A study examines the provisions of the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) relating to who should be served, analyzes factors that affect the decisions of JTPA eligibles to participate and of Private Industry Councils to select whom they serve, and presents data on those from the eligible population who are being served. Data from the Job Training Quarterly Survey (on program years 1984 and 1985) and the March 1986 Current Population Survey served as the study's data set. Nearly 88 percent of persons eligible for JTPA are either already employed or not actively seeking jobs and thus are unlikely to be interested in JTPA training programs. Almost 13 percent of unemployed eligibles are participating in JTPA annually. Welfare recipients and minorities are generally being served in proportion to their incidence in the eligible population, with unemployed female recipients of Aid to Families with Dependent Children being served in greater numbers than their incidence in the population. About 40 percent of all participants are youth, even though they represent only 18 percent of the eligible population. Adult high school dropouts, a prime target group, are not being served in proportion to their incidence in the eligible population. (MN)