College graduates have experienced growth in real (inflation-adjusted) earnings since 1979. In contrast, high school dropouts have seen their real earnings decline.

From 1979 to 2000, the earnings of college-educated women grew nearly twice as fast as the earnings of men, but these women still earn less than men.

The unemployment rate for workers who dropped out of high school is nearly four times the rate for college graduates. 

DID YOU KNOW?
High school graduates are more likely to go on to college today than in the past. Sixty-three percent of the year 2000 high school graduates had enrolled in college by the following fall, up from 52 percent of the class of 1970.