The paper put forward hypotheses that the conditions for the formation of human capital in the education system and the quality of education are decreasing, that the transition to a post-industrial economic system provides a priority demand and stimulation of the work of highly qualified specialists with higher education. To assess the hypotheses, an analysis carried out using Rosstat data on the structure of unemployment by education levels and on the level of wages of employed workers with different levels of education. The generalization of the results of the analysis made it possible to establish that the value of human capital formed in the education system, the quality of education is steadily decreasing. The human capital of workers, formed in the higher education system, is most in demand in modern conditions, but the quality of higher education, the value of the human capital formed in the process of obtaining it, is steadily decreasing. The reason for the decline in the quality of education is the administrative and control style of management used in the education system and the outdated form of strategic management based on the application of orders, standards and control, which, being inherited from the industrial economy and, as is known, is ineffective and ineffective. Competitive in modern conditions.