This report, the first of a six-part, intensive longitudinal study, examines the relationships between selected demographic, attitudinal, and educational characteristics of male youth in the United States and their labor market experience and occupational aspirations. The data are drawn from interviews conducted during October-December 1966, with a national sample of the noninstitutional civilian population of males 14 to 24 years of age. Analysis of numerous tables is used to seek explanations for variations in their experiences based on economic, social, and psychological variables. The report is organized in eight chapters. The first chapter introduces the study and explains how it was conducted. Chapter 2 presents a description of the demographic and social characteristics of the age cohort of males 14-24 based upon the sample data. The determinants of labor force participation and employment status are analyzed in Chapter 3. Youth's employment patterns, such as types of jobs held, the number of hours per week worked, rate of compensation, and mobility patterns are studied in Chapter 4. Chapter 5 examines the variation in occupational information among young men and the factors that appear to be related, both as causes and effects, to such variation. Chapter 6 focuses upon attitudes of workers toward their current jobs and the extent of their attachment to these jobs. The educational and occupational aspirations of high school youth and of young men no longer enrolled in school are analyzed in Chapter 7. The findings and conclusions of the study are summarized in Chapter 8. On the basis of these findings, various hypotheses are presented that would be tested with the data collected in subsequent surveys. (KC)