Everyone knows that technology and the changing requirements of employers are making unskilled workers an endangered species, right? That without at least some college education, workers in the U.S. economy on the eve of the millennium-especially persons of color-are doomed? It's a good story, and the storytellers are well meaning.

According to a recent report by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), relatively low-skilled positions accounted for most of the wage-and-salary employment created in the United States between 1983 and 1993. BLS defines such jobs as those that "can be learned quickly and that generally do not require post-secondary education." Moreover, projections based on BLS's Occupational Outlook Handbook conclude that for the period 19922005, two-thirds of the fastest-growing occupations will call for no more than a high-school degree.

None of this says that education is unimportant-that would be foolish. Nor is it inconsistent with the finding by Harvard University economist Ronald Ferguson that racial differences in math and language skills, as measured by standard written tests, correlate strongly with the gap between the earnings of black and white youth. What the findings do say is that the alleged disappearance of low-skilled job opportunities in America has been greatly exaggerated.