | college | or training Job | Forces | ence |e work:
‘and occupationsl group training) .TM voce” | voce: | oF tech. longer training course | leted
tlonal al lege
training | training raining Institute | program raining
Total employed, aged
16 years andolder... | 100.0 | 567 | 321 39 27 7.7 | 188 | 124 a72 | 24 1 74
Highest education level
completed:
Fewer than 12 years .. | 100.0 | 278 41 16 WW 1 2 46 18.4 4 4 | 59
High school graduate . 100.0 | 462 | 150 60 32 53 11 | 116 264 | 24 10 | 72
1-3 years of college 1000 | 631 | 35.7 45 41 | 195 | 108 | 159 32.1 34 15 | 80
College graduate . . tooo =| age | 71.7 12 15 46 | 647 | 137 290 | 21 12 | 79
‘Occupational group:
Executive, administra-
tive, and managerial. | 100.0 | 71.9 | 485 3.0 20 a5 | 361 | 166 374 | 30 | 19 | 95
Professional specialty 1000 | 921 | 824 15 28 | 105 | 684 | 108 23 | 21 | 12 | 80
Technicians and related
su 100.0 | 855 | 612 48 80 | 236 | 260 | 164 309 | 48 { 12 | 90
Sales occupations .... | 1000 | 438 | 179 15 15 a1 | 11.0 | 132 255 40 | 13 | 7.0
Administrative suppor’. | 1000 | 546 | 31.1 | 108 33 | 103 as | 102 208 | 14 9 | 43
Service, except
protective service... | 100.0 | 338 | 124 18 37 52 17 58 17.0 8 3 | 64
Protective service
‘occupations ......., 100.0 | 61.1 | 245 18 a1 | 126 79 | 314 23.1 92 | 14 | 98
Farming, forestry,
andfishing......... | 100.0 | 280 a3 22 14 25 40 27 16.5 8 5 | 113
Precision production,
craft, and repair . 100.0 «| 614 | 194 57 37 a7 38 | 196 352 | 50 | 22 | 115
Machine operators,
assemblers, and
ins : se | 1000 | 977 76 28 15 29 1.0 90 25.0 x) 2] 50
Transportation and
material-moving
occupations... . 100.0 | 41.3 44 1.0 14 19 6 fwd 22.9 17 a | 102
Handlers, equipment
cleaners, and laborers | 100.0 | 19,7 26 14 3 a7 6 32 14.0 4 a | 34
Nore: Because identification of more than one source was permitted, the total percent of sources of training exceeds the percent who reported needing training.
Source: Current Population Survey.

Monthly Labor Review October 1993 31



Job-related Education and Training

Table 5. | Continued—Projected annual average Job openings, 1990-2005, and awards and degrees from
institutional education and training programs in related fields, 1989-90

