This paper examines geographic variations in the educational attainment levels and labor force structure among provinces of Outer Indonesia and relates it to the educational selectivity of the migrants entering and leaving Outer Island Provinces. Structural tension is used to measure the congruence between the educational level of the labor force and the needs of the labor market. When the labor force contains a low amount of workers with at least a junior high school education employed in white-collar occupations, the structural tension is high, and vice-versa. Data from the 1980 Census of Population and the 1985 Intercensal Survey are used to test 2 hypotheses: 1) a high level of structural tension in province will give rise to educationally selective outmigration and will discourage educational selective outmigration; 2) educationally selective outmigration will help relieve structural tension. The analyses show that the rise in educational attainment levels nationwide in the early 1980s has been accompanied by a slight widening of the educational gap among the provinces of Outer Indonesia. The 1st 1/2 of the decade has also witnessed a slight decline in the proportion of better-educated workers holding white-collar occupations. Both in 1980 and 1985, this proportion tends to be higher in the Eastern provinces than in the Western provinces of Outer Indonesia. On the whole, people who move out tend to have attained higher levels of education than do inmigrants, resulting in a net loss of around 50,000 persons between 1980 and 1985. Contrary to expectations, provinces with a greater proportion of better educated workers did not appear to be more successful in retaining this population. However, the provinces did attract disproportionately larger numbers of educated migrants. In line with expectations, increases in structural tension in the 1st 1/2 of the 1980s tended to be somewhat lower in provinces where a net deficit of educated migrants had relieved the pressure on the white-collar employment sector. These findings have implications for educational policy and population mobility and manpower resources. (Author's modified)