Intended to present up-to-date information on changing trends and current practices related to hiring and training beginning office workers, the monograph offers analyzed and tabulated data useful in making comparisons of job classifications, salaries, job requirements, and in learning of problems encountered with beginning office workers. The data in the 1972 survey were based on an 84 percent return of questionnaires sent to 50 large business employers in Iowa. Following a review of comparable studies conducted in 1966 and 1970, the information is organized as follows: types of office jobs available; knowledge and skill requirements for beginning office workers (typewriting, shorthand, machine operating, and data processing); office behavior patterns; personnel practices and trends (hiring preferences, sources of new employees, reasons for not hiring, orientation and training programs, promotion criteria, and fringe benefits); salaries of beginning office workers (1972 survey and 1973-74); and the profile of office employment. The appendix lists the firms that participated in the study and the survey instrument. (MW)