[Forty-Sixth Annual Report of the United States Department of Labor, Fiscal Year 1958]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

of the
United States Department of Labor
FISCAL YEAR 1958
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
James P. Mitchell, Secretary
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LADOR ANNUAL REPORT, 1958
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR James P. Mitchell, Secretary
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Washington 25, D.C. — Price 75 cents (paper)
3 1336 05750 2917
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
James P. Mitchell, Secretary
Walter C. Wallace, Executive Assistant to the Secretary
Alice K. Leopold, Assistant to the Secretary
Albert L. McDermott, Special Assistant to the Secretary
W. F. Patterson, Special Assistant to the Secretary
Edward J. Zahn, Jr., Special Assistant to the Secretary
James T. O’Connell, Under Secretary
Millard Cass, Deputy Under Secretary
Charles D. Stewart, Deputy Assistant Secretary
Richard A. Schwarz, Assistant to the Under Secretary
J. Ernest Wilkins, Assistant Secretary, International Labor Affairs
Leo R. Werts, Deputy Assistant Secretary
Thomas A. Lane, Assistant to the Assistant Secretary
John J. Gilhooley, Assistant Secretary
Robert K. Salyers, Deputy Assistant Secretary
Newell Brown, Assistant Secretary
Aryness Joy Wickens, Deputy Assistant Secretary
James E. Dodson, Administrative Assistant Secretary
Stuart Rothman, Solicitor
Edward J. McVeigh, Director of Personnel
George C. Lodge, Director of Information, Publications, and Reports
Arnold Zempel, Executive Director, Office of International Labor Affairs
Margaret F. Brickett, Librarian
BUREAUS AND DIVISIONS
W. C. Christensen, Director, Bureau of Apprenticeship
William McCauley, Director, Bureau of Employees’ Compensation
Robert C. Goodwin, Director, Bureau of Employment Security
Edward L. Omohundro, Chief, Veterans Employment Service
Clara M. Beyer, Director (Acting'), Bureau of Labor Standards
Ewan Clague, Commissioner, Bureau of Labor Statistics
Hugh W. Bradley, Director, Bureau of Veterans’ Reemployment Rights
Theodore M. Schwartz, Chairman, Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board
Clarence T. Lundquist, Acting Administrator, Wage and Hour and Public Contracts Divisions
Alice K. Leopold, Director, Women’s Bureau
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR ANNUAL REPORT, 1958
Contents
Page
Report of the Secretary of Labor............................. 1
Appendices
Reports of the Office of the Secretary
Administrative Assistant Secretary.......................... 27
Director of Information, Publications, and Reports...... 31
Executive Director of International Labor Affairs....... 33
Director of Personnel................................... 45
Solicitor of Labor...................................... 46
Bureau Reports
Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training....................... 57
Bureau of Employees’ Compensation....................... 69
Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board................... 81
Bureau of Employment Security........................... 87
Bureau of Labor Standards.............................. 155
Bureau of Labor Statistics............................. 177
Bureau of Veterans’ Reemployment Rights................ 197
Wage and Hour and Public Contracts Divisions........... 203
Women’s Bureau......................................... 253
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REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF LABOR
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF LABOR
During fiscal year 1958, the Department of Labor was concerned with the major problems of recession, rising prices, and the public’s concern with the conduct of labor-management relations. These were in addition to its regular administrative functions, which affect the day-to-day living and working conditions of most of the 78 million Americans who held jobs at some time during the year.
The third recession since the end of World War II began during the fiscal year. Before it reached its low, toward the end of the fiscal year, it brought postwar highs in unemployment and a considerable reduction in hours worked. The Department participated in a number of governmental actions and policy decisions to improve the economic situation and to reduce the hardships of affected workers. These included direct means, such as enactment of the Temporary Unemployment Insurance Act of 1958 to assist jobless workers who have exhausted their unemployment benefits under State laws; encouraging States to strengthen their unemployment insurance laws; and a broad variety of general stimulants to overall business activity, especially in the fields of housing, defense procurement, and business credit.
A steady rise in consumer prices, in contrast to the downward course of business and employment, was another economic development of major concern to the Department. The price trend, although affected by temporary factors, mainly reflected long-term forces, and pointed up the need for more adequate knowledge about the influence of wages and profits upon prices.
A special problem during the year was the question of the role of the Government in the protection of workers’ interests in health, welfare, and pension funds and in the democratic functioning of trade union activities.
In addition to its direct and advisory functions, the Department played a major role during the recession in presenting its data promptly and with sufficient detail and analysis to assist Government, business, labor, and the general public to attack the recession effectively.
As the fiscal year ended, the economic indicators were again pointed upwards. It had again been demonstrated that weakness in specific areas could be contained by firmness in other sectors of this huge and complex economy, and that adherence to time-tested economic practices, based upon faith in the strength of our free system, was more to be relied upon than new formulas calling for drastic governmental intervention. Em
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ployment and the workweek were increasing, personal income was advancing to record levels, housing activity was expanding, consumption was again on the rise, Government outlays for essential needs were moving up, and declines in business investment were moderating. However, it was not yet clear how long it would take for unemployment to return to peacetime lows; moreover, the expectation of inflation was again becoming an important factor in public thinking.
The Economic Setting
Fiscal year 1958 began with overall employment, gross national product, and industrial activity—the major measures of national economic strength— at peak levels. But weaknesses were already evident in the durable goods industries and in housing activity; and these resulted in a relatively sharp business downturn, which reached bottom around early spring. As the fiscal year drew to a close, it became clear that many of the downward pressures had already spent their force, and rising personal incomes, buttressed by Government action, were calling for increased output and employment.
Between the beginning and the end of the fiscal year, gross national product fell about 4 percent, nonagricultural payroll employment about 4 percent, and industrial production about 8 percent. In each case the year-end figure, after allowing for seasonal factors, was significantly better than in early spring.
The downturn during the year was caused by the convergence of several factors, all involving the durable goods sector of the economy. Capital investment programs, initiated in 1955 and 1956, were terminating, so that the demand for plant and equipment tapered off from the alltime peak. Simultaneously, housing activity was declining, and eventually reached a 9-year low, largely because of a shortage of investment money for Government-assisted mortgages. Contributing to the problems of the hard goods industries was a reappraisal of the Nation’s defense policy, which resulted in a temporary slowing down of procurement.
Consumers at the same time reduced their outlays for automobiles and other durable goods for a variety of reasons. Record buying during the 2 previous years had left a fairly high stock of relatively new goods in the hands of consumers. The demand for furniture and appliances was slowed down by the decline in new housing. And the rise in many consumer prices cut into purchasing power.
These unfavorable forces contributed towards a sharp decline in inventories, as businessmen produced and shipped from materials on hand, not rebuilding stocks until absolutely necessary. Causing the economic decline to be even sharper than it might otherwise have been was an unusually severe winter in the eastern part of the country, and extremely wet weather in the West.
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The effects of these declines were moderated, however, by two major forces. Consumer demand for nondurable goods and services continued strong. Total consumer expenditures had sagged slightly—less than 1 percent—during the middle of the fiscal year, but they recovered in the final quarter, to match the record set in the first quarter. And Government efforts to stimulate homebuilding, to make investment money more readily available, and to step up defense production had positive results by late spring.
The strength of consumer demand was supported by the stability of personal income during the recession. Labor income dropped by some $9 billion at seasonally adjusted annual rates from August 1957 to April 1958, but nearly two-fifths of that decline was offset by increased unemployment insurance payments and increased outlays under the expanded old-age and survivors insurance program. Wage and salary payments began to recover late in the fiscal year as a result of an improvement in employment and hours worked, and in rising wage rates. There was some drop in business and professional income over the year, but this was about offset by a rise in farm income, and dividend and interest payments held steady despite a substantial drop in corporate profits. On balance, total personal income declined less than 2 percent from its peak to the low point, and by June it had again reached its prerecession peak.
Housing starts began to increase strongly in the spring, mostly as a result of the liberalized terms of FHA and VA mortgages in the 1958 Emergency Housing Act together with generally easier credit and lower interest rates. The Government also sharply stepped up its defense procurement in the second half of the fiscal year, thereby permitting factories to proceed with the ordering of materials and to rebuild their staffs. In addition, spending by State and local governments continued its long-term uptrend to serve a population which was growing not only in numbers— 3 million during the year—but also in demand for various services.
The overall employment situation reflected these developments. The number of workers on nonfarm payrolls declined from 52.2 million in July 1957—the alltime high, if allowance is made for seasonal variation—to 50.2 million in July 1958. The sharpest drop occurred during the winter of 1957-58. By April, the declines appeared to have ceased, and small gains (on a seasonally adjusted basis) were recorded in later months. Workers in manufacturing firms, particularly in the hard goods industries, were the most seriously affected; fewer were employed this July than a year earlier in every major manufacturing industry. The largest losses—a quarter million jobs or more—were in the transportation equipment, machinery, and primary metals industries. Employment reductions also occurred in some of the nonmanufacturing industries, including transportation, mining, trade, and contract construction. But there were minor gains in finance and services, and a sizable rise in State and local government employment.
Hours of work in manufacturing plants, which had begun to decline during fiscal year 1957, continued to drop sharply until the spring of 1958.
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By July, the workweek had recovered substantially, but was still six-tenths of an hour less than it had been a year earlier.
Agricultural employment continued downward: the average number of farmworkers in fiscal 1958 declined by about 300,000 from the preceding year to 6.1 million. In part, this decline marked a continuation of the long-term trend toward larger farms and higher productivity of farmworkers, and to some extent it reflected unusually poor weather for farm operations during several months in the second half of fiscal 1958.
Despite the reduction in job openings, the civilian labor force continued to grow, averaging about 650,000 more than in the previous fiscal year. Unemployment increased with the rise in size of the labor force, the layoff of workers, and the decline in new job opportunities. The number of unemployed, at 5-3 million in July of 1958, was 2.3 million greater than in July of the previous year, and the highest in the postwar period. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate (which makes allowance for normal seasonal variations as well as growth in the labor force) was above 7 percent during most of the spring and summer of 1958, higher than in either of the previous postwar recessions.
Both men and women experienced greater unemployment during this year than last. There was a relatively sharper increase among men because the durable goods industries were hardest hit. Over the year, unemployment rates doubled for both white and nonwhite men, with the rates for nonwhites continuing to be more than double those for whites. Because of the slower rate of hiring, unemployed persons were generally out of work longer in 1958 than in 1957. By July 1958, about 900,000 persons had been unemployed 6 months or longer; about half of these were factory workers.
Insured unemployment followed a similar trend; it began to rise earlier in the fall than it usually does, and the rate of increase steepened considerably in late December and January. The peak came in mid-April 1958, when 3.4 million workers were claiming benefits under State and Federal programs, nearly 2 million more than a year earlier, and the highest in the postwar period. More than 8 percent of the workers covered by State and Federal programs were receiving benefits. Durable goods manufacturing States, and particularly automobile and steel centers, were hardest hit. After mid-April, there was a sharper than seasonal decline; and by the end of the fiscal year the national total had dropped to 2.6 million, or a rate of 6.1 percent.
Some part of the decline in insured unemployment since the spring was due to the large number of claimants who exhausted their benefits. The temporary unemployment compensation programs instituted in the summer of 1958 helped to provide for these unemployed. In mid-July 1958, there were about 500,000 jobless workers claiming extended insurance benefits under these temporary programs.
The number of labor market areas having serious unemployment problems—6 percent or more unemployed—also increased sharply. At the be
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ginning of the fiscal year, in July 1957, 24 of the 149 major areas were included in this category, nearly all of them being places with long-term unemployment difficulties. A year later, 89 areas were classified as having serious unemployment, and 21 of these had 12 percent or more unemployment. The concentration of areas with serious unemployment was very heavy in the Northeast and industrial Midwest, where metal goods manufacturing is dominant. In addition to these 89 major areas, 182 smaller places were also listed as having a substantial labor surplus, compared with 61 in July a year earlier.
On wages and industrial relations, the chief effect of the business recession was to reduce weekly earnings as hours of work were shortened, to delay some major collective bargaining settlements, and to curtail the volume of strike activity. With the decline in the average workweek in manufacturing, weekly earnings fell from an alltime high (except for December 1956) of $83 in September 1957 to about $80.60 in February 1958. However, with the uptrend in hours of work during the last few months of the fiscal year, weekly earnings also recovered, reaching $83-10 in June.