Awards, Tota! | Bachelor's Doctoral
curtculums | 4 | associate! bachelor's} TO0TS*S | testers | and first
Occupation otunder1 | Yer  |"Gegrees | and higher| "@QUITING | Gecrgeg | Profes-
year | awards degrees | 40r5 ‘sonal
years degrees
Ambulance drivers and attendants,
except EMT's .. ia) 9,044 8,224 769 22 29 25 4 oO
Dental assistants 8,000 8,606 4,491 3,745, 361 9 ° 9 0
Medica! assistants . eee 10,000 23,796 13,376 8,557 1,843 20 0 20 0
Nursing aides and psychiatric aides wees 59,000 20,984 18,756 2,228 ti) 0 o oO Q
‘Occupational therapy assistants
and aides . . ® 855 0 55 800 ry 0 oO °
Pharmacy assistants 2,000 1,250 198 993 59 ° to) 0 oO
Physical and corrective therapy
assistants and attendants . 2,000 1,650 12 59 1,579 oO oO 0 0
All other health service ‘workers . 3,000 6,031 1,839 1,527 977 1,688 1,165 499 24
Personal service occupations 95,000 99,219 43,827 51,864 3,364 164 118 43 3
Amusement and recreation attendants . 8,000 598 598 Oo 0 0 oO oO Oo
Baggage porters and § belinops 1,000 oO 0 0 0 0 0 ° O
Barbers ..... 1,000 5,730 2,624 3,102 4 0 oO oO Oo
Child care workers wee 31,000 8,231 1,032 4,072 3,052 75 38 36 1
Cosmetologists an relate workers, 17,000 81,890 37, 108 44,587 202 ) ti) oO 0°
Flight attendants ..... . 6,000 103 0 41 ) 0 oO °
Homemaker-home health aides 29,000 2,667 2410 103 65 89 80 7 2
Ushers, lobby attendants, and
ticket takers: 2,000 oO ) oO 0 0 O QO 0
Private household workers 17,000 0 0 i) co) oO 0 Oo °
Firefighting occupations . .. 15,000 | 5,556] 3,001 77 | 1,616 162 156 6 )
Police and correction officers... 45,000 38,557 7,380 4,083 10,630 16,464 15,274 1,153 37
Correction officers . 12,000 9,238 1,949 229 1,944 5,119 4,645 474 i)
Police and detectives 33,000 29,319 5,431 3,854 8,689 11,345 10,629 679 37
Guards and other protective service
workers . 52,000 3,362 2,527 17 634 84 B82 2 0
Guards . 39,000 2,585 2,493 0 42 50 48 2 0
All other protective service workers eee 13,000 77 34 117 592 34 34 0 i)
All other service workers . 34,000 11,359 9,705 1,594 59 1 1 0 0
Agriculture, forestry, fishing, and
related workers . 90,000 14,547 4,356 1,946 2,956 5,289 4,366 713 210
Animal caretakers, except farm 5,000 892 643 28 158 63 63 0 oO
Farm operators and managers . 13,000 10,186 2,552 1,144, 1,729 4,761 3,900 677 184
Gardeners and groundskeepers,
except farm... .. . 33,000 3,468 4,161 774 1,068 465 403 36 26
All other agricultural, forestry,
and related workers ..... 39,000 1 oO oO 1 0 O 0 0
Precision production, craft, and repair
occupations 455,000 133,057 58,954 53,553 18,700 1,850 1,726 122 2
Biue-collar worker supervisors $4,000 oO Oo 0 oO oO
Construction trades... . 128,000 19,730 9,593, 8,619 1,501 17 17 i] Oo
Bricklayers and stone masons. 5,000 365 153 194 18 oO oO ° 0
Carpenters. 29,000 2,848 801 1,695 352 oO Oy) 0 oO
Carpet installers ... . 3,000 0 0 Oo o ° oO co) oO
Concrete and terrazzo finishers . 5,000 0 oO 0 oO 0 0 ° 0
Drywall installers and finishers 5,000 0 0 o ° oO oO 0 0
Electricians - 23,000 5,773 1,434 4,014 325 0 oO 0 0
Insulation workers 4,000 Oo ° 2 ° to) oO 0
Painters and paperhangers,
construction and maintenance . 16,000 457 132 316 9 0 Oo 0 0
Pipelayers and pipelaying fitters - 2,000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Plumbers, pipefitters, and steamfitters - 14,000 4,857 4,048 733 76 0 ° to) 0
Roofers . oO oO 0 0 0 oO oO 0
‘Structural and reinforcing metal workers - o i) 0 0 Oo 0 oO 0
All other construction trades workers: 5,428 3,025 1,667 719 7 17 0 o
Extractive and related workers,
including blaster ...... o 5,000 oO O Oo oO 0 0 o o
‘See footnotes at end of table.

28 Monthly Labor Review October 1993



Job-related Education and Training

On the other hand, there are many fields in
which the output of institutional training programs
is much less than the projected number of job
openings. Of course, for some occupations—for
example, cashiers—formal training may not be
needed, and what training there is can be learned
in a few hours or a few days on the job. For other
occupations, however, training is important. In
most construction crafts, and in many mechanic
and repairer occupations, the number of job open-
ings projected from 1990 to 2005 is much greater
than the number of education and training awards
received in 1989-90. For the construction crafts,
this is understandable, as many workers are
trained on the job, some in formal apprenticeship
programs. However, additional vocational train-
ing for construction occupations may provide
workers who lack the necessary skills with greater
job potential than other types of vocational train-
ing. Additional training may also be appropriate
for many other occupations where annual comple-
tions are far fewer than estimated job openings
and for some occupations that have no associated
training programs at all.

Utility of education and job training

The discussion in the preceding section afforded
a broad view of the relationship of the output of
our educational institutions, by field of training,
to the projected outlook in the job market, by oc-
cupation. Another view of the relationship of
education to the job market is provided in infor-
mation about the extent and utility of training for
individual workers. Such information was com-
piled from respondents’ answers to the questions
in the January 1991 Current Population Survey
about whether they needed specific skills or

