Employment characteristics reported 30 months after graduation by over 1,000 respondents to the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 (NLS) were related to high school achievement on the Student Test Book of the NLS. Although respondents did not take a minimum competency test, experts agreed that the Student Test Book would correlate because it measured the same skills. Based on their Student Test Book percentile ranges, students were classified as having a low, marginal, or average probability of passing a minimum competency test. There was no significant relationship between the three passing classifications and the five employment characteristics under study: unemployment, occupational category, job steadiness during the previous year, income (combined if married), and job satisfaction. As expected, men dominated the labor and craft occupational categories; women dominated the clerical category. Income of single females was significantly lower than that of single males, especially when occupational category overlapped. Results implied that minimum competency testing has several limitations: it measures skills which are beneficial for independent living, but not essential for everyday survival; it ignores non-cognitive factors influencing employment, such as race, socioeconomic status, personality, school attendance; and it may incorrectly label students as incompetent because passing levels are inappropriate. (CP)