Most major collective bargaining agreements concluded during the year provided for substantial increases in wage rates, averaging the same size as the year before. There was some reduction in the number of supplementary benefits that were liberalized, however. In many important sectors of the economy, wage rates increased as a result of contracts negotiated in previous years; these provided for both a specified “deferred” wage rate increase and adjustments in hourly pay with changes in the Consumer Price Index. With the continued rise in retail prices of goods and services, wage increases under these long-term contracts were as large during this fiscal year as during the preceding year, or larger.
Idleness because of strikes amounted to an estimated 15,800,000 man-days during the year—a drop of more than 40 percent from the 28,200,000 man-days recorded for the previous fiscal year, and a postwar low.
The problem of inflation was highlighted during the fiscal year by the apparent contradiction of prices rising at a time when unemployment was increasing and production was receding. Consumer prices for goods and services rose 2.6 percent over the year from July 1957 to July 1958, and commodity prices at wholesale increased 0.8 percent. The price increases, however, reflected both temporary and long-run forces which were not directly related to the overall condition of the economy.
The temporary factors, mainly affecting foods, resulted from severely cold weather in southern growing areas, which reduced the availability of fruits and vegetables, and the rebuilding of livestock herds, which resulted in relatively small supplies of meat. Thus, the sharpest rise in the Consumer Price Index, 3-7 percent, was in food, with meat prices up 9 percent and fruit and vegetables up nearly 4 percent; in the Wholesale Price Index most of the advance was due to a rise of 5 percent in the processed foods group. The longer-run factors, which are little affected by a short-lived recession, were reflected mainly in a steady rise—3-4 percent during the
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year—in the cost of services. Durable goods prices rose 1.5 percent, and nondurable goods other than food rose 0.5 percent.
At the primary market level, commodities other than farm products and foods were about unchanged on the average. Marked reductions occurred in fuels, which declined after the Suez crisis; in lumber, in response to the drop in residential building; and in metals, chiefly nonferrous metals and steel scrap, because of slowing activity in metal-using industries. All of these groups reached bottom late in the fiscal year, and were rising again as the year ended. Noteworthy increases over the year, on the other hand, came in machinery and paper; both of these groups rose in the first half of the fiscal year, and leveled off in the second.
Output per man-hour for the total private economy increased about 2% percent during calendar year 1957. This was somewhat higher than the long-term annual rate of change, but somewhat lower than the postwar average. The farm sector continued to show a very high rate of increase, close to 7 percent, but the rate for the nonfarm sector was below average. Output per man-hour does not rise at a steady pace year after year, so the trend for any one year may not be indicative of future developments.
By the end of the fiscal year, the stage seemed to be set for a substantially higher level of activity. The consumer, having cut his debt and increased his savings, was in a better position to buy. Housing activity had risen to the best rate in more than 2 years. The decline in plant and equipment outlays was coming to an end. Inventories had so diminished in many industries that reordering was becoming substantial. And the Federal Government was committed to outlays some $7 billion greater than in the previous year, and considerably in excess of likely receipts.
Legislative Program
Among the proposals of the Department enacted during the second session of the 85th Congress were the following:
1.	Legislation providing for temporary additional unemployment compensation benefits under the Federal-State unemployment insurance system. (Public Law 85-441, approved June 4, 1958.) However, this law does not include railroad workers, as recommended by the Department.
2.	Legislation providing for biennial rather than annual review of industry committee wage rates under the Fair Labor Standards Act for Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and American Samoa. (Public Law 85-750, approved August 25, 1958.) This legislation makes it unnecessary to review those wage rates which are equal to the general statutory minimum rate (at present $1 an hour). No congressional action was taken, however, on the Department’s proposal to provide for the review of wage rates by the Secretary of Labor.
3.	Legislation authorizing the Secretary of Labor to prescribe and enforce safety standards to be maintained by employers of employees
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covered by the Longshoremen’s and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act. (Public Law 85-742, approved August 23, 1958.)
4.	Legislation bringing ex-servicemen under a permanent unemployment insurance program to replace the temporary program which was terminated as to all those entering the Armed Forces after January 31, 1955- (Public Law 85-848, August 28, 1958.)
5.	Extension of the Mexican migratory farm labor program for 2 years beyond June 30, 1959—the termination date which had been prescribed by section 509 of the Agricultural Act of 1949. (Public Law 85-779, approved August 27, 1958.)
6.	Legislation substituting a percentage for the dollar ceiling on United States contributions to the International Labor Organization.
7.	Legislation providing for reporting by administrators of pension and welfare plans. (Public Law 85-636, approved August 28, 1958.) However, this legislation is materially different from the proposal recommended by the Department of Labor in this area. As the President pointed out in his message of approval, the law contains serious shortcomings and will require extensive amendment.
The Department’s legislative program included the following proposals in the area of labor-management relations, none of which were enacted:
One proposal would have required unions, including regional and State conferences, and employers where appropriate, to file full and detailed reports with the Secretary of Labor describing union organization and structure, and reports regarding the handling of all union funds and the exchange of funds between employers and union officials, including those involving possible conflicts of interest. It would have authorized the Secretary to make these reports available to the public and to investigate their propriety and accuracy, and would have imposed administrative sanctions for failure to file the reports.
It would also have imposed a fiduciary relationship on union officers and agents having money or property in their possession by virtue of their position, and would have permitted union members to sue dishonest labor officials in Federal or State courts.
Other provisions in this proposal would have made Federal felonies of the embezzlement of union funds, the making of false entries in, or willful destruction of, any books or records required to be kept by unions, and bribery transactions between employers or their representatives and unions or their representatives to influence improperly the action of the recipients relating to labor-management relations. Also they would have imposed civil, criminal, and administrative sanctions upon any union for failure to file annual reports certifying that union members have the right to elect their officers by secret ballot at prescribed intervals.
Several amendments to the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947 drafted by this Department were introduced in Congress this year.
One amendment would have extended the secondary boycott provisions of that act to cover pressures applied directly against employers, to cover
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union inducements directed to individual employees, and to afford protection to employers not presently covered. It would have removed the present application of these provisions to union activity directed against secondary employers performing “farmed-out struck work or engaged at the same construction site with the primary employer.
Another amendment would have made it an unfair labor practice for a union to engage in coercive picketing to force an employer to recognize it as the bargaining representative of his employees or to force the employees to accept it as their bargaining representative where it is clear that the employees do not desire the union.
A third amendment would have eliminated the present prohibition against the voting by replaced economic strikers in representation elections and placed the question of voting eligibility in the administrative discretion of the National Labor Relations Board.
Other amendments were designed to eliminate the jurisdictional noman’s land,” to strengthen and improve section 302 of the act making employer payments to employee representatives unlawful, and to permit, under certain appropriate conditions, Board certification of unions of employees in the building and construction industry without prior representation elections.	.
In the field of labor standards legislation, the Department continued its recommendations of the previous year to extend the coverage of the Fair Labor Standards Act to employees in large enterprises substantially engaged in interstate commerce. Adoption of the following specific amendments was again urged:
An amendment to include in the interstate commerce coverage of the law employees who are engaged in the activities of any business enterprise in which (a) the total annual value of incoming merchandise, materials, or supplies moving directly across State lines to its place or places of business is $1 million or more, and (b) 100 or more employees are employed by the employer.
Amendments to exclude from certain minimum wage exemptions contained in the present act employers of 100 or more workers, so as to insure the protection of a minimum wage to employees who come within the interstate commerce coverage of the act either under the present language of the law or under the proposed amendments.
Appropriations
Appropriations for the Department for the fiscal year 1958 totaled $1,185,-597 400. Of this total, $38,283,400 was for administrative expenses, and provided for 5,285 positions. The balance of $1,147,314,000 was for grants to States for State administrative costs of the employment service and unemployment compensation programs, unemployment compensation payments to veterans and Federal employees, and payments under the
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Federal Employees’ Compensation Act. Included in the grants to States is the special appropriation of $665,700,000 for temporary unemployment compensation extended to persons who have exhausted benefits due to economic conditions. Only $450,000 of this grant was used in fiscal 1958; the balance of $665,250,000 is available for continuation of the program up
to April 30, 1959.
General administrative salaries and expense items:
Office of the Secretary..................
Working Capital Fund...................
Office of the Physically Handicapped.....
Office of the Solicitor..................
Bureau of Labor Standards................
Bureau of Veterans’ Reemployment Rights. ..
Bureau of Apprenticeship.................
Bureau of Employment Security............
Mexican Farm Labor Program...............
Bureau of Employees’ Compensation........
Bureau of Labor Statistics...............
Women’s Bureau...........................
Wage and Hour Division...................
Positions	Amount
180	$1,480,000
118 .	
15	182, 575
319	2,321,000
96	802, 425
65	542,000
491	3, 600, 000
753	5, 958,000
333	2, 250,000
462	2, 885, 400
953	7, 200, 000
61	462,000
1,439	10, 600, 000
5, 285	38, 283, 400
Subtotal....................................................
State grants and benefit payments: Grants to States for employment security program.................. 292,	814, 000
Unemployment insurance benefits, veterans...................... 76,	800, 000
Unemployment insurance benefits, Federal workers............... 54,	400, 000
Temporary unemployment compensation...................... 60	665, 700,000
Employees’ compensation benefits payments...................... 57,	600, 000
Subtotal...................................................... 60	1,147,314,000
Grand total.......................................
5,345 1,185,597,400
Employment Security
The burden of rising unemployment tested the efficacy of the Nation’s employment security programs for providing unemployed workers with income until new jobs could be found, and for bolstering national purchasing power. The unemployment rise was first felt in the 1,800 local employment offices of the Federal-State system of unemployment insurance. The unemployed first sought jobs, but, if jobs were not immediately forthcoming, they called to claim their unemployment insurance benefits.
In most localities the number seeking jobs far exceeded the job openings listed. Particularly hard hit were workers in heavy manufacturing centers and production-type occupations. Although employers reduced employment levels and curtailed their hiring generally, white-collar workers were the least affected. Compared with last year, placements of professional and managerial workers by the public employment service actually increased.
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Also, as a result of increased efforts in behalf of the older worker, the percentage of older workers in total placements was increased during the year, and over a million jobseekers in the “over 45“ bracket were placed. While employment service placement activities were hampered by economic conditions and reduced hiring, the usual interference from the handling of larger volumes of claimants in the employment offices was kept to a minimum this time by the use of emergency additional quarters and staff to handle peak loads.
Fortunately for the Nation and its newly unemployed, the unemployment insurance programs had been greatly strengthened since the last recession, even though serious shortcomings persisted. The amount of weekly benefits and the duration of those benefits had been increased, thus putting more dollars in to the pockets of the unemployed. Unemployment insurance protection also had been extended to many millions of workers, so that almost 80 percent of the nonfarm wage and salary workers were covered.
As joblessness increased during the fall, and as increasing numbers of laid-off workers contacted local employment security offices in the various States, the obviously most important task was to provide income promptly to those who could not be placed in jobs. Official records show that the Federal-State system met this challenge by working overtime, by expanding local office facilities, by cutting red tape, and by putting the interests of the unemployed above other considerations. October, November, and December produced new evidence of the capacity of the employment security program’s unique ability to channel cash promptly in the form of weekly benefit checks into the households of the unemployed and into national purchasing power. During these months and on into the early months of 1958, the flow of checks to workers and into community and national purchasing power almost paralleled the rise in unemployment. From payments of $113 million in September, benefit totals rose to $207 million in December and to a record $400 million in March. Benefit disbursements for the fiscal year were almost $3 billion. This program helped more people than ever before, paying one or more benefit checks to 7,800,000 individuals. The average weekly benefit check was just above $30—nearly $3 more than in the previous year.
Records show that the unemployment insurance programs provided a bulwark in the maintenance of total personal income as well as of the individual incomes of unemployed workers who qualified for benefits. Thus, during the year, employment security won unprecedented national recognition as the Nation’s quickest and most automatic economic stabilizer and its first line of defense against personal hardship. In millions of homes, the words “employment security” meant continuance of personal income when the breadwinner’s regular paycheck stopped. In thousands of communities, employment security meant continued purchasing power, when employer payrolls were cut.
Although undoubtedly many suffered because unable to meet their financial obligations, the restorative impact of these payments on the
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morale of the recipients and in the economic resuscitation of local business was great.
The unemployment insurance system, however, proved to be still inadequate in some States. Not only in some instances were the benefit amounts as prescribed by State law insufficient, but worse, they were allowable for too short a duration. Nearly 1.8 million individuals exhausted their benefit rights during the year. These workers found that, though covered for a few weeks or months, the time too quickly came when no further benefits were forthcoming. And then they had nowhere to turn for economic assistance.
