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This article investigates the impact of the labor market on the design and selection of productive techniques within manufacturing plants. The investigation is based upon open-ended interviews conducted in 1964 and 1965 with engineers and with personnel and industrial relations specialists in manufacturing plants and at corporate headquarters. The efficacy of adjustments in productive technique as a mechanism for achieving structural balance in the labor market may be questioned on several grounds. The study does suggest that, in attempting to explain the degree of structural balance which has been achieved, and in assessing the capacity of the economy to affect such balance in the future, attention must focus upon other adjustment mechanisms. The study also suggests mechanisms inherent in the process of technological change itself which may facilitate market adjustments. As a result, the interviews suggested that the supply of such specialized ability and hence the pace of technological change is constrained by the number of managerial personnel who can be accommodated on the plant floor without disrupting current production.