These figures are from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Technical Manpower: Requirements, Resources and Training Needs, Bull. 512 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Labor, 1966), p. 1.
2.
See EvanWilliam M., “On the Margin–The Engineering Technician,”The Human Shape of Work, ed. BergerPeter L. (New York: Macmillan Company, 1964), pp. 83–112.
3.
A good example of this is the Institute for the Certification of Engineering Technicians, established in 1964 by the National Society of Professional Engineers.
4.
The interviews, lasting about one hour each, were conducted in summer and fall 1966 by trained interviewers in the homes of the respondents, as part of a larger comparative study of engineers and technicians employed in the aerospace industries of England, France, and the United States. In both firms the technicians interviewed are represented by independent professional unions, which also represent engineers. Many other technicians at the two firms are represented by the IAM and UAW: They were not included. The 199 technicians interviewed were those closest to the engineers, both in an organizational and job content sense. The sampling procedures called for interviewing an approximately equal number of union members and nonmembers, and the population was also stratified on the salary grade dimension. The characteristics we wished to have represented in the sample were not equally distributed. To facilitate analysis, the statistics for each stratum (28) were weighted to reflect their contribution to the total technician population of 596. In the tables, the N used is the weighted N, made equivalent to the total population.
5.
In a national survey, the median age of employed technicians was 33 as compared with a median age of 41 for all workers in the professional, technical, and kindred worker group, of which technicians are a part (Technical Manpower, p. 29).
6.
Data were obtained on sixteen work-related values. We asked first: “I would like you to indicate how important each one is to you. Is it very important, fairly important, or not very important?” We then asked: “Now I would like you to tell me how well your current job satisfies you with respect to each statement. Does it satisfy you very well, fairly well, or not very well?”