To meet this problem, President Eisenhower proposed and the Congress adopted legislation to provide funds to States agreeing to act as agents of the Federal Government in extending temporarily the duration of benefits to workers who have exhausted their unemployment insurance benefits under the Federal-State system. Nearly one-third of the States had taken advantage of this legislation by the end of the year. And five States temporarily amended their own laws to make benefits available for longer intervals, drawing on State unemployment reserves for this purpose. Altogether 70 percent of the covered workers are protected through the new Federal program or a State-sponsored program extending duration of benefits.
Labor Statistics
During this year of business recession, it was inevitable that people would be more than usually concerned with economic statistics. Employer associations, labor unions, the publishers of news organs, professional workers in the fields of public policy, and agencies at all levels of government made urgent demands for information.
Under these circumstances, the techniques and procedures employed by the Department over many years of trial and testing were found to be of outstanding worth and timeliness.
hi the development of public policy, especially with regard to the distressing problem of unemployment, the Department’s statistical services were utilized heavily by two major advisory organizations: The Council of Economic Advisers, and the Joint Economic Committee of the Congress. Among the statistical items most in demand were employment and unemployment, hours and earnings, construction activity, price indices, and productivity.
Related programs receiving special attention include the development of a Federal-State cooperative labor turnover program, the relationship of prices to economic growth and stability, and the economic impact of the $1 minimum wage.
A substantially revised edition of the Occupational Outlook Handbook was published in September. By the end of the fiscal year, over 20,000 copies had been purchased, thus demonstrating the value of this publication
487100—59---2
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as a useful source of information to employment officials and vocational counselors.
As usual, considerable effort was made during the year to improve the Department’s various statistical series, and to make available to the public the vast file of information available on labor-management bargaining agreements.
Legal Action
The principal regulatory laws administered by the Department of Labor are the Fair Labor Standards (Wage-Hour) Act, the Walsh-Healey Public Contracts Act, and the Davis-Bacon Act and related statutes dealing with wage rates on Federal construction projects and on certain other federally assisted construction work. During the past fiscal year, several alltime highs were reached in connection with administrative and enforcement activities under these laws.
Litigation activity in fiscal 1958 resulted in the largest number of cases ever filed under the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Public Contracts Act, as well as the largest sum recovered by the Department in a single suit. A total of 1,289 civil and criminal cases were filed under those acts while continued litigation in the textile industry resulted in the recovery of $449,557.40 to employees, which was the largest recovery by the Department in one action. Proceedings were completed in 1,163 cases under the Fair Labor Standards and Public Contracts Acts, including 148 criminal actions, in 138 of which judgments of conviction were rendered. A total of 990 injunctions were obtained and 25 other civil actions were closed. In addition, 38 administrative proceedings under the Public Contracts Act were completed, and 37 were instituted. Briefs filed in Federal and State appellate courts totaled 32, of which 4 were in the United States Supreme Court. Twenty-five of these briefs were filed in enforcement actions under the Fair Labor Standards Act, and 5 were concerned with the Public Contracts Act.
Departmental activity relating to the enforcement of the Walsh-Healey Public Contracts Act and the administration of the Mexican labor program was facilitated by two significant court of appeals decisions. One of these cases held that the Government need not wait for the completion of the administrative hearing authorized by the Public Contracts Act before bringing a court action to collect liquidated damages. The other case permitted the Federal Government to recover the wage payments it was required to make for defaulting employers pursuant to its guaranty to Mexican workers under the Migrant Labor Agreement of 1951, despite the failure of the Governments of the United States and Mexico to process complaints in 10 days as directed by that Agreement.
In line with expanded construction activity, the collection of wage data for use in the administration of the Davis-Bacon Act and related statutes was accelerated. Under these laws, 33,283 wage determinations
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were made—an all time high. This number included 2,969 under the Federal-Aid Highway Act. In addition, the Department received an alltime high of 906 enforcement cases under the laws relating to labor standards on these construction projects, while a record number of 72 firms and individuals were listed as ineligible to receive Government contracts for 3 years by the Comptroller General. A total of $302,903.61 in back wages was collected for 3,441 underpaid employees, and $36,210 in penalties was assessed for 8-hour law violations.
Fair Labor Standards and Public Contracts
The 1958 fiscal year marked the 20th anniversary of the enactment in June 1938 of the Fair Labor Standards Act, which took effect on October 24, 1938. Setting standards on a minimum wage, on overtime pay, and on the protection of child labor for employees engaged in or producing goods for interstate commerce, the act has had continuing value as a support for the wage structure in times of recession; and in prosperous times, as protection for both the worker whose employer is failing to keep up with modern developments, and that employer’s competitors.
Over the past 20 years, the act has been amended so that its standards would not become obsolete. A large body of court decisions has been built up on many aspects of the law. In addition, numerous administrative actions, taken under the authority of the statute, have modified its application to meet changed conditions.
After 20 years of experience with this law, there is now substantial acceptance of its basic provisions by affected employers. To aid them in compliance, the Wage and Hour and Public Contracts Divisions of the Department conduct vigorous educational programs and endeavor to maintain the law’s viability in relation to evolving business practices and technical changes. For instance, during fiscal 1958, the divisions proposed to amend, or amended, various statements of position or rulings contained in interpretative bulletins and regulations on such matters as overtime pay, the retail establishment exemption, the exemption for executive, administrative, and professional employees, and recordkeeping.
Conscientious enforcement is nevertheless necessary on a continuing basis to secure and maintain uniform application and compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Walsh-Healey Public Contracts Act. During the past 20 years, as a result of several hundred thousand investigations, employers have agreed to pay back wages amounting to more than $180 million to about 4 million employees. In fiscal year 1958, employers agreed to pay $10,954,000 to 117,000 employees as the result of investigations, the largest sum obtained by the Divisions for workers covered by the act in any year since 1946, and almost $20 million in underpayments was found due, the largest amount during any year of the past decade.
Of more than 11,500 minors found employed contrary to the child labor
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provisions o£ the Fair Labor Standards Act in fiscal 1958, over 7,200 were working in nonagricultural establishments and almost 4,500 on farms. Over half the children found unlawfully employed in nonfarm establishments were working in violation of the Secretary’s orders setting a minimum age of 18 for employment in designated hazardous occupations.
Because the Divisions’ staff, though nationwide, can investigate annually only 5 or 6 percent of the 900,000 establishments employing the 24 million workers now covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act, there is a premium on the effective direction of investigative effort. The emphasis in current investigation programing is to delegate increasing responsibilities to field and subfield office levels, where the experience of officials of many years’ standing serves to pinpoint local industrial conditions that result in violations.
Although the Fair Labor Standards Act establishes a general statutory minimum wage, which has been $1 an hour since March 1, 1956, the Divisions have responsibilities in connection with the setting of minimum wage rates for certain employment in areas in which the $1 minimum does not apply. Thus, under provisions of the law that authorize the setting of minimum rates at or below $1 an hour through industry committee procedures for industries in Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and American Samoa, wage orders have been issued establishing minimum rates of $1 an hour for about 30 percent of the employees in these areas.
In addition, prevailing minimum wage determinations are made by the Secretary of Labor under the Public Contracts Act, which applies to Government supply contracts in excess of $10,000. Two minimum wage determinations were issued during the year—$1.20 an hour for the scientific, industrial, and laboratory instruments industry, and $1.50 for the paint, varnish, and related products industry. In addition, the Secretary issued proposed determinations for three industries: surgical [instruments and apparatus, drugs and medicines, and bituminous coal.
In connection with the Divisions’ responsibilities in the field of minimum wage studies, deriving from the statutory requirement of an annual evaluation and appraisal by the Secretary of Labor of the minimum wages established by the Fair Labor Standards Act, the collection of data and a substantial part of the analysis of a 3-year program of studies projected in fiscal 1956 had been completed by the year’s end.
Workmen’s Compensation
Fifty years have elapsed since the original act providing limited workmen’s compensation benefits to certain civilian Federal employees was enacted in 1908. Today there are approximately 3^ million workers, including 1 million employees of private enterprise, covered under this and subsequent Federal legislation. During fiscal year 1958, nearly 98,000 in
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juries to Federal employees were reported under the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act. Expenditure for the payment of compensation, medical, and other benefits to injured beneficiaries and their families amounted to $59.6 million.
For the same period, over 102,600 work injuries to employees of private enterprise covered under the Longshoremen’s and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act were reported. Disability and death benefits in cases closed during the year amounted to $11.6 million.
Further decentralization of the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act was accomplished during the year with facilities for the local adjudication of claims established in district offices located in Boston, New York, and Chicago. With previously established facilities in San Francisco, approximately 50 percent of the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act activity is now processed by district offices in the field.
Women Workers
Women’s employment reflected major trends in the overall economy. Although there was a seasonal decline during the winter, the number of women in the labor force was about the same in July 1958 (22.7 million) as in July 1957. There was a drop of half a million in employed women, and a corresponding rise in the number of women unemployed. In some occupational groups, however, such as the professional and the managerial, the number of employed women increased; and the largest occupation for women—clerical work—continued to employ over 6 million women.
In teaching and nursing and in the critical scientific fields, the demand for well-trained workers remained strong. Twenty-eight programs where mature women college graduates can prepare for teaching in their own communities were reported, in addition to more than 100 listed previously. Measures by which communities can increase the supply of nurses were outlined in a pamphlet on salaries and working conditions of nurses and other hospital personnel, based on a survey of 16 metropolitan areas. And a leaflet—Is “Math” in the Stars for You?—addressed to girl students was distributed to high schools all over the country.
In connection with the Department’s older worker program, earning opportunities forums for older women workers were held in six communities. These forums were sponsored by local women’s and civic organizations with the cooperation of the State employment service and the U. S. Department of Labor.
For the second consecutive year, the Department issued a report on the employment status of college women in the winter after their graduation. The most striking change was in the average starting salary of employed women graduates—$3,446 in 1957, compared with $3,141 a year earlier.
Technical assistance on legislation and administration in fields im
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portant to women workers, such as minimum wage, equal pay, and working conditions, was furnished to State labor departments, women’s and civic organizations, and unions requesting it. Six jurisdictions raised their statutory minimum wage rates; and 9 issued a total of 35 new or revised wage orders, over half of which set minimum wages of $1 or more an hour.
In the field of women’s civil and political status, eight additional State reports were revised and brought up to date in the series on the legal status of women in the United States. A special study of State laws governing minimum age at marriage was prepared at the request of the Department of State for use at meetings of United Nations bodies.
Labor Standards
The development and administration of sound labor laws and the promotion of programs to improve the working and living conditions of wage earners continue to be among the Department’s principal activities. This responsibility stems from the organic act by which Congress created the Department of Labor. Operating on the premise that sound labor standards are helpful to management and labor, and that they advance the wellbeing of workers and increase efficiency in production, the Department provides technical assistance to States seeking to improve their labor legislation and administration.
During 1958, the legislatures of 17 States and Puerto Rico met in regular session, and 7 of these States as well as 11 others met in special session. Some 1,400 bills and acts relating to labor were recorded and indexed by subject, with the more important bills and all of the acts analyzed. This activity serves as the basis for furnishing State labor departments, and other interested groups, with data on State legislative trends in the field of labor.
The prevention of occupational injuries and the promotion of suitable employment for young people are high in importance on the list of activities with which the Department is concerned in the field of labor standards. Training foreign labor officials in labor legislation and administration, as well as in occupational safety and health, provides an effective method of sharing our progress in this area to create better working conditions in the free countries undergoing industrial expansion.
Safety training courses, offered by specialists of the Department, help conserve the Nation’s manpower by cutting the annual toll of job injuries. In recent years, industrial accidents in this country have caused 14,000 deaths and nearly 2 million injuries annually. The Department’s training program provides State and Federal personnel, as well as representatives of management and labor, with an opportunity to obtain instruction in safety fundamentals or in some specialized aspect of industrial safety. During the year, over 2,300 individuals with safety responsibilities took advantage of these training facilities by participating in one or more of the 90 courses conducted.
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Of major importance to management, labor, and government in planning and executing programs to safeguard workers is the President’s Conference on Occupational Safety, the national forum on prevention programs. This year the Conference brought together 3,000 leaders from all segments of the economy to assess safety needs in a rapidly changing technology. Experienced in special fields of safety, experts examined problems of radiation control, human motivation in relation to job accidents, industrial medicine’s role in preventing accidents, and other facets of the Nation’s safety problems. Results of the Conference were published in a Report to the President, which states broad principles and methods of safeguarding the Nation’s workers in the decade ahead.