training to get their current jobs.!’ Respondents
also were questioned on whether or not they took
training to improve their skills in their current
jobs. The responses provided information not
only about an individual’s view of the utility of
school-based training, but also about the utility
of formal and informal company training in the
current job and about other types of training.”
Data on earnings were analyzed to assess the
impact of the various sources of training.
Several significant findings emerged from the
analysis. First, the data may provide some support
for the results of an earlier BLs study which found
that many college graduates have acquired train-
ing that they are not using in their current jobs."
They may have acquired general skills that make
them more productive than workers with less edu-
cation, but they are not using training specifically
from their major field of study. Second, the results
of the analysis show the extent to which training is
used in the labor market in general, as approxi-
mately 2 out of 3 workers responded that specific
skills or training was needed to obtain their current
jobs or that they had taken training to improve
their skills. (Conversely, 1 in 3 responded that
qualifying training or training to improve skills
was not required to obtain his or her current job.)'*
Third, the data on earnings show clearly that the
job itself counts: at each of the four levels of edu-
cational attainment examined—college graduate,
some college, high school graduate, and fewer
than 12 years of schooling—those who said that
they required specific skills or training to get their
jobs received higher earnings than those at the
same education level who said that they did not
require any such skills to get their jobs. Moreover,
workers who required specific skills or training to
get their jobs and who also took training to im-
prove their skills through a formal company pro-

Table 4. Median annual income for full-time workers," by gram had higher earnings than those with the same
education level and sex, selected years level of education who improved their skills
through training at a school or informally while

(1991 dollars]

on the job. Finally, while data from this survey

Gender Fewer than 4 show—as do other data—that educational attain-
years of high Pra net od olin yours sf college ment is directly related to earnings, they also show
school that being in a job that requires skills is beneficial
for many workers, irrespective of their education
$26,462 $33,961 $38,117 $48,209 level
25,630 32,812 36,318 44,704 7
24,380 32,202 34,583, 42,754 te Ink 1991,57
22,657 30,174 34,104 45,454 Qualifying training. january 57 percent
20,306 27,620 S2,882 44310 of all workers reported that they needed specific
skills or training to get their current jobs. As shown
15,117 18,911 21,530 28,971 in table 6, informal on-the-job training, 4-year or
14,548 18,844 22,112 27,523 A
45,103 19,082 21,393 27,063 longer college programs, formal company train-
14,443 19,583 22,756 29,246 ing, training through junior colleges or technical
14,338 19,093 23,161 31,668 institutes, and training from friends or relatives or

other nonwork-related training were the most fre-
quently reported sources. Relatively few cited
high school vocational training, post-high school

text continues on page 30

' Workers aged 25 years and older, working year round.
Source: Current Population Survey, as adjusted by the cp-u-x1

24 Monthly Labor Review October 1993



have taken both qualifying training and training to
improve their skills in occupations not generally
requiring a college degree. While earning about
$110 a week less than college graduates who have
taken the same training in occupations generally
requiring a college degree, this group earns about
$100 a week more than those with the same train-
ing in occupations not generally requiring a col-
lege degree and who have had only some college,
and almost $200 a week more than college gradu-
ates in occupations not generally requiring a col-
lege degree and who have taken neither form of
training.

Examining 1991 earnings within each of the
educational attainment groups for those needing
training to qualify for their jobs and who also took
training to improve their skills provides an insight
into the impact of each source of the latter form of
training on earings. (See table 10.) For all four
education levels, persons reporting formal com-
pany training as the source of training to improve
their skills had the highest earnings.

Data on earnings for 1983 display patterns
similar to those observed in 1991.” In 1983, earn-
ings increased with education, and workers who
needed qualifying training or who took training to
improve their skills consistently earned more than
workers who did not. Similar to the 1991 survey,
those taking both types of training eamed about 50
percent more than those who took neither. Con-
sistent patterns between 1991 and 1983 also are
observed regarding occupations that generally re-
quired a college degree and those that generally
did not. Workers in all education categories in
occupations that generally required a college de-
gree earned more than those in occupations that
generally did not require a degree, and workers
needing qualifying training and who took training
to improve their skills earned more than those who
did not. Data for 1983 also show that workers who
needed qualifying training and who obtained
training to improve their skills in formal company
programs earned more than those who obtained
the latter training in schools or informal on-the-job
programs.

Job market changes

Information provided by workers about whether
they needed specific skills or training to qualify
for their current job or whether they took training
to improve their skills provides a richer measure
of the relationship of education and training to
earings than do data about educational attain-
ment alone. Workers in jobs that require qualify-
ing skills and that encourage the development of
skills through training have higher earnings at all
levels of education. With the recent emergence of
a global economy, however, increased competi-

tion from foreign firms is changing the distribu-
tion of goods and services produced by U.S. com-
panies, the technology used in their production,
the types of workers those companies need, and
the availability of jobs traditionally held by work-
ers with the least education. Data that show the
impact of these changes on the job market point up
the importance of jobs that require and encourage
training.

