The study employs economic models of supply decisions, employer demand decisions and market interactions to examine scientific, engineering, and technical manpower utilization. The introduction surveys the major reasons for the perennial concern about manpower supply in the field, and examines problems of defining the occupations under study. A detailed section on the economic framework for analysis examines: the current state of knowledge about manpower demand and utilization, suggesting research strategies for filling gaps in the knowledge; the supply of technical manpower, discussing the importance of career decisions on supply as determined by various models, and suggesting alternative, more inclusive models; the determinants of earnings of technical workers with special reference to engineers, illustrating the promise and problems of statistical models of the earnings functions of technical workers; and market adjustment and technical manpower problems, discussing equilibrium, disequilibrium, and dynamic adjustments in the technical manpower market. The final section deals with two issues pertinent to governmental decision-making in the manpower area: the advantages of cost-benefit-analysis in evaluating education and training programs, and the limitations of currently-determined projections of supply and demand as guides to public and private policy decisions. (JR)