Recent years have brought encouraging progress in improving the working and living conditions of migratory agricultural workers and their families. Twenty-one States now have organized methods of meeting this problem, as compared with only 6 States 4 years ago. Assistance to States in the development of programs and in the preparation of legislation and administrative regulations to improve the plight of these workers is one of the Department’s services in increasing demand.
The Department is vitally concerned with the protection of young workers and in broadening opportunities for young people to obtain suitable jobs. This becomes an increasingly important responsibility because of the upsurge in youth population. By 1965 there will be 4 million more young workers in the labor force than there were in 1955- To prepare for this addition to the labor force, the Department, through a nationwide educational campaign, has urged young people to stay in school, develop their skills, and graduate. Progress in this effort is seen in a new chart book, Young Workers Under 18—Today and Tomorrow, which shows that attending school is becoming more and more the main activity of the 14 to 17 year old group. A decade ago 68 percent of our 16 and 17 year old boys and girls beyond the usual compulsory school-attendance age were enrolled in school. Today 80 percent of these boys and girls are enrolled.
As part of the program for the safety of young workers, hazardous-occupations orders are issued under the child labor provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act. During the year, public hearings were held on proposals to permit 16 and 17 year old trainees to work part time under vocational education programs in industries using certain woodworking, metalworking, and paper-products machines. The Department also cooperated with key national education groups to increase and improve the teaching of safety in the classroom. With the help of an advisory committee of experts on programs for children and youth, the Department seeks to keep before the public the constant need of all young people for adequate child labor protection, education, training, and employment opportunity.
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Mexican Farm Labor Program
During the past year, significant improvement in the Mexican national program has been made in three fields: wages, feeding, and housing.
Important policy decisions were issued in connection with testing the adequacy of piece rates paid to Mexican national workers. Their purpose was to assure that the employment of Mexican nationals at such piece rates does not adversely affect wages and working conditions of domestic workers. In several areas of the country, intensive work with reference to the Department’s wage policies resulted in substantial improvements in the earnings of workers, and established patterns of action for next year. The Department is working closely with employers to assist them in taking the immediate responsibility for improving earnings.
Minimum standard menus for feeding Mexican national workers were adopted to assure that Mexican workers fed at employers’ central feeding facilities received a variety and adequate quantity of wholesome food. A vigorous enforcement program has been carried out.
During the year, improved housing conditions were evident in all parts of the country, as a result of the application of minimum housing standards adopted in M^rch 1957. The cooperation of employers is evident in the large sums of money spent for the general improvement and construction of new housing. The California Division of Housing, for example, in its report to the Governor reported more than $14 million spent during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1958, for new construction and the modernization of workers’ housing.
Apprenticeship and Training
Assistance in setting up or improving training programs was given to 145,000 establishments and 6,800 joint apprenticeship committees. More than 18,000 firms were assisted in setting up training programs for journeymen in new processes and methods. Nearly 35,000 apprentice registrations, completions, or cancellations were recorded, and some 5,000 new or revised written apprenticeship programs were reviewed. Completion certificates were issued to 8,500 apprentices, and certificates of meritorious service were awarded to 250 persons gi /ing voluntary helo in the development of training programs.
A project to install or improve training was completed in the foundry industry, with 2,000 firms receiving technical assistance. Plans were initiated for similar projects in the following industries: Electrical contracting, paper and pulp manufacturing, the tool and die making industry, and aircraft-missiles manufacture.
Training materials centers were established in the public library systems in Bridgeport, Phoenix, and Toledo, and in the library of the American Society of Training Directors located in Madison.
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The staff assisted in planning and conducting three multistate apprenticeship conferences—Eastern Seaboard, Southern, and Middle Atlantic—and the National Railroad Apprenticeship Conference. In addition it participated in some 63 national conventions, the American Apprenticeship-Round Table, and the American Society of Training Directors Conference..
International Labor
The increased importance of the labor factor in international affairs since World War II has provided the setting for the Department’s involvement in international labor matters. Fiscal 1958 saw a continuation of the growth and adaptation to existing circumstances which have marked the Department’s postwar experience in the international labor field.
During the year, further emphasis was given to the Department’s role as the agency of the Federal Government primarily responsible for United States participation in the International Labor Organization. At the June 1958 International Labor Conference, the Secretary of Labor (who had spoken as a visiting Minister at two previous sessions of the Conference) was present as chairman of the United States delegation. The moral force of the free world was marshalled at the 1958 Conference when better than a two-thirds majority of the delegates from 66 countries refused to accept the credentials of, and thus expelled from the Conference, the representatives of the puppet Hungarian regime.
The international activity at present requiring the most staff attention in the Department is the exchange-of-persons program. The Department’s work in this field began in the late thirties in connection with the United States Government’s program of cooperation with the other American republics. There has been a great numerical increase in the years since in the number of labor visitors annually programed in the Department. A total of 849 visitors in the labor field from 54 countries, including many less-developed countries, were programed by the Department in fiscal 1958.
The number of labor attaches—full-time foreign service labor officers in whose work the Department of Labor as a member of the integrated foreign service has much interest—increased during the year from 46 to 48. World coverage by the Department’s series of directories of foreign labor organizations was completed by the publication of directories of labor organizations in Africa, Asia, and Australasia. Studies of various international trade secretariats, the important international organizations of national unions in different countries of specific crafts or industries, were initiated, and one study was completed. The particular labor problems of several individual foreign nations were intensively considered and possible action programs in the labor field were developed by departmental officials.
Close attention was paid to the labor implications of international trade, particularly with problems associated with the renewal by Congress of the President’s authority to negotiate reciprocal trade agreements. Labor
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representation was arranged at international trade fairs in Berlin, Osaka, and Casablanca.
The Department has given increased attention to gathering and analyzing information about labor developments in other countries, so that labor factors can be given appropriate consideration in developing the foreign policy of the United States.
Reemployment Rights
The reemployment rights accorded servicemen and reservists are not limited to time of war or national emergency. These rights are designed to assist eligible ex-servicemen and reservists to return to their preservice employment on an equal footing with those whose civilian careers were not interrupted.
The Department of Labor’s operations consist primarily of obtaining voluntary compliance through a program of assistance to servicemen, reservists, their employers, and labor organizations. Through the cooperative efforts of the Department of Defense and the Department of Labor, a program has been developed to provide ex-servicemen and reservists at the time they are released from military duty with an opportunity to request specific information or assistance with respect to reemployment rights. This enables rights and obligations of ex-servicemen and employers co be clarified before serious disputes arise.
Where settlement of an ex-serviceman’s claim cannot be reached through the Department’s machinery, the case may be referred through the Solicitor’s Office to the Department of Justice for litigation if the ex-serviceman so requests.
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APPENDICES
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OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY
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OFFICE OF ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT SECRETARY
The Administrative Assistant Secretary has primary responsibility for the formulation, presentation, and execution of the Department’s budget; the financial management and control of all available funds; the direction of the Department’s organization and management processes; and for appropriate manpower utilization. He is a member of the Secretary’s Policy Committee and the Secretary’s Program and Operation Committee, and is the liaison officer with the Congress and the Bureau of the Budget on all matters having to do with appropriations or other related budget and management problems of the Department.
The Administrative Assistant Secretary and his staff serve continuously in an advisory capacity to top staff as well as to all bureau heads and their staffs. Bureau programs are evaluated in terms of efficiency of management, economy of operation, and coordination. This office prepares and promulgates administrative and other procedures on operations; it directs organization and management studies, control of space, property, procurement, records, and library services; and it makes surveys of new methods and equipment for labor saving and economy, and installs them with resulting improved production.
This was an unusual year in budget history. Ordinarily the Department prepares no more than 15 budget submissions; these in themselves involve considerable preparation of material, conferences, evaluation, and review. In this fiscal year 1958, a total of 27 appropriation requests were necessary and were submitted to the Bureau of the Budget and the Congress, based largely on newly proposed legislation or need for increases in existing activities due to unforeseen changes in economic or other conditions. The review, discussions, and conferences in the Department, with the Bureau of the Budget, and finally with the Congress were necessarily numerous, adding largely to the work of this office and to Bureau administrative offices. New legislation proposed for which budgets had been prepared and passed in the 85th Congress, second session, are:
1.	Temporary Unemployment Compensation Act, P. L. 85-44, approved June 4, 1958, providing for temporary extension of unemployment benefits under the Federal-State system.
2.	Longshoremen’s and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act, Safety Rules Amendment; P. L. 85-742, approved August 23, 1958, to provide a system of safety rules, regulations, and safety inspection and training.
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3.	Welfare and Pension Plans Disclosure Act, P. L. 85-836, August 28. 1958, to provide for registration, reporting, and disclosure of employee welfare and pension benefit plans.
4.	Ex-servicemen’s Unemployment Compensation Act of 1958, P. L. 85— 848, August 28, 1958, to provide a permanent unemployment compensation program for ex-servicemen similar to the program which now exists under title XV for civilian employees of the Federal Government.
Accomplishments during the year were more significant than in any prior years toward a goal of immediate readiness to provide administrative support for the Department’s emergency programs in the event of enemy attack. Permanent headquarters for the Department s communications officer for emergency operations were established at the relocation site. This action, together with the decentralization of departmental peacetime functions and changes in the official stations of certain regional employees, provides a nucleus of staff in the vicinity of the relocation site to man communications. These employees have been trained in the techniques of the Interagency Communications System. They also participated in the annual national relocation exercise. Thus the past practice of detailing Washington office employees to the relocation site for participation in the communication phase of annual exercises is no longer necessary. This accomplishment provides a more realistic plan for the continuity of substantive operations. Auxiliary facilities for electric power were installed at the relocation site to provide added assurances of operational continuity.
Finding suitable space for several relocation and decentralization programs in some bureaus was a major project. The Bureau of Employees Compensation decentralized some of its operational units from Washington to Boston, Chicago, and New York City. In New York City, the Longshoremen’s and Harbor Workers’ unit was relocated to the same premises as other BEC operations. The Research Branch of the same bureau and a major portion of the Department’s regional activities were transferred to the departmental relocation site. Other moves and relocations included new quarters for the Bracero Reception Center at Eagle Pass, Tex., and transfers of several units to other locations in Washington due to demolition of some of the World War II temporary buildings.
Congressional approval has been secured for acquisition of a building in the District of Columbia for housing the offices and facilities of the District of Columbia Unemployment Compensation Board and the public employment service for the District of Columbia. The cost of acquiring this building is to be paid from funds appropriated for grants to States for administration of employment security through amortization of the total cost over a period of years. This is an arrangement similar to that made with many States for the same purposes in order for them to secure suitable quarters, and will result in improved service quarters as well as economy.
A joint project of the Office of the Administrative Assistant Secretary and the Bureau of Employment Security, on the method of determining budgets for State agencies for administering employment security functions,
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resulted in some recommendations which are already in effect. Further recommendations are expected in fiscal 1959.
Conversion of the telephone service of the Department from the manual to the dial system was completed in December 1957.
Fire and accident prevention surveys were arranged at reception centers for housing and processing farm laborers who are imported under P. L. 78 at the request of operators of farms in agricultural States when domestic farm labor is unavailable. The centers surveyed are located at El Centro, Calif.; Nogales, Ariz.; and El Paso and Hildalgo, Tex. Departmental safety specialists were used. Not only has this resulted in recommendations for improvements and changes but also in an education in safe conditions and practices for supervisory personnel in the locations. Recommendations have been carried out and safety committees have been appointed at all installations for continuous safeguarding and improvement of premises.
Establishment of procedures for procurement and other centralized type services under the working capital fund has resulted in improved service and economy in operation. The prescribed General Services Administration regulation for quantity ordering is being carried out effectively.
New techniques in duplication processes through the installation of a “Headliner” and a “Giant Enlarger” enable reproduction of exhibit and other materials which previously had to be lettered by hand. Microfilming has replaced photostat operations, and is both more economical and expedient.
Plans were initiated for a departmentwide survey of all operations requiring or having a potential use of mechanical equipment to determine possibility of more efficient and economical techniques.
Several major paperwork management projects in fiscal year 1958 were effected through arrangement of studies by the National Archives and Record Service:
1.	Office of International Labor Affairs: A survey of all areas of paperwork management resulted in adoption of recommendations for simplified correspondence methods, an improved mail and control system, and installation of an improved filing system.
