ABSTRACT
American planners work in many more substantive areas today than twenty years ago when physical planning and urban renewal agencies were the principal employers of planning talent and land use, zoning, housing and transportation the principal fields of planning activity. Although more people educated as planners are finding employment outside of governmental planning circles today-e.g. in universities, private research firms, development firms, and community organizations-the planner's principal working habitat is still the governmental planning agency. What's different from the past is that more and more specialized planning agencies at all levels of government are taking their place beside the traditional, yet still predominant general-purpose city, county, regional, and state planning agencies. And although a sizable number of today's planners still specialize in some aspect of physical planning, increasingly other specializations have emerged, including health, energy, education, manpower, economic development, water quality, coastal zone management, and criminal justice planning. No doubt, the future will see the emergence of new planning specialties.