Table 11 presents information about employ-
ment, educational attainment, the utilization of
education and training, and earnings for full-time
workers for 1983 and 1991. Managerial and pro-
fessional specialty occupations experienced the
highest growth rate and the greatest increase in
employment share between the 2 years, while op-
erators, fabricators, and laborers ranked lowest
in each of these categories. Differences in worker
characteristics among these groups are striking. In
1991, managerial and professional specialty occu-
pations had the lowest proportion of full-time

Table 10. Median weekly earnings of
full-time workers aged16 and
older who needed training to
qualify for their current jobs
and who took training to
improve their skills, January
1991

Education level and Qualifying
source of training to Total training
improve skills needed

All educations levels:

All training taken to
improve skills... $524 $566
School. : 560 582
Formal company 579 605
Informal on the job 495 542
Fewer than 12 years:
All training taken to
improve skills . 363 405
School ... 351 405
Formal company . 463 497
Informal on the jab . . 346 385
High schoo! graduate:
All training taken to
improve skills . 434 465
School ..... 424 442
Formal company 493 508
Informat on the job . . 415 459
1-3 years of college:
All training taken to
improve skills .. 504 515
School 499° 504
Formal comp: 539 546
Informal on the job 494 507
College graduate:
Alltraining taken to
improve skills . 676 683
School ... 663 668
Formal company + | 724 734
Informal onthe job ......] 694 699
Source: Current Population Survey.

Monthly Labor Review October 1993 35


school before completing high school than in the
past. While many high school graduates are cited
as having inadequate reading, mathematics, and
science skills, and high school students are iden-
tified as having skills inferior to those of their
counterparts in many other countries, standard-
ized tests of reading, mathematics, and science
skills show that these have remained the same or
increased slightly over the past decade. The basic
skills of new high school graduates do not appear
to have changed, and those of some graduates in
the past, just as in the present, probably were
poor. What have changed are the demands of the
job market. Large numbers of high-paying pro-
duction jobs that required unskilled workers to
repeat simple tasks have been greatly reduced.
The workplace has been reorganized, and more
jobs now require reading, mathematics, and
communication skills.

There may be a need for a better match be-
tween educational programs and the requirements
of the workplace. Clearly, educational attain-
ment, as measured by years of school completed,
is related positively to earnings: workers having
higher educational attainment have higher average
earnings. However, education by itself does not
guarantee high income. For example, many work-

Footnotes

ers with college degrees indicate that they are em-
ployed in jobs that do not require special skills or
education and that their earnings are lower than
the earnings of college graduates in jobs that re-
quire specialized education or skills. And workers
with less education, but who are employed in jobs
that require special skills or training, earn as much
as college graduates who do not require training to
get their job. Consequently, the skill and educa-
tional requirements of a job have a major impact
on earnings. Thus, it is apparent that, to have a
great effect on earnings, the educational and skill!
requirements of jobs, as well as the education and
skills of workers, must be increased.

A final observation relates to the critical role of
employers, both in providing training and in using
it. Evidence suggests that, except for 4-year or
longer college programs, formal and informal
company training provides more workers with
their required job skills than any other source of
training. Employers also are the primary source of
training for workers who wish to improve their
skills in their current job. Combined with the train-
ing required to obtain a job, formal company train-
ing programs to improve the skills of workers have
more of an impact on increasing those workers’
eamings than does any other source of training. [7

‘Worker Training: Competing in the New International
Economy, Report No. ors-ITé-457 (Office of Technology
Assessment, September 1990), p. 3.

2 Report of the Task Force on Education, Educating
America, State Strategies for Achieving the National Educa-
tion Goals (Washington, National Governors’ Associati
1990), p. 7.

2 The Condition of Education, 1992 (National Center for
Education Statistics, 1992), p. 64

*Data for 1992 indicate that 12.4 percent of the labor force
25 years and older had less than a high school diploma, How-
ever, this figure does not appear in the table, because 1992
was the first year for a new definition describing educational
attainment in terms of the highest degree eamed, as opposed
to the number of years of school completed.

’The Condition of Education, 1992, p. 132. Data are cur-
rent per-pupil expenditures for education, in fiscal-year 1989
U.S. dollars. These data are for public expenditures only and
are not comparable to the data on public and private expend-
itures presented in table 3.

°The Condition of Education, 1992, pp. 42, 46, 48.

* See Occupational Projections and Training Data, Bul-
letin 2401 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1992), table 8, pp. 54~
70.