2.	Office of the Secretary: Consultations resulted in recommendations for improvements in the filing system which are in process of installation.
3.	A study is now in progress in the Office of the Administrative Assistant Secretary on filing methods.
In addition to the above, records control schedules providing for disposition of records of the Bureau of Veterans’ Reemployment Rights and the Women’s Bureau were approved by the 85th Congressional Committee on Disposition of Executive Papers. With approval of these schedules, periodic disposition of all major accumulations of records of the Department is authorized.
About 13,400 cubic feet of records were disposed of, an increase over last year of 700. Major bureaus are now systematically carrying out disposal procedures.
487100—5!
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3
The Department participated in the Government campaign to increase employee savings bond purchasing, and achieved the 50 percent goal set up by the Treasury Department.
The Department’s incentive awards program continues to be an activity in which employees are participating in steadily increasing numbers.
While year-end statistics reflect more than a 20 percent increase in number of suggestions received over the previous year, recorded suggestions during the first half of the fiscal year exceeded the number received in any other previous 6-month period.
Approved performance awards held to the previous year’s level, but a reduction in total personnel during the year slightly improved the percentage of employees given these awards.
The number of employees receiving honor award recognition hit a new high this year with the change in rules on length of service to give credit for total civilian and military Federal service (rather than Department of Labor service only). In the honor award phase of the program, including length of service, approximately 2,350 employees received recognition.
A significant number of these awards were presented at an honor awards ceremony held in observance of the Department’s 45th anniversary on March 4, 1958. On this occasion, the Department was fortunate in having the Vice President as guest speaker.
The Library added 9,902 volumes to the cataloged collection, circulated 49,998 books and periodicals, and answered over 12,000 reference questions. The Library serves the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, the President’s Committee on Employment of the Physically Handicapped, the President’s Committee on Migrant Labor, and the President s Committee on Government Contracts in addition to the Department of Labor. During the past year, 1,297 people not connected with any of these organizations came to the Library to use its facilities. Many others use it through interlibrary loans.
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OFFICE OF INFORMATION, PUBLICATIONS, AND REPORTS
Routine operations of the Washington office involved the preparation and issuance of news releases; preparation and display of exhibits; review and clearance of all publications, reports, and news releases of the Department; preparation and issuance of publications of departmentwide significance; contact with Washington representatives of the various news media; and the output of information to 550 labor papers.
Upon request, the Department participates in various conferences and conventions of labor unions and business and professional organizations. Departmental representatives deliver addresses as requested, set up exhibits depicting the services of the Department, and explain the ways in which the Department serves the public. Representatives participated in several hundred such conventions and conferences during the year.
A 90-foot exhibit was completed for use of the International Cooperation Administration, and is being shown in various cities of the Near and Far East. So far it has been to Greece, Turkey, and Iran. For the Bureau of Labor Standards a 24-foot exhibit on safety programs is in preparation, and 2 large exhibits were completed. Other exhibits were prepared, as follows: 16 portables of medium size for the Wage-Hour Division; 12 portable and 2 medium for the Bureau of Apprenticeship; 2 large for the Bureau of Employment Security; 4 small table exhibits and 3 regular for the Women’s Bureau; and 4 for the President’s Committee on Employment of the Physically Handicapped.
The office published:
Subject Listing of Publications of the U. S. Department of Labor, 1948-57.
Labor Charts. This is a new assembly of 17 charts of interest to workers and their employers. Published free of cost monthly, it is in extensive demand, and seems to meet a real need.
Brief History of the American Labor Movement (35£). This is a revision of an earlier publication.
In addition to the above:
The text of a major volume on How American Buying Habits Change was completed, and is expected to be published about May 1959.
The first draft of another major volume, Farm Labor Fact Book, was completed. Publication is expected during fiscal 1959.
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Work is in progress on a book dealing with the problems of automation in our modern industrial society.
A revision of an earlier publication describing the functions of the Department is in preparation for issuance early in 1959.
The Office answered some 65}000 inquiries made by telephone or in person by the public and the press or by other departments, and performed other duties and activities required to inform the public fully on the policies and programs of the Department.
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OFFICE OF INTERNATIONAL LABOR AFFAIRS
The Office of International Labor Affairs, under the guidance of the Assistant Secretary of Labor for International Labor Affairs, continued its operations in the field of international labor affairs and its coordination of the Department of Labor’s programs in this field, during fiscal year 1958.
A total of 849 foreign visitors were programed in the Department, a continuation of the program involving foreign visitors in the trade union and technical labor and manpower fields. The labor attach^ corps was again expanded. Training of labor attaches and Foreign Service as well as Department of Labor officers included a course at the Foreign Service Institute and a conference for American labor attaches and labor reporting officers assigned to United States Embassies in the European countries.
The Secretary of Labor served as U. S. Government Delegate to the 42nd International Labor Conference along with the Assistant Secretary for International Organization Affairs, Department of State. Sessions of the ILO Governing Body, several industry committees, and the 41st ILO Conference on Maritime Problems were attended by Labor Department staff members who served as delegates or advisers.
The Department continued to be active in preparations for a number of meetings of the United Nations, its Economic and Social Council, the various commissions, and a number of the specialized agencies such as the Food and Agricultural Organization and the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization.
The participation of the Department in international trade fairs continued on a modest scale, with American trade unionists participating in trade fairs in Berlin and labor presentations in Osaka and Casablanca.
During the year, the Office of International Labor Affairs observed the 10th year of its existence. In this connection it issued a summary report on its decade of activities for the use of Foreign Service officers and other overseas personnel, dealing with labor and manpower problems in American posts and missions around the world.
Technical Cooperation and Exchange of Persons
The Department’s technical cooperation and exchange-of-persons activities centered upon the arrangement of programs in the United States in labor and related fields for visitors from abroad, the recruitment of Ameri
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can technicians for foreign assignments, and the rendering of technical advisory services. While the majority of these operations were carried out at the request of the International Cooperation Administration (ICA) of the Department of State, programs were also developed for leaders and specialists selected by the International Educational Exchange Service (IES) of the Department of State, for fellows given awards by the United Nations and the International Labor Organization (ILO), and for visitors sponsored by the European Productivity Agency (EPA) as well as for a few under the auspices of the Department of the Army.
Foreign visitor arrivals in the Department during the year numbered 849 from 54 countries: 237 from the American Republics; 89 from the Near East, South Asia, and Africa; 191 from the Far East; and 332 from Europe. There were 669 arrivals under the ICA program, 129 under IES, 23 under UN and ILO, 24 under EPA, and 4 under the Army program. Primary fields of interest were as follows: Trade union activities and labormanagement relations, 688; industrial safety and labor law administration, 32; employment security, 26; labor statistics, 13; and industrial training, 90. Trade unionists accounted for 617 arrivals, 125 were from government organizations, 78 from management, and 29 from other organizations.
The following major types of projects for foreign visitors were carried out during the year:
Programs of 5 to 6 weeks for ICA labor groups from France, Italy, Austria, West Berlin, and Japan, in various technical phases of trade union activities, labor-management relations, and productivity in industry.
Technical programs of 3 months’ duration for ICA trade union groups from underdeveloped countries, particularly from Latin America, in trade union activities and labor-management relations.
Programs under ICA sponsorship for Latin American trade unionists to study trade union and labor-management relations subjects at the University of Puerto Rico for 3 months, followed by a 2-month program of observation in such fields in the States.
Trade union leadership programs under ICA sponsorship lasting from 6 to 7 months, mainly for French and Italian groups, but also including participants from several underdeveloped countries. These provide for an academic course of about 3 months specially arranged at one of the colleges or universities, for internship with American unions for about 2 months, and for field observation trips of several weeks.
Programs of 3 to 12 months for government technicians coming as individuals or groups under ICA or ILO auspices, from ministries of labor or other agencies in underdeveloped countries. They consist of technical courses in governmental administration in one or more of the Department’s bureaus, field programs with Federal and State agencies, and academic courses as appropriate.
Programs of 6 to 12 months under ICA, UN, or ILO sponsorship for skilled or semiskilled industrial technicians from abroad, principally from
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underdeveloped countries. These provide for placement in United States industries for training in industrial production techniques.
Programs up to 2 months for leaders in labor and related fields from other countries of the free world, invited to visit the United States under the IES program. These consist of arrangements which satisfy the visitor’s own interests and provide exposure to a broad cross section of American life and geography, with the view toward promoting better cultural understanding.
Programs of about 4 months for specialists in labor and related fields from other countries of the free world, invited to visit the United States under the IES program. They provide for longer study of the American scene and the visitor’s professional field than is possible under the leaders’ program. Of special significance is the multicountry trade union project carried out each year. It provides for a stay of about 1 month in a selected community for the visitor to become acquainted with various aspects of community life as well as his professional field; a seminar on labor-management relations at a university; internship with American unions; and a field trip into several areas and communities making up a good cross section of the country.
An agreement between the Department of Labor and the European Productivity Agency was signed during the year which provided for the Department to make program arrangements in the United States for six groups sponsored by the Agency and made up of trade unionists from European countries. These projects have covered the study of such subjects as social and economic aspects of technological improvement, trade union training and education programs, trade union research, and protection of workers against radiation hazards. The Agency’s projects were carried out during fiscal year 1957 under the agreement between the Department and the International Cooperation Administration. But it was decided that, beginning with fiscal year 1958, the EPA would enter into direct agreements with United States agencies as appropriate to obtain their services.
The success of these activities is in great part due to the continuation of the excellent cooperation received from American trade unions, industrial establishments, educational institutions, State and municipal agencies, and numerous community and private organizations. These organizations spend a great amount of time in discussions with foreign visitors, provide access to their staff and facilities, and arrange considerable hospitality for the visitors in private homes or elsewhere. This help is important in satisfying the technical and professional interests of the visitor, as well as in having him experience the warmth of American friendship and gain a good insight into the life of our country. Efforts were continued to coordinate contacts with such organizations so as to spread and lighten the burden as much as possible.
The Department provided several specialists from its staff for overseas technical assignments with the International Cooperation Administration
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and the International Labor Organization in labor and manpower fields. Help was also given in recruiting specialists from State agencies, industry, and other organizations. The Department issued a policy statement during the year encouraging highly qualified Department of Labor staff to accept posts abroad as an aid in carrying out assistance programs and to broaden staff experience and develop background for a bigger and better contribution to Department of Labor programs.
Publications of the Department were either provided or identified for purchase in answer to inquiries from former visitors, from officials and agencies in foreign countries, and from technical assistance offices and experts abroad. Replies to technical questions from such sources were also prepared. While these services consume much less staff time than do other activities, they represent a valuable supplement to other services as well as a beneficial follow-through effort.
Publications on International Trade Union Organizations
Two new directories of foreign labor organizations were published: the Directory of Labor Organizations in Asia and Australasia, and the Directory of Labor Organizations in Africa. The Directory of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) was again revised. The Office of International Labor Affairs has now released directories covering the entire world both in the national and international field. These directories, which list the labor organizations of each country, their leading officials and publications, and their affiliations with international labor organizations, have been widely used in government, labor, and business circles. They have proved valuable in bringing to light information useful to those organizations active in combating Communist influence in the labor movements of the free world.
Work on the studies of the structure, functions, and effectiveness of international trade secretariats was continued during the year. Two additional studies of international trade secretariats were nearing completion at the end of the year: a study of the International Metalworkers Federation, and a study of the International Union of Food and Drink Workers associations. A study of the International Landworkers Federation had been previously released. Preparations were made to obtain background material on the international trade secretariats of Postal, Telegraph, and Telephone International, the Public Services International, the Miners’ International Federation, and the International Federation of Textile Workers’ Associations. The studies provide needed information regarding the activities of these international organizations which is of value to those national unions of the same or similar crafts throughout the world that are playing an increasingly effective role in stemming Communist influence.
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Foreign Service
The year saw growth in the number of labor officers in the Foreign Service. The corps of labor attaches, Foreign Service officers who spend their full time on labor matters, increased from 46 to 48 during the year. For the first time new labor attaches were assigned at Karachi, Pakistan, and Beirut, Lebanon. Other new labor attache positions, particularly in the less developed areas of the world, were being actively considered. Together with some 100 other part-time labor reporting officers located in virtually every American Foreign Service post in the world, the existence of the labor attaches helped to assure that labor’s role in the contemporary world scene would be taken into account in the formulation of American foreign policy.
