A study examined the high school graduates' perceptions and employers' reports of hiring and job performance standards and employment outcomes one year after high school. Longitudinal data were collected from 522 students at the beginning and end of the senior school year and 325 of these students (62 percent) one year after graduation. Employers of these graduates were surveyed at followup. During high school youth were consistently accurate in perceptions of items having positive influence on employers' job hiring standards, consistently understood several employers' job performance standards, and underestimated the importance of negative information on hiring and of negative behavior and attitudes on employers' opinions regarding job performance. Students with the best employment outcomes during the followup year were those who thought that employers had tough hiring standards but did not have tough job performance standards at the end of the senior year. Youth who received the highest evaluations of work habits and attitudes and productivity at the end of the followup year thought employers had tough hiring standards. Following this narrative of findings and study conclusions is a discussion of the implications and recommendations of the findings on youth's perceptions and a discussion of the effects of certain variables on youth's perceptions. (YLB)