本研究旨在檢驗臺灣高職學校就業導向教育目標的達成情形，採用比較研究方式比較近二十五年來，具高中職學歷的勞動人口（簡稱「高中職畢業生」）在勞動市場的表現與差異情形。本研究利用「勞動參與率」、「失業率」、「勞動力未適當利用率」、「薪資水準」與「工作不滿意程度」等五個指標作為高職、高中畢業生在就業市場表現的評估標準。資料來源包含歷年、多種政府統計出版品。研究結果發現，二十餘年來，高職畢業生除了「勞動參與率」高於高中畢業生外，其餘四個指標均較高中畢業生處於劣勢狀態，其中「失業率」、「勞動力未適當利用率」、「薪資水準」等三個指標的差異達顯著水準，本研究並試圖利用人力資本理論與篩選理論解釋薪資水準差異的原因。其次，本研究發現最近三、四年，高中職畢業生在這四個指標的差異，似有擴大的跡象；高職畢業生雖然在就業市場上有比較低度的勞動力運用情形，但卻似乎比高中生更安於現狀。最後本研究也針對政府的資源分配角色、高職學校的定位、就業輔導功能、與課程內涵等提出若干建議。

　　　　　The purpose of this paper is in an attempt to examine the employment-oriented educational goal of vocational high schools by comparing the labor market performance of graduates from vocational and academic high schools in Taiwan during the most recent 25 years. To achieve this purpose, the researcher utilized five criteria, namely, "labor force participation rate", "unemployment rate", "inadequate utilization rate of labor force", "monthly income", "degree of job unsatisfaction" to compare the performance of the graduates from two different tracks. Data were collected from various Government's statistics publications. The results have shown that vocational graduates have had higher labor force participation rate than that of academic high schools' graduates. Surprisingly, however, vocational graduates seem to have had poor performance than their counter partner in terms of the other four criteria in the labor market. Both human capital theory and screen theory were employed to provide some insights about this market failure. Yet, it was found that the discrepancy of the four criteria between the two types of graduates has become worse since 4 years ago. Although vocational graduates have had poor performance in the past 25 years, it does not seem to cause them having higher degree of job unsatisfaction. Some suggestions regarding the role of Government in allocating resources and the responsibility of vocational high schools were made at the end of this paper.