More 'college' in work force

More than 1 of every 3 workers age 18 and over had completed at least one year of college as of March 1979, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the US Labor Department reports. As recently as 1970, only 1 in 4 had reached that level of education.

Although college-educated workers are still heavily concentrated in white-collar work, many are also now found in blue-collar, service, and farm jobs. The percentage of both men and women age 25 and over in these occupations who have completed one or more years of college has doubled during the 1970 decade. Between March 1970 and March 1979, the proportion rose from 7 to 16 percent for blue-collar workers, from 8 to 18 percent for service workers, and from 9 to 18 percent for farmers and farm workers. The proportion of white-collar workers with at least one year of college has also continued to increase, rising from 45 percent in 1970 to 57 percent in 1979.