"The Classification of Instructional Programs is the De-
partment of Education’s taxonomic standard for Federal sur-
veys and State reporting of institutional data, as well as the
accepted guide for data reported to the Federal Goverment
by individual institutions and other educational providers.
Data in this article reflect the 1985 revision,

° Fields of study for about 310,000 degrees and awards
could not be matched with any occupation. See table 5 for

information about the types of degrees and awards that were
matched with various occupations, as well as those that could
not be matched.

‘See Occupational Projections and Training Data, table
6 for data on job openings and chapter 5 for information on
how data on replacement needs were prepared.

“The Current Population Survey is a monthly survey of
approximately 60,000 households conducted by the Bureau
of the Census for the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

® How Workers Get Their Training: A 1991 Update, Bul-
letin 2407 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, August 1992), pro-
vides an extensive analysis of the data on training that were
collected in the January 1991 Current Population Survey.

° See the following articles in the July 1992 Monthly La-
bor Review: Daniel E. Hecker, “Reconciling conflicting data
on jobs for college graduates,” pp. 3-12; and Kristina J.
Shelley, “The future of jobs for college graduates,” pp. 13-
21

“Because the survey asked, “Did you need specific skills
or training to get your current (last) job,” some individuals
may have reported only training obtained formally or infor-
mally in a structured setting and may not have reported infor-
mal training obtained while “learning by doing” in a previous
job. Others may not have regarded their college preparation
as training: there were, for example, doctors, teachers, den-
tists, and scientists who responded that they were not using
their school training in their jobs. The extent to which train-
ing may have been understated in these two ways could not
be determined.

"Because each respondent was permitted to identify more
than one source of training, the total sources of training iden-
tified exceeds the number of those who reported needing

Monthly Labor Review October 1993 37


Table 3. Expenditures per pupll In
public schools, selected
years, 1974-90
Public elementary | Public institutions.
Yoar ‘and secondary of higher
education’ education?

3,772 10,255
3,860 9,847
29 10,278

3,956

4,213 10,374
4,595 11,535
4,873 11,719
5,399 11,635

‘In constant 1990-91 dollars.
? In constant 1989-90 dollars. Expenditures are per
full-time equivalent student.

Source: Elementary and secondary school expendi-
tures —The Condition of Education, 1992 (National Center
for Education Statistics, 1992), p. 130. Higher education
expenditures—Digest of Education Statistics, 1992 (Na-
tional Center for Education Statistics, 1992), table 321,
p. 326.

learned in a secretarial or typing vocational pro-
gram can be used in a variety of clerical occupa-
tions. A few fields of study cannot be matched
with any related specific occupation. For ex-
ample, completion of bachelor’s degree pro-
grams in Russian or Japanese do not fit well with
any particular profession, even though the edu-
cation received can no doubt be applied in fields
of work involved with foreign trade or teaching,
(Of course, the latter would likely require an ad-
vanced degree, at least at the collegiate level.)’

After the training categories have been
matched with occupations or groups of occupa-
tions, the awards and degrees can be compared
with projections of job openings. Job openings re-
sult from employment growth and the need to re-
place individuals who leave an occupation. For
the purposes of this article, the measure of replace-
ment needs considers only persons who leave the
occupation permanently, not those who leave on a
temporary basis.'° However, during any given pe-
riod, there is a great deal of movement into, out of,
and between occupations. Moreover, the amount
of movement varies considerably among occupa-
tions, and it is very difficult to measure with any
degree of precision. For occupations in which
there is much turnover, the otal job openings may
be many times higher than the number of net job
openings. Thus, any comparisons between the es-
timates of net openings and training completions
should be made with great caution.

Obviously, comparisons of job openings with
degrees and awards are subject to many limita-
tions, including the following: (1) Many of the
matches between occupations and fields of
study result from subjective decisions that may

be erroneous. (2) The number of openings pro-
jected in an occupation is dependent on the ac-
curacy of estimates of projected employment
growth and replacement needs in that occupa-
tion. (3) Data about degrees and awards provide
information only about training obtained in
schools or other formal educational programs
and do not take into account, for example, train-
ing obtained in apprenticeship programs, in the
Armed Forces, or from private employers. (4)
Fields of study for about 310,000 degrees and
awards could not be matched with any specific
occupation. (5) Fields of study were considered
appropriate training for 260 occupations or oc-
cupation groups—only about one-half of the oc-
cupations in the BLs projections model. Because
there are no institutional training programs in
many occupations, the exclusion from the analy-
sis of a significant number of occupations is not
unexpected,

Despite these limitations, comparing the
number of completions of education and training
programs with the number of job openings due
to employment growth and replacement needs in
related occupations prepared as part of the BLS
Occupational Outlook Program may provide
some useful insights. Such an endeavor shows
that, overall, there were nearly 2.9 million awards
and degrees in 1989-90, compared with an esti-
mated 4.4 million job openings, on average, for
new entrants to the work force each year from
1990 to 2005. (See table 5.) That is, the number of
individuals currently completing training pro-
grams is about 65 percent of the average annual
number of job openings anticipated through the
1990's. Again, this proportion is not surprising,
given that many jobs do not require post-sec-
ondary school training.

