In this paper the supply-demand equilibrium of the higher education graduates is discussed. At first the changing occupational structure in the process of economic growth is analysed both in the form of cross-sectional and international time-series analysis.
These analyses show that occupations which tend to increase regularly with economic growth in the industrial society are professional-technical, managerial and clerical which are common to include more proportion of the higher education graduates than others.
It implies that the demand for the higher education graduates tends to increase as a result of the changing occupational structure with the economic growth. The demand for them is here calculated for 7 countries (United States, Canada, Japan, Great Britain, Sweden, Greece, Chile, Korea, and Finland) from 1960 to 1970. To find out the equilibrium condition, two models are selected, the first is an equilibrium in the stationary state, in which the level of the higher education population and the composition rate of the higher education labor force among the total labor force are given and the supply and demand for them equates in a certain given level. Results show that the actual level of the higher education population of every 13 countries here observed is much higher than that required for the stationary equilibrium. The second model is a dynamic equilibrium, that is an equilibrium in the process of the supply increasement and the increasing demand arosed by the changing occupational structure. Results show that the actual growth-rate of the higher education population from 1960 to 70 is also higher than the equilibrium growth-rate in every 7 countries here observed.