• The five fastest growing occupations are computer-related occupations, commonly referred to as information technology occupations.
  
  
• Occupations requiring an associate's degree or more education will account for 40 percent of total job growth from 1998 to 2008.
  
  
• Since 1993, close to 20 million new jobs have been created. Eighty-one percent of the job growth was in industry/occupation categories paying above-median wages.
  
  
• The average high-tech job pays 78 percent more than the average non-high-tech job. Real average wages in the high-tech industries increased 19 percent since 1990, compared with a 5 percent average increase for the private sector as a whole.
  
  
• In 1979, the average college graduate earned 38 percent more than the average high-school graduate. Today, it is 71 percent.
  
  
• In five years, almost half of all workers will be employed in industries that produce or are intensive users of information technology.
  
  
• From 1979 to 1998, real weekly earnings for workers with less than a high school diploma fell while workers with a college degree attained gains during that period.
  
  
• Among the 30 occupations the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects to grow the fastest (from 1996-2006), educational requirements and earnings of workers are quite varied. Jobs requiring an associates degree or higher are projected to grow faster than the average for all occupations

*Information from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, US Department of Labor