Within the purview of the Foreign Service Act of 1946, the Department continued to participate in selecting, assigning, training, assisting, and evaluating Foreign Service labor officers in all appropriate ways. The Department’s membership on the Board of Foreign Service, the Board of Examiners for the Foreign Service, the Appointments and Assignments Board, and other formal and ad hoc committees enabled the Department to participate fully in the selection and assignment of these officers.
Training of Foreign Service labor officers was accomplished through a variety of means. Lectures were given by Department personnel to the Foreign Service junior officer and mid-career courses. Briefing sessions were arranged in the Department for large numbers of officers. And the Department participated both in planning and providing lecturers for the second annual labor training course given at the Foreign Service Institute of the Department of State.
During the year, a labor attache conference was held at Munich, Germany, from June 4 to 9, 1958. The conference was jointly arranged by the Departments of State and Labor. Some 40 persons, including Foreign Service and International Cooperation Administration labor officers assigned in Europe, several representatives of the Departments of State and Labor and the United States Information Agency from Washington, and the 2 labor attaches stationed in Africa, took part in the week-long period of intensive discussion.
Hundreds of requests from overseas for specific publications or other information were answered by the Department, and a wide variety of publications in the labor field were regularly sent to overseas posts. The Department’s instructions to Foreign Service posts, and appraisals of incoming dispatches from these posts, were planned to insure that needed information was obtained in Washington and that the work done by officers abroad was appraised. Through reports on individual officers and Labor Department participation on the annual Foreign Service Selection Boards of the Department of State, the Department played its role in the evaluation of the work of labor officers.
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Overseas Labor Programs
In carrying out the Department of Labor’s responsibilities in the development and implementation of American foreign policy, with particular relevance to foreign policies and objectives that affect working people, area specialists have been studying and analyzing labor and manpower problems and developments country by country, formulating departmental policy toward the country, and developing action programs in the labor field. Proposals for their incorporation in overseas country programs operated by other agencies are made as appropriate.
The staff of area specialists in the Department was strengthened through the addition of a specialist on Africa. The Department was fortunate to obtain as the first incumbent in this position an individual whose previous service as labor attache in several posts and as consul general in Africa gave him the needed background experience. Currently, there are five area specialists in the Office of International Labor Affairs—for Europe, the Near East and South Asia, Africa, the Far East, and Latin America.
Representatives of the Department of Labor, in cooperation with the State Department, International Cooperation Administration, and United States Information Agency, developed proposals for making surveys of human resources and manpower requirements in countries participating in the mutual security program; particularly with reference to training managerial, supervisory, technical, and engineering personnel in countries planning for economic development and industrialization. Action programs in countries where the training of such personnel will be appropriate would follow where the basic manpower surveys point to the need for such programs.
International Labor Organization
Within the Department of Labor, which is the agency of the Federal Government primarily responsible for United States participation in the International Labor Organization, ILO work is coordinated by the Office of International Labor Affairs. (The United States joined the ILO in 1934, 15 years after its creation in 1919 as an outgrowth of the labor and social demands of World War I. In 1934 there were 60 member nations in the ILO; today there are 79.)
The technical work, including the preparation of reports, replies to questionnaires, and comments on ILO reports and instructions for the guidance of United States delegates to ILO meetings, is performed initially by OILA or, at its request, by the bureaus of the Department or other agencies of the Federal Government. Through the years the various bureaus of the Department of Labor have made many significant contributions to effective United States participation in the ILO.
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In these activities, the Department of Labor has been governed by the basic United States objectives of (1) strengthening the economic and social fabric of the free world and so encouraging the alleviation of those conditions of misery and frustration upon which communism breeds; (2) improving labor standards and living conditions around the world so that international trade, including the development of foreign markets for American goods, is expanded and America’s high labor standards are protected from international trade competition based upon unreasonably low labor standards abroad; and (3) seeking effective forums in which to present economic and social concepts of the United States to the rest of the world.
In addition to the fact that the Assistant Secretary of Labor for International Affairs is the U. S. Government representative on the ILO Governing Body, the Department arranges for representation from Government, labor, and management groups for 10 to 15 ILO meetings each year; maintains liaison with employer and worker groups concerning the issues to be considered at these meetings; and holds discussions and briefing sessions with those selected to attend the meetings either as delegates or advisers.
Although the nature of the Department’s participation has remained fairly constant, the same cannot be said of the substance and extent of that participation. The growth of industrial committee activity, the increasing importance of the ILO technical assistance program, Russia’s re-entry into the ILO, and the growth of interdepartmental collaboration on ILO matters have steadily increased the volume of work pertaining to ILO. On the substantive side, emphasis has been placed on activities that seem to hold the best prospect for practical accomplishment, and which will contribute most to strengthening democratic institutions and the free world.
The United States has had some success in shifting the emphasis of ILO activities away from the traditional standards development work, to operational programs, practical research and technical work on specific problems (safety, industrial relations, increasing productivity, and the like), and the dissemination of information. For example, it has welcomed and supported energetically the ILO concern with increased productivity as a means of raising living standards. In most of its aspects, higher productivity is the result of cooperative efforts by management and labor. The ILO, with the active participation of labor and management, is in a unique position to make a lasting contribution to this field.
U. S. delegations have taken a positive role in the development of an ILO program to promote a broader understanding in the field of labormanagement relations. This is an effort to show the ways in which management and labor can learn to work together and settle their differences with a minimum of governmental interference.
During the past year, the Office of International Labor Affairs performed staff work for United States participation in three major conferences and three important industrial committee meetings. It recommended United States experts who attended four meetings on technical subjects under
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consideration by the ILO, and prepared for the three Governing Body sessions held.
The 42nd session of the International Labor Conference was held in 'Geneva, Switzerland, in June 1958. Secretary of Labor James P. Mitchell, who headed the U. S. delegation, read a message from President Dwight D. Eisenhower which spelled out the reasons for the U. S. Government’s continued support of the ILO. The President said, in part:
“Throughout its history, the International Labor Organization has worked effectively to secure the foundations of peace. As a persistent champion of human values, it has advanced the right of each person to live in dignity and to prosper according to his ability. By promoting higher living standards, improved methods of production and greater labor-management cooperation, the ILO has promoted the welfare of all. . . . It is essential for the cause of peace that this creative work be continued and expanded.”
The more important decisions taken by the Conference during this session included the adoption of four new international instruments: A convention and a recommendation calling on ILO member States to take steps to eliminate discrimination regarding employment and occupation; and a convention and recommendation on the conditions of employment of plantation workers. A general discussion was also held on,the subject of “Hours of Work.”
The Conference took preliminary action (with a view to final discussion next year) on four other instruments: Proposed draft conventions on (1) minimum age for admission of fishermen to employment; (2) medical examination of fishermen; (3) fishermen’s articles of agreement; and a recommendation on the organization of health services in places of employment.
It adopted resolutions concerning the living standards and conditions of employment of plantation workers; occupational diseases; publication of labor laws; human rights; industrial health and safety campaigns; manpower aspects of economic development; management development; measures to promote employment and action against unemployment; unemployment in agriculture, and the influence of agrarian reform on the improvement of the social conditions of agricultural workers; the setting up of a special committee on conditions of fishermen; expansion of international trade; labor-management relations; and increased technical assistance for the integration of indigenous populations into the economic, social, and cultural life of their countries.
The United States pledged the cooperation of this government in an ILO on-the-spot survey on freedom of association. The Director-General, in his reply to the discussion on his report, announced that the Government of the U. S. S. R. had also invited the ILO to send a study mission to that country as part of the same survey.
Unprecedented action was taken by the Conference when the credentials of the entire Hungarian delegation to the Conference were rejected. This
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action was based upon challenges arguing that the current Hungarian regime is maintained in power solely by the armed might of an outside government—the U. S. S. R.—and thus the Hungarian delegation was not representative of the Hungarian people.
The United States participated in the three Governing Body sessions (137th, 138th, and 139th) held during the year. In addition to handling the usual flow of administrative work, approval of budgets, and supervision of the work of the International Labor Office, the following significant actions were taken at these sessions:
Establishment of a new Committee on Forced Labor; consideration of proposals made by the Director-General relating to freedom of association; and improvement of the practical methods of working of the International Labor Conference.
Establishment of an ILO African regional office, in 1959, and an Advisory Committee for Africa; approval of a report on social policy in nonmetropolitan territories.
Discussion of an ILO report on the world employment situation.
During the year, a number of meetings of committees of experts attended by United States representatives were convened on such subjects as radiation protection, workers education, social policy in nonmetropolitan territories, and fires and electricity in coal mines.
Three important industrial committees held meetings: the Sixth Session of Iron and Steel in Monterrey, Mexico (October 1957); the Fifth Session of Chemicals, Geneva (February 1958); and the Sixth Session of Textiles, Geneva (April 1958). All three committees considered safety and health items in their industries as well as conditions of work and social problems; the conclusions of these committees were referred to the Governing Body for appropriate consideration.
Of special significance during the year were two ILO conferences which have met at periodic but infrequent intervals in the past—the Asian Regional Conference, and the Maritime Conference.
Nineteen countries participated in the meeting of the Fourth Asian Regional Conference held in New Delhi, India, November 13-25, 1957. Agreements were reached that have a bearing on our sharing of experiences with this important area of the world. The more important actions taken at this meeting were: Rejection of a resolution presented by the Indian Government delegation which proposed that the Conference request the ILO Governing Body and the annual conference to assure that the Peoples Republic of China participate in future Asian regional conferences; approval of a resolution calling upon governments to consult appropriate trade unions and employers’ organizations; approval of resolutions on small-scale and handicraft industries, on agriculture, and on labor-management relations.
Albert C. Jacobs, consultant to the Secretary of Labor and president of Trinity College, Hartford, Conn., headed the U. S. delegation to the 41st (Maritime) session of the International Labor Conference which was
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held in Geneva from April 29 to May 14,1958. This was the first maritime session of the Conference since the 28th session, held in Seattle in June 1946. It was attended by 370 delegates, advisers, and observers representing the governments, and shipowners and seafarers of 46 member countries.
The Conference examined for the second time (for final decision) a number of questions previously considered by the Preparatory Technical Maritime Conference, held in London from September 19 to October 2, 1956.
The Conference adopted seven new international instruments: two conventions and five formal recommendations. One of the two conventions concerns seafarers’ national identity documents; the other is a revision of the Wages, Hours of Work, and Manning (Sea) Convention, first adopted in 1946. One of the recommendations also deals with wages, hours of work, and manning. The others concern the engagement of seafarers for service in vessels registered in a foreign country, the contents of medicine chests on board ship, medical advice by radio to ships at sea, and social conditions and safety of seafarers in relation to registration of ships. On the sixth item of its agenda, the Conference adopted a resolution on the jurisdiction competent to suspend or cancel officers’ competency certificates.
Action on these instruments brings the total number of conventions adopted by the several maritime conferences to 27 and the recommendations to 15; these make up what is called the International Seafarers’ Charter.
The Conference also adopted resolutions on the 40-hour week on board ship; refugee seafarers; welfare in port; health and hygiene on board ship; crew accommodations; the manning of ships; convocation of the Joint Maritime Commission; atomic power and shipping; fishermen’s questions; safety of life at sea; and the limitation of shipowners’ liability.
International Trade
The Secretary of Labor, the Under Secretary, and the Assistant Secretary of Labor for International Affairs served on the newly created Trade Policy Committee, a Cabinet level committee established to consider major policy aspects of the reciprocal trade program. The Department continued its active participation in the activities of the Interdepartmental Committee on Trade Agreements and the Committee for Reciprocity Information. A number of problems pertaining to specific industries— wool fabrics, cotton textiles, cotton apparel, lead and zinc, tuna fish, and others—were considered by these interdepartmental groups. In addition, preparations were made for the 13th Session of the Contracting Parties to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), in which problems of import restrictions, the relationship of the European Common Market and the proposed Free Trade Area to the GATT, and other substantive issues affecting the flow of trade were major considerations
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Individual bilateral consultations with a number of countries on their trade restrictions were also featured.
In testifying in support of the reciprocal trade program, the Secretary of Labor stressed the effects of the program on workers of this country, both as they are affected by export industries in the United States and by domestic industries with which foreign goods are in competition. He pointed out that the jobs of 4/6 million workers are attributable to foreign trade, and that expansion of trade leads to expanded employment opportunities for American workers.
