Interviews with a random sample of employers from 2,142 businesses and services having employees needing agricultural competencies, compiled for 17 Pennsylvania counties, provided data for estimating the present number of employees needing agricultural competencies by occupational family, level of employment, and job title. Job characteristics, the number of employees needed in 5 years, and job titles and competencies in farm machinery were also tabulated. There were 9,221 full-time and 3,316 part-time employees in the 2,142 businesses and services surveyed. An increase of 1,498 employees was expected in the next 5 years with an additional 3,765 persons expected to be hired due to anticipated employee turnover. Nearly 60 percent of the present employees were in the skilled and semiskilled levels of employment with an expected 79 percent in the same category in 5 years. Of 271 job titles identified, 37 represented 54 percent of all full-time employed persons. A high school education was desired for beginning employment in 90 percent and a farm or rural background in 72 percent of the job titles. It was concluded that competency areas could be formulated and serve as a basis for developing educational programs for prospective employees in farm machinery occupations. This D.Ed. thesis was submitted to The Pennsylvania State University. (WB)