A study was conducted to develop strategies to increase placement rates in secondary and postsecondary vocational programs. During the study, researchers identified factors relating to job placement, provided descriptions of the educational and community processes appearing to influence job placement, and generated hypotheses concerning variables relating to job placement. Data for the study came from a variety of sources, including the following: literature reviews, interviews with 438 individuals involved in secondary vocational programs, mail questionnaires administered to 5,062 individuals representing people involved with secondary vocational education and 2,579 people who either received or provided vocational educational services. After analyzing these data, the researchers identified a number of labor market, community, and educational factors affecting the placement rates associated first with secondary and then with postsecondary vocational programs. Included among those factors found to have a significant influence on placement rates were the following: community unemployment rates, availability of transportation, types and sizes of industries in a community, demography, the pressure of cooperative vocational education programs, a high rate of participation in youth organizations, and the existence of a good relationship between schools and the community. Based on these findings, the researchers formulated a series of recommendations directed toward Congress, the U.S. Department of Education, state government agencies, teacher education institutions, postsecondary vocational educational institutions, and secondary schools. (MN)