The Overeducated American

How significant was the 1970s downturn in the labor market for college-educated manpower? Has the United States produced so many graduates that the college-trained worker is, in fact, 'overeducated" in the marketplace? What does the future hold--continued depression in employment opportunities for the college-educated or a revival of the job market to the level of previous decades? What are the potential effects of a depressed college job market-on the educational sector, on the role of formal education in society, on the nation's social system as a whole? What are the economic mechanisms that connect the labor market and the educational system? How can these mechanisms be used by policymakers to ameliorate the problem? What should be done? These questions constitute the subject matter of "The Overeducated American" which analyzes, within the limits of available data and knowledge of market processes, the turnaround in the college job market and seeks to determine whether it constitutes a relatively long-term or merely a temporary change in the economic status of graduates.