The Congress enacted legislation to extend the reciprocal trade program for a period of 4 years from June 30, 1958. Department of Labor representatives assisted congressional committees as technical experts during the course of the consideration of this proposed legislation. Along with the extension of the program, the legislation provided for moderate tariffreducing authority to the extent of 5 percent per year for 4 years, and also provided certain additional steps for considering the interests of domestic industries which consider themselves to be adversely affected by competition from foreign goods on which tariff concessions have been granted.
During the year, major tariff negotiations were held between Brazil and the member countries to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. These negotiations were required because Brazil converted its entire tariff structure to a new ad valorem basis. The Department of Labor furnished a representative of the Bureau of Labor Statistics for participation on the United States delegation to these negotiations.
International Trade Fairs
The Department, through the Office of International Labor Affairs, again participated in the interagency committee which carries out the President’s Special International Program. A labor team sent abroad as a complementary part of the United States exhibit in the Berlin International Trade Fair proved effective as a direct instrument of United States policy in this field. A two-man team was in Berlin where they gave workers firsthand information concerning working and living conditions in the United States. They explained informally the role of labor and trade union organizations in this country. Meeting with workers who have been targets of Communist propaganda, the labor team had opportunity to evaluate and refute misleading information about the United States. The questions asked by workers in the countries visited concerned automation, productivity, full employment, social security and unemployment benefits, collective bargaining, union contract provisions, grievance procedures, and general working conditions. Interest was also manifest in matters such as the attitude of organized labor in the United States towards discrimination, integration, and labor racketeers. These questions and the ensuing discussions revealed widespread lack of under
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standing of the true social, economic, and political status of the American worker.
In this instance, as in previous labor team participation in international trade fairs, the labor team was composed of two American trade unionists who spoke the language of the other country. Their worker-trade union status plus their language facility not only removed barriers to a free exchange of ideas but resulted in open and prompt acceptance of the team members by their fellow trade unionists and government officials concerned with labor.
Labor participation in the Osaka, Japan, Trade Fair consisted of a pictorial display utilizing large photographic murals on the subject of automation to tie in with the theme of the United States exhibit.
For Casablanca, Morocco, labor provided an exhibit of specially posed photographs, reproduced as slides in an automatic projector, illustrating formal training through apprenticeship in the graphic arts trades. This exhibit was included in the Education Section of the United States Pavilion of the Casablanca Trade Fair.
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OFFICE OF PERSONNEL ADMINISTRATION
During fiscal year 1958, the Office of Personnel Administration made special studies of both the immediate and long-range manpower needs of the Department, and took action to meet them. One such action was the hiring for summer employment of college students who had completed three or more years of study with majors in economics, statistics, and industrial relations.
During their employment, the students assisted the professional staff of the Department on price research projects, apprenticeship committee operations, and other useful activities. From this experience they received good orientation in the work of the Department and the careers which it offers to well-qualified college-trained men and women. In addition to providing a direct source of recruitment for permanent employment, this student assistant program also serves to disseminate information and to develop interest about the employment opportunities in the Department of Labor among faculty members and students of the colleges to which the student assistants return.
Other action to meet the Department’s manpower needs included greater utilization of the skills of handicapped persons, and the organization of a board of civil service examiners in Washington to conduct examinations for occupations which occur principally in this Department. Lists of candidates were established for the positions of employment service adviser, social insurance adviser, and social research analyst at the intermediate levels.
The Office of Personnel Administration developed and issued to all employees a Merit Promotion Guideline, the first step in giving effect to the new Federal merit promotion program prescribed by the Civil Service Commission. The new Guideline establishes the standards which will be applied in the development of specific Merit Promotion Plans for appropriate groups of positions in the Department. These plans will be developed and placed in effect during fiscal year 1959.
Another achievement was the development of classification standards, and their submission to the Civil Service Commission for approval and publication, for positions in the Wage and Hour Investigation Series. A beginning was also made during the year in the revision of standards for apprenticeship representatives; and the Department collaborated with the Civil Service Commission in revising standards for death and disability claims examiner and social insurance adviser.
Employee training was strengthened through the development of a Conference Leader’s Guide for use in training supervisors in improved methods of employee interviewing and counseling. Also a training guide on secretarial practices was prepared and made available.
487100-59-
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4
OFFICE OF THE SOLICITOR
The Solicitor acts as legal adviser to the Secretary of Labor, the Under Secretary, the Assistant Secretaries, the heads of bureaus, and other officials in the Department of Labor and as the Department’s chief law officer. He is responsible for the performance of all legal services for the entire Department, including the handling of legal proceedings arising under the statutes administered and enforced by the Department. The Solicitor also performs operating functions in connection with the administration and enforcement of the Davis-Bacon Act and other statutes relating to the predetermination and payment of prevailing wages on Federal and federally financed and assisted construction projects.
The Solicitor has a staff of attorneys in Washington and in the field offices located throughout the United States and Puerto Rico. The Washington office is organized functionally into seven divisions.
Trial Litigation and Administrative Legal Services
The Branch of Trial Litigation of this Division is responsible for the trial litigation functions performed in the Washington office and for the supervision of the trial litigation work of the Department’s regional attorneys in the courts and before hearing examiners for the enforcement of statutes administered by the Department. In addition, the Branch is responsible for the proper preparation of all criminal cases affecting or involving the Department for submission to the Department of Justice. Upon request, the Branch provides assistance to United States Attorneys in the preparation and trial of such cases and supervises the participation of the regional attorneys in these cases.
A total of 1,289 civil and criminal cases under the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Public Contracts Act were filed during the fiscal year 1958, the largest number of such cases ever filed. Of the 1,158 civil actions, 1,096 were commenced under sections 16 (c) and 17 of the Fair Labor Standards Act or section 2 of the Public Contracts Act, and 62 represented other civil actions. Criminal actions were instituted in 131 cases.
Proceedings under these acts were completed in 1,163 cases during the fiscal year. A total of 990 injunctions were obtained, 833 by contest and
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157 by consent, and 25 other civil actions were closed. Criminal actions under the Fair Labor Standards Act were completed in 148 cases, and convictions were obtained in 138 instances. There were no acquittals, and 10 cases were either dismissed or nolle pressed. In addition, Walsh-Healey administrative proceedings were instituted in 37 cases and 38 cases were completed during the year.
Fines totaling $147,693 were imposed by the courts in criminal cases, and $4,500 in contempt proceedings.
Restitution of back wages was made as follows: Criminal cases, $255,-622.76; civil cases, $1,264,629.71; contempt, $84,833-15; for a total of $1,605,085.62. In addition, $62,371.41 was recovered as liquidated damages in Walsh-Healey administrative proceedings during fiscal year 1958.
The Branch of Administrative Legal Services provides legal assistance in departmental administrative actions and proceedings and participates in such judicial review of administrative determinations as is provided by the Administrative Procedure Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, and the Walsh-Healey Public Contracts Act.
Continued litigation in the textile industry has resulted in the recovery of $449,557-40 to employees. This sum, the largest recovered by the Department in a single suit, was due because many of the parties to the litigation did not pay the wage determined by the Secretary of Labor to be prevailing in the industry during the period when the Secretary was enjoined from enforcing his determination. In the action involving the wage determination for the coal industry, the Supreme Court denied a petition for certiorari, leaving in effect the decision of the court of appeals approving the Department’s long-standing interpretation of the “open market’’ exemption against a contention which would have cut out of the Walsh-Healey Act the bulk of its coverage.
The Branch provided legal services, during fiscal 1958, leading to the issuance of two prevailing minimum wage determinations. Also, the Branch represented the Department in hearings and engaged in prehearing activities directed toward the issuance of prevailing minimum wage orders for 14 other industries, including coal, textiles, paper and pulp, evaporated milk, and structural steel.
Administrative actions in which legal services were provided by the Branch included 9 formal and informal hearings in various proceedings under the Fair Labor Standards Act, and wage orders for 80 classifications in 25 industries in Puerto Rico and for all industries in the Virgin Islands and American Samoa. Thirty other documents amending the Code of Federal Regulations and 106 documents for publication in the Federal Register were prepared by the Branch for the various bureaus and offices of the Department.
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Appellate Litigation
This Division is responsible for appellate litigation, including briefing and argument in the appellate courts, in actions appealed under the Fair Labor Standards Act, and certain other statutes administered by the Department.
During fiscal year 1958, a total of 32 briefs were filed in Federal and State appellate courts, of which 4 were in the United States Supreme Court. A total of 25 of these briefs were concerned with cases brought under the Fair Labor Standards Act; 5 were concerned with the Walsh-Healey Public Contracts Act. One brief was filed in the Supreme Court of Alabama where, as amicus curiae, the Department supported the position that the Fair Labor Standards Act does not pre-empt the field of child labor regulation to the exclusion of an Alabama law. Another brief, prepared in conjunction with the Department of Justice, was in a Mexican labor case.
Of the 17 Federal courts of appeals decisions rendered in fiscal 1958 in which the Department was interested as a party or as amicus curiae, 10 were favorable to the Department. In addition, petitions for Supreme Court review in 4 cases, in which the decisions of the courts of appeals sustained the Department’s position, were successfully opposed.
Six of the cases decided by the courts of appeals during the year involved questions of general coverage of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Mitchell v. Kroger Company, 248 F. 2d 935, held traveling auditors of an interstate grocery chain to be engaged in commerce. In Rennekamp v. Mitchell, 251 F. 2d 488, certiorari denied, 356 U. S. 950, employees of a small low-power radio station, remote from the State line but broadcasting wire service news, were held covered. Mitchell v. Empire Gas Engineering Co., 13 WH Cases 721, held that the act covered the “new construction’’ of a jet fueling system on an old airfield abandoned for military use after World War II but being reconverted into an airbase for the U. S. Strategic Air Command. The court rejected the employer’s contentions that the work was not covered because it was “new construction’’ and also because it related to an “instrumentality of war.” In Mitchell v. Lublin, McGaughy Associates, 250 F. 2d 253, the court of appeals ruled against the Department’s position on coverage of employees of an architectural-engineering firm operating offices in two States and engaged in preparing plans and specifications primarily for State and Federal Government construction projects, many of which were for the improvement of interstate instrumentalities or facilities.
Several of the Fair Labor Standards Act decisions concerned exemption questions. Mitchell v. Kroger, supra, held the retail exemption inapplicable to the auditors auditing the books of individual retail stores, on the ground that the auditors were attached to the chain organization’s central office rather than to the individual retail stores. In Libby, McNeill & Libby v. Mitchell, 13 WH Cases 704, the Fifth Circuit held that it was proper for the Secretary, in determining seasonality of industries under the section 7 (b) (3) exemption, to allow the seasonal exemption to canning and
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processing of citrus juice but to deny it to certain byproduct operations carried on simultaneously.
Two significant decisions concerning the Walsh-Healey Act were rendered. In Ruth Elkhorn Coals, Inc. v. Mitchell, 248 F. 2d 635, certiorari denied, 355 U. S. 953, the court of appeals held that the “open market” exemption did not exempt bituminous coal from the act, even though such coal could be purchased in the open market, because the exemption excluded from coverage only purchases the Government itself was authorized to make in the open market. United States v. Wine gar, 254 F. 2d 693, held that the administrative hearing authorized by the Walsh-Healey Act for determining violations need not be completed before a court action to collect the resulting liquidated damages can be brought. Since the 2-year statute of limitations applicable to court actions under the act runs from the date of violations, it is important that the Government be able to bring such actions before completing the time-consuming administrative hearings.
The attempt by an employer of Mexican labor to avoid financial responsibility for violations of the Migrant Labor Agreement between this country and Mexico was successfully resisted in United States v. Morris, 252 F. 2d 643, which held that the 10-day period provided in the Migrant Labor Agreement for processing complaints of violations is directory only, so that the failure of the two governments to process complaints in 10 days does not defeat the Federal Government’s right to recover wage payments it is required to make for defaulting employers.
Of the courts of appeals decisions unfavorable to the Department, the Supreme Court has granted a petition to review one, and the Solicitor General has filed petitions for review of two others. Of the remaining four unfavorable decisions, petitions for rehearing are pending in three. The only adverse decision which is being left unchallenged is Mitchell v. Bass, 252 F. 2d 513, which involved a matter of procedural law and rested on a narrow ground to which the trial procedures of the Department may be able to adjust without harmful effects.
Employees’ Compensation
This Division is composed of two branches, the Branch of Appeals and Review and the Subrogation Branch. The Branch of Appeals and Review renders legal services to the Bureau of Employees’ Compensation in the administration of the workmen’s compensation program of the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act and extensions thereof, covering (1) civil officers and employees of the United States and the District of Columbia, and (2) private employees within the regulatory jurisdiction of the Federal Government. Under the supervision of the Solicitor’s Office, the Subrogation Branch directs a program of bringing civil actions for damages against third parties in cases of injury and death of employees protected by the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act.
