This first volume of a three-volume report of the National Commission for Manpower Policy on Public Service Employment (PSE) contains the commission's findings and recommendations. This document is divided into four sections. Section 1 includes the letter of transmittal sent to Congress and a summary of the findings. Section 2 contains a full report of the commission's findings and recommendations with respect to the role of PSE in national manpower policy and programming, the net employment effects of PSE, and the future of PSE. Section 3 provides an overview of the issues and evidence of PSE. This section contains a brief description of the historical antecedents, identifies the various objectives which PSE has been intended to serve and evaluates the success of the program in achieving each of these objectives, identifies the problems involved in implementing the program through a decentralized delivery system, and summarizes the issues considered by the commission. The fourth section contains the commission's field reviews of PSE. It summarizes the four reviews under the following general headings: the net employment effects of PSE; targeting, training, and transition; wages and output; program administration; community organizations; and future directions for PSE. (BM)