Trends in the payoff to academic and occupation-specific skills: the shortand medium run returns to academic and vocational high school courses for non-college-bound students

Using data from three longitudinal surveys of American high school students , I show that vocational courses helped non-college-bound students to start their work life more successfully. A comparison of the returns to academic and vocational course work for non-college-bound students who graduated in 1972, 1980 and 1992 finds that the short and medium term payoffs to vocati onal courses rose substantially between 1972 and 1980 and remained high in 1992. Holding a host of variables constant, academic course work had much s maller labour market payoffs than vocational course work. These findings co ntradict the often repeated claim that employers now seek workers with a go od general education and are happy to teach the occupation specific skills necessary to do the job. High school students who do not plan to attend col lege full-time would be well advised to start studying a well paying occupa tion before;they complete high school. [JEL: I20, J23, J24] (C) 1999 Elsevi er Science Ltd. All rights reserved.