Some individual occupations appearing in
table 5 show close matches between the pro-
jected needs of the workplace over the next dec-
ade and the current number of awards and de-
grees in related education and training programs.
Among these are engineers, optometrists, dental
hygienists and assistants, emergency medical
technicians, landscape architects, and aircraft
mechanics. In contrast, many occupations had
substantially more individuals trained during
1989-90 than the projected annual average num-
ber of job openings from 1990 to 2005 due to
employment growth and the need to replace
workers who leave the occupation permanently.
For example, the 23,949 bachelor degrees in
economics awarded in 1989-90 greatly exceed
the 2,000 job openings in the field that are pro-
jected to occur annually during the 1990-2005
period; however, collegiate training in econom-
ics may be useful indirectly for many entry-level
professional positions.

Monthly Labor Review October 1993 23


Job-related Education and Training

Education of U.S. workers

‘One statistic that is used to measure trends in edu-
cation is the educational attainment of workers.
Clearly, there was a pronounced increase in the
educational attainment of U.S. workers during the
1970's and 1980's, As shown in table 1, the pro-
portion of workers with 4 or more years of col-
lege—roughly, those with a bachelor’s or higher
degree—has increased significantly over the past
two decades. In fact, the proportion of college
graduates aged 25 to 64 years in the United States
is twice that in Germany and Japan.’ Also, in-
creases in the proportion of workers completing 1
103 years of college are similar to those for college
graduates, By contrast, at the lower end of the edu-
cational scale, the proportion of workers aged 25
to 64 years with fewer than 4 years of high school
decreased from 36 percent of the labor force in
1970 to less than 13 percent in 1991.4

The proportion of high school graduates who
enroll in college directly after completing high
school, another measure of educational attain-
ment, has increased significantly over the past
two decades. (See table 2.) In October 1973,
46.6 percent of high school graduates were en-
rolled in college following their graduation. The
proportion increased to 60.1 percent in 1990.
The increase was evenly distributed between 2-
and 4-year college programs. Along with the in-
creases in educational attainment, school drop-
out rates, as measured by the percent of persons
16 to 24 years of age who neither were enrolled
in school nor had completed high school, fell

Table 1. Percent distribution of the labor force 25 to 64 years
of age, by educational attainment, selected years,

1970-91
Year fou otnigh 4 years of 1-3 years 4or more
‘school high schoo! ofcollege | years of college
36.1 38.1 18 14,1
275 39.7 144 183
206 398 176 22.0
15.9 40.2 19.0 249
13.2 39.4 20.9 26.5
128 39.1 213 26.8

Source: Current Population Survey.

Table 2. Percent of high school graduates enrolling in college
In October following graduation, by type of college,
selected years, 1973-90

Year Total 2-year college | 4-year college
46.6 14.9 317
50.7 18.2 32.6
49.3 19.4 29.9
57.7 19.6 38.1
60.1 20.1 40.0

Source: Current Population Survey.

22 Monthly Labor Review October 1993

from 14.6 percent in 1972 to 12.5 percent in
1991.

Other data also suggest strengths in the U.S.
education system. Increased expenditures (in con-
stant dollars) indicate continued public support
for the system. Expenditures per pupil in public
elementary and secondary schools rose 43 per-
cent from 1974 to 1990; in public institutions of
higher education, the increase was 13 percent.
(See table 3.) Compared with public per-pupil ex-
penditures for elementary and secondary schools
in Japan ($2,200) and Germany ($2,168), similar
U.S. expenditures ($3,846) were higher. Public
per-pupil expenditures for higher education in
the United States ($5,643), however, were lower
than in Japan ($7,221), but higher than in Ger-
many ($4,255).> In addition, the reading, math-
ematics, and science proficiency scores of 17-
year-old students in the United States remained
about the same during the 1970’s and 1980's.

Since the early 1970’s, improvements in educa-
tional measures have not been accompanied by
higher real income for many worker groups. For
example, during the 1980’s, the median real an-
nual income of men increased only for those with
4 or more years of college, and even then, the 1990
figure of $44,310 for this group was still below its
1972 median of $48,299. (See table 4.) For
women, real income increased during the 1980’s
for those with 1 to 3 years of college and those
with 4 or more years of college. Between all other
years and for all other education groups shown in
the table, real income increased insignificantly or
declined.

