Trends in wages and employment of black men are contradictory. Wages are rising and employment is falling. The article first describes employment trends using data from the five decennial censuses, 1940-80, noting that education is becoming a more important determinant of participation. Next, it is shown that ratios of average wages have not been severely biased by falling participation of those who would earn the least if they worked. The final question asks whether falling participation of black men results from deteriorating job opportunities or from falling labor supply; falling supply appears to dominate.

The "human capital earnings function," in which earnings are expressed as a quadratic in potential experience, is probably the most widely accepted empirical specification in economics. In spite of its widespread acceptance, the human capital earnings function provides a very poor approximation of the true empirical relationship between earnings and experience. The standard formulation understates early career earnings growth by about 30%-50% and overstates midcareer growth by 20%-50%. However, simple alternative specifications that fit the data are available.