Of the many purposes education serves in society, one of the most important is to prepare people for work. In today's economy, education is important not just to help adults enter the labor market, but also to ensure that adults remain marketable throughout their working lives. This report examines how adults in the labor force use formal…

The empirical relationship between educational attainment and credentials with socioeconomic attainment is well established, but why this relationship arises remains in doubt. The author of this article discusses seven types of middle-range theories meant to explain the relationship: human capital, screening (including filtering), signaling,…