Technology People and Productivity - People, Education, And Productivity

One of the driving forces of productivity, undoubtedly, has been an ever more educated workforce. In the following several panels, we look a little more closely at people and their education. The traditional measure of educational attainment is "high school and above." Of a hundred adults, picked more or less at random, 84 will qualify for this level. Twenty-five of those people will have four years of college and above. The same look, in 1940, would have found only 24 people with high school and higher and fewer than 5 with college or higher degrees.

In the first panel we try to answer the question: "How educated is the workforce — and what are the trends?" The answer is given above. The trend is toward a flattening of growth in educational achievement as traditionally defined.

Next we examine attainment by looking at major population groups. All groups have been improving their attainment. The most rapid progress has been made by African Americans.

But how does educational attainment relate to compensation — and productivity? Surprising answers are presented in the third panel under "Average Earnings and Productivity." The data show a strong but not "hard" relationship. Productivity rises steadily. Rewards for labor are growing slower and do a lot of rising and falling. In recent years, the college-educated have suffered less from economic swings than those with "high school and above."

The panel on compensation highlighted for us the effects of inflation. This prompted a closer look at the subject. We also looked at four categories of people: those with elementary education, those with high school only, high school and above, and college and higher. Income growth tabulations once more show that those with the most get the most, and those who have least actually lose purchasing power.

The last panel attempts to look ahead to 2010. Substantial changes in ethnic composition of the population and in the different rates of educational attainment these groups have suggest a high and a low boundary for future educational attainment.