Postsecondary school training and labor market
demand. A vast amount of postsecondary train-
ing is provided by public and private colleges and
universities, junior and community colleges, and
vocational schools. Nearly 2.9 million awards and
degrees were received by individuals during the
1989-90 academic year, according to the National
Center for Educational Statistics.’ These awards
and degrees are classified by field of training in
accordance with the Classification of Instructional
Programs.’ In turn, the training categories can be
matched with an occupation or with an occupation
group comprised of a few to several detailed occu-
pations in the employment data compiled by the
Bureau of Labor Statistics. Some of these matches
are very precise, such as that between the degrees
awarded for completing medical school and the
profession of physician and that between the
completions of cosmetology vocational school
programs and the profession of cosmetologist.
Others are less precise. For example, the comple-
tion of one or more degrees in business administra-
tion provides training needed by workers in a
wide variety of managerial occupations, and skills



from 7 million to 18 million and was responsible
for 40 percent of the increase in training taken to
improve skills between 1983 and 1991.

Impact on earnings. While information about
the number of workers who needed training to
obtain their jobs or who took training to improve
their skills measures the utility of education and
training, data on earnings measure the benefit of
the training to workers. Earnings data from the
January 1991 cps display the same pattems as the
1991 cps annual average data: median earnings of
full-time workers increase with increases in edu-
cational attainment—about $80.00 weekly for
each higher level of attainment. (See table 9.)
These data also show that, for all education
groups, earnings are higher in jobs that generally
tequire qualifying training or jobs in which train-
ing is taken to improve skills. For example, for
each level of educational attainment examined,
except for college graduates, the median weekly

earnings of those whose only type of training was
qualifying training was approximately 15 percent
higher than those in the same education group
who did not report needing such training; for col-
lege graduates, the difference was an even greater
35 percent. Similarly, excluding those with fewer
than 12 years of education, the median weekly
earnings for workers whose only training was
training to improve their skills were about 30 per-
cent higher than those with neither type of train-
ing. Workers who took both qualifying training
and training to improve their skills had the largest
differential, about 30 percent to SO percent higher
than the earnings of those reporting that they had
had neither type of training.

Note in table 9 that the earnings of individuals
with fewer than 12 years of school who reported
both quatifying training and training to improve
their skills were higher than the earnings of per-
sons with some college but neither of those forms
of training. Similarly, high school graduates who

Table 8. | Workers who took training to improve their skills in their current jobs, by education and occupation,
January 1991
[Percent of category]
Schoot
Workers Post- |
Education level tots | *MELCK! toto | Hh | high | Junlor | gyear | Formal | informal | Other
and employed | improve- | _with | $°h001 | schoo! or longer | company |company | types of
‘occupation group ont’ | School yore, | voce college | training | training | training
train tlonal ram
training IG | training training | institute Prog!
Total employed, aged 16
andolder.............. 100.0 41.2 13.2 4 Ww 40 49 15.8 15.4 70
Highest education
tevel completed:

Fewer than 12 years. ... 100.0 18.0 23 6 3 8 A 49 102 | 18
High school graduate . 100.0 33.9 74 5 13 34 7 13.2 148 | 45
1-3 years of college 100.0 46.5 15.4 5 13 75 36 19.3 18.0 6.9
College graduate... ses. 100.0 614 26.5 2 9 38 153 22.9 172 | 138

Occupational group:

Executive, administrative,

and managerial 100.0 54.0 18.1 3 WwW 53 73 24.9 18.0 W7
Professional specialty... -.. 100.0 675 34.3 3 12 53 20.1 20.1 174 | 15.4
Technicians and

related support ..... 100.0 60.1 20.7 6 17 82 57 26.2 21.9 96
Sales occupations . 100.0 35.9 72 3 5 29 1.9 163 18.1 64
Administrative support 100.0 40.4 12.3 7 4 54 22 16.2 16.5 4.0
Service, except

protective service 100.0 23.3 48 5 6 1.9 6 53 109 | 43
Protective service

occupations... 2... ......06- 100.0 62.5 18.3 4 3.0 86 44 34.7 25.0 73
Farming, forestry,

and fishing... .-..........05- 100.0 20.9 7.2 7 12 28 19 32 7.0 69
Precision production, craft,

and repair ...... ee. 100.0 38.3 89 6 16 44 9 168 160 | 46
Machine operators, assemblers,

and inspectors . . . 100.0 25.0 3.9 4 6 24 3 76 15.0 1.6
Transportation and material-

moving occupations 100.0 25.5 24 “) 4 10 2 10.4 15 | 32
Handlers, equipment cleaners,

and laborers: . .- 100.0 18.4 1.4 2 1 7 2 48 94 1.0
* Less than 0.5 percent.

Monthly Labor Review October 1993 33


Job-related Education and Training

and taborers
Farming, forestry, an
fishing occupations

Table 11. Selected information on employment, education, training, and earnings for full-time workers, by major
occupation groups, 1983 and 1991
Employment! rercent ' Percent Percent 1901 Percent
Percent | "0! enoo college using weekly | 1991 |change in
Occupation group 1991 Percent change Graduates: graduates? training? [eamings'| percent | _ real
change, Share, change or less (1983 | of total | earnings,
1981-83 4983-91 | 1983 | 1991 | 1983 | 1991 | 1983 | 1991 | dollars) 1983-91
Total .... . | 83,525,000} 17.7 | 1000} oo | 572] 522} 241 | 264 | 703 | 709) $316 | 1000] og
Managerial and
professional specialty
occupations ..... -- |23,109,000| 324 | 256] 125 | 205) 193] 622 | 614 | 918 | 906] 460 | 1458] 53
Technical, sales, and
administrative support
occupations ..... -- |25,141,000/ 162 | 195] -13 | 559| 505] 177 | 209 | 719 | 718] 289 | 916] 29
Service occupations ...} 8,908,000) 21.7 | 94] 34 | 757| 730| 69 | 71 | 535 | 51.7] 206 | 65.1 3
Precision production,
craft, and repair
occupations 10,642,000] 68 | 204} -92 | 770} 725| 56] 64 | 764 | 744; 355 | 1123 | -59
Operators, fabricator:

14,129,000] 61 | 225 | -99 | 868] 827 29

1,397,000) 9.1 26] -73 | 782] 756 92

38 | 460 | 450] 258 816 | 63
91 | 291 | 349] 193 612 | -1.5

* 1983 and 1991 Current Population Survey annual averages.
* January 1983 and January 1991 Current Population Survey data.

workers who had a high school education or less,
the highest proportion of college graduates, and
the highest proportion that took training. None of
the proportions had changed much from 1983. In
1991, managerial and professional specialty occu-
pations enjoyed the highest absolute earnings and
had the greatest increase in real earnings. Opera-
tors, fabricators, and laborers, on the other hand,
had the highest proportion of workers who had a
high schoo! education or less, the lowest propor-
tion of college graduates, and the second lowest
proportion that took training. While not the lowest
of all groups, the absolute earnings of operators,
fabricators, and laborers in 1991 were 20 percent
below those of all workers. With a 6.3-percent de-
cline from the 1983 figure, real earnings for this
group fell the most of all the groups.

As described elsewhere, the restructuring of
U.S. industry in response to foreign competition
has had a major impact on earnings.” As firms
adjusted by moving assembly operations overseas
or by introducing more productive equipment,
many workers who received high wages to repeat
simple tasks required by the mass production tech-
niques employed throughout the U.S. economy
lost their jobs or moved to other, less well-paying
jobs.” In some cases, their jobs were reorganized
to require an ability to monitor a machine or to
work as part of a team; either responsibility makes
demands on reading, mathematical, communica-
tion, and other skills that operator, fabricator, and
laborer jobs typically do not require. The increase
in the number of college graduates within this
group may have resulted from employers being

36 Monthly Labor Review October 1993

able to obtain greater productivity from workers
with better basic academic skills.

Itis instructive to contrast the data on precision
production, craft, and repair occupations with
those on operators, fabricators, and laborers. Be-
cause of reduced demand due to industry restruc-
turing, employment increased less than average in
both occupation groups over the 1983-91 period.
Both retained large proportions of workers with a
high school education or less, had low proportions
of college graduates, and experienced real eam-
ings declines of about 6 percent over the period.
Real eamings of precision production, craft, and
repair occupations in 1991, however, were 12 per-
cent above those of all workers and 33 percent
above operators, fabricators, and laborers.

Eamings of precision production, craft, and re-
pair workers are higher probably because these
workers are more productive, the result of being in
jobs that are more likely to use their skills. The
proportion of precision production, craft, and re-
pair workers using training (74 percent) and their
earnings are exceeded only by those of managerial
and professional specialty occupations.

Summary

Despite the widely held view that the quality of
U.S. education and training is poor, the Nation is
increasingly committed to education. Educa-
tional attainment has increased significantly in
the past two decades, as the proportion of stu-
dents attending and completing college has in-
creased, Fewer students are now dropping out of