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Through the Branch of Appeals and Review, the Solicitor’s Office represents the Director of the Bureau when compensation awards are appealed to the Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board of the Department of Labor, a quasi-judicial body whose decisions are final and not subject to further review. In addition to legal advice furnished to the Bureau in the fiscal year through conferences and opinions, the Branch represented the Director in approximately 296 appealed cases in which the latter s decisions were reviewed by the Appeals Board. In 130 of said cases, hearings were held, with representation by this Division and oral argument.
Workmen’s compensation provisions applicable to private employments, with respect to which the Solicitor’s Office provides legal services to the Bureau, are contained in the Longshoremen’s and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act, the Defense Base Act, section 4 Cc) the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, and the District of Columbia Workmen’s Compensation Act. Legal services are also provided in connection with the administration of the War Risk Hazards Compensation Act.
Authority to adjudicate claims under the Longshoremen’s Act and extensions thereof is vested by law in the deputy commissioners of the Bureau of Employees’ Compensation, who are appointed by the Secretary of Labor to preside as hearing officers in the 13 compensation districts established to serve the United States and territories. Other compensation districts serve, respectively, the claims arising outside the United States and the District of Columbia. The decisions of the deputy commissioners under these acts are subject to judicial review in the United States District Courts. Among other kinds of assistance which the Solicitor s Office supplies the Bureau is the defense of actions or awards of the deputy commissioners. During the year, 30 civil actions were filed in the United States District Courts and 5 cases were appealed to the United States Circuit Courts of Appeal.
While there is no provision authorizing judicial review of the decisions of the Bureau of Employees’ Compensation or Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board under the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act, this does not inhibit attempts to obtain judicial review. Two civil actions were brought within the fiscal year seeking such review.
The Subrogation Branch supervises the prosecution of civil actions brought against third parties whose negligence causes the injury or death of Federal employees. These actions are for reimbursement of compensation paid by the Bureau of Employees Compensation under the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act. In the fiscal year, the gross sum of $3,266,053.14 was collected from third-party wrongdoers in a total of 1,217 cases. This was an increase of approximately $800,000 over the amount recovered in fiscal year 1957. After deducting the expenses of litigation, a net recovery of $2,390,874.70 for the fiscal year was made available to the Federal Government to be applied as an offset to compensation payments made in these cases under the Federal Employees Compensation Act.
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Wage-Hour and Veterans’ Reemployment Rights Interpretations
The Branch of Wage-Hour Interpretations of this Division furnishes advice and assistance in the interpretation of several of the statutes administered by the Department, particularly the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Walsh-Healey Public Contracts Act, and the Eight Hour Laws. The Branch does this by rendering either written or oral opinions to the public in response to individual request, to other Government agencies, and to bureaus and regional offices within the Department. These opinions express the position of the Department which will be used as a basis for enforcement activities.
During the 1958 fiscal year, the Branch rendered approximately 6,500 oral and written opinions. In addition, it reviewed approximately 800 opinions which were prepared elsewhere, particularly in regional offices, and took such action as seemed appropriate to make sure that they correctly reflected the official position of the Department. Extensive work was done on bulletins for public distribution setting forth in detail the views of the Department and the basis and authority for them.
The Branch of Veterans’ Reemployment Rights Interpretations gives legal advice to veterans, employers, and other interested parties in connection with the reinstatement of servicemen in their former employment, after military service and training duty, in accordance with the provisions of the Universal Military Training and Service Act, the Reserve Forces Act of 1955, and related earlier statutes.
Aid is furnished by the Branch to the Department of Justice in litigation concerning veterans’ reemployment rights. During fiscal 1958, such aid was given in 16 cases by this Branch and 5 regional attorneys. In addition, 148 veterans’ reemployment rights files were analyzed and transmitted to the Department of Justice for litigation.
The Branch held over 500 conferences during the year on the legal problems of veterans’ reemployment with the Bureau of Veterans’ Reemployment Rights, veterans, employers, and others. It also issued 12 analyses of court decisions, prepared 324 original opinions, and made post-reviews of 127 opinions of regional attorneys.
The Branch participated in drafting amendments to the Universal Military Training and Service Act which were incorporated in H. R. 8522.
Manpower and Employment Security
This Division is composed of two branches, the Unemployment Insurance Branch and the Manpower and Employment Service Branch.
Through the Unemployment Insurance Branch, the Solicitor’s Office renders legal services to the Department, chiefly the Bureau of Employment
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Security, and to other interested agencies regarding the Federal-State system of unemployment compensation programs, the programs providing unemployment compensation for veterans and Federal civilian employees, and the temporary unemployment compensation program.
New developments in fiscal 1958 requiring services of this Branch included the enactment by Congress of the Temporary Unemployment Compensation Act of 1958 and by the Puerto Rican Legislature of an unemployment compensation law patterned for inclusion in the Federal-State system of unemployment compensation programs. Regulations to implement the Temporary Unemployment Compensation Act of 1958 were drafted by the Branch and have been signed by the Secretary of Labor and published in the Federal Register. Services were performed in connection with laying the groundwork for the operation of the Puerto Rican law and proposed Federal legislation required to include Puerto Rico in the Federal-State unemployment compensation system.
Legislation that would establish a permanent unemployment compensation program for ex-servicemen neared enactment at the end of fiscal year 1958. The Branch performed numerous services in connection with this proposal, legislation to amend title IX of the Social Security Act and the provisions of that act regarding unemployment compensation for Federal employees, and other proposed Federal legislation.
Amendments to the Social Security Act under which excess Federal unemployment tax collections are distributed to the States to be used for unemployment benefits or appropriated for costs of employment security administration continued, during fiscal 1958, to account for a great share of the workload. These amendments stimulated some of the legislative proposals for amending State unemployment compensation laws and acts amending those laws which were reviewed by the Branch to make certain that they conform with Federal law. The Branch also reviewed regulations implementing laws enacted by State legislatures in 1957 and 1958, State court decisions, and memoranda and documents issued by the Bureau of Employment Security. In performing these services the Branch furnished advice and assistance upon a great many problems and issued interpretations of law with respect to the programs with which it is concerned.
Through the Manpower and Employment Security Branch, this Division renders legal advice to the Bureau of Employment Security in all legal matters relating to the operation of the Federal-State employment service. All of the costs of administering the State public employment offices are covered by Federal grants made pursuant to certification by the Department of Labor under the provisions of the Wagner-Peyser Act. The eligibility of a State for these funds depends upon its adherence to certain statutory requirements contained in that act and compliance with the regulations and policies of the Department of Labor. Difficult legal problems arose during the year in the determination of whether the Department should refer workers to certain establishments affected by labor disputes.
A major aspect of the legal services which this Branch performs is in
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connection with the Mexican labor program. Numerous problems were presented during the year concerning the application of the statute (title 5 of the Agricultural Act of 1949, as amended) which conditions the admission of certain aliens, seeking to enter the United States from the Republic of Mexico to perform labor, upon the unavailability of qualified workers in the United States and the maintenance of certain labor standards. The Branch also rendered substantial guidance and assistance in connection with the Migrant Labor Agreement under which agricultural work is performed by Mexicans.
During the fiscal year, $132,615 in back wages were recovered for the Mexican workers. In addition, approximately $58,000 has been paid out, to date, under the Government’s guarantee to the Mexican workers. Approximately $18,500 of this amount has been recovered through litigation. Of the balance, $12,000 has been determined to be uncollectible by the various United States Attorneys and $27,500 is in various stages of litigation. The designee of the Secretary of Labor, an attorney in this Branch, considered and disposed of 23 appeals taken by employers and Mexican workers from determinations made with respect to their obligations under the Migrant Labor Agreement and the Standard Work Contract.
The assistance rendered by this Branch in a landmark case, United States v. ALrrA, 252 F. 2d 643, contributed significantly to the decision, discussed above in the section on the Division of Appellate Litigation. This case, which involved important legal issues regarding the obligation of employers to pay the prevailing wage, and the Government’s authority to recoup wages paid out under this guarantee after the employer’s default, was of extreme importance to the administration of the Mexican labor program.
Wage Determinations
Through the Wage Determinations Branch of this Division, the Office of the Solicitor predetermines prevailing wage rates which are the minimum rates permitted to be paid on Federal construction contracts and on other construction work financed or assisted by the Federal Government. During this fiscal year, 33,283 wage determinations, a new alltime high, were issued under the Davis-Bacon Act and related statutes. This was a substantial increase over the previous year’s record of 28,065. The 33,283 total included 2,969 wage determinations issued for initial construction on the national system of interstate highways authorized by the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956.
The collection of wage data by the Branch was accelerated in line with expanded construction activity. Arrangements were made for submission of data by employer and employee organizations, in addition to the utilization of a private construction reporting system serving most of the country. State highway offices were visited in fulfilling the consultation-liaison
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required by the Highway Act. The above factors contributed to outgoing correspondence, which totaled 49,395 pieces. In addition, numerous on-the-spot wage surveys were made by representatives of the Branch and of the regional offices.
The Division’s Branch of Coordination and Enforcement administers the functions vested in the Secretary of Labor by Reorganization Plan No. 14 of 1950 to achieve coordination of enforcement of the wage determination provisions of the Davis-Bacon Act and related statutes. During fiscal 1958, the Branch received a record total of 906 new enforcement cases. In cases involving flagrant violations, action is taken to have the Comptroller General place the contractors involved on the list of persons and firms ineligible to receive Government contracts for 3 years. An alltime high of 72 firms and individuals were placed on the list this year. Restitution totaling $302,903.61 was secured for 3,441 workers found underpaid. The year also witnessed significantly increased activity in criminal prosecutions under the False Information Act, the Anti-Kickback Act, and the Eight Hour Law of 1892, in connection with labor standards violations and the submission of false payroll information.
The Branch continued to conduct educational programs and issued a series of All Agency Memoranda on coverage problems of general enforcement interest to contracting agencies. Conferences were held with agency personnel and investigations were jointly conducted with agency representatives to assist the agencies in adequately discharging tneir labor standards enforcement obligations.
An increasing volume of copies of the Construction Workers Guide and other publications pertaining to construction labor standards was distributed to employee and employer groups and to the public generally. Interpretations and opinions involving the Davis-Bacon and related acts and resultant compliance problems, both written and oral, were issued in record numbers. This type of increased activity not only evidences a marked interest by those affected in the field of compliance, but enables the Branch to achieve a greater degree of preventive enforcement. By resolving difficulties beforehand and by alerting the agencies, the contractors, and the workers of their rights and responsibilities, costly enforcement actions in terms of time, money, and sanctions are significantly decreased.
Legislation, General Legal Services, and Hearings
This Division is composed of three branches. The Branch of Legislation and General Legal Services handles the legislative work of the Department, and it also performs general legal services for the Office of the Secretary and the other offices and bureaus of the Department. The hearing
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examiners of the Hearing Examiners Branch preside over administrative hearings under the Walsh-Healey Public Contracts Act and various other statutes, and render decisions in proceedings based on complaints in violation of the Walsh-Healey Act. The Branch of Special Services assists in the preparation of opinions rendered by the Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board.
Principally concerned with legislative matters, the Branch of Legislation and General Legal Services provides the Secretary with assistance in the development of the Department’s views on pending legislation and prepares draft bills and reports to congressional committees embodying these views. The 503 legislative reports prepared during the fiscal year 1958 was a new high for this type of activity.
Among the draft bills prepared during the year were bills to:
1.	Provide for reporting and disclosure in labor-management relations matters in order to afford greater protection for the rights of individual workers, management, unions, and the public.
2.	Amend the National Labor Relations Act and the Labor Management Relations Act so as, among other things, to extend and improve the secondary boycott provisions and forbid coercive organizational or recognition picketing by a union where workers obviously do not want it.
3.	Authorize the Secretary of Labor to prescribe and enforce safety standards to be maintained by employers of employees covered by the Longshoremen’s and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act.
4.	Provide for temporary additional unemployment compensation benefits for certain persons who have exhausted their rights to unemployment compensation under State laws and under the Federal programs providing such compensation for railroad workers, Federal civilian employees, and Korean veterans.
At the request of congressional committees, and to assist officials of the Department in testifying before those committees, legal analyses and opinions, explanatory statements, and comparative charts dealing with bills under consideration in Congress are furnished. During fiscal 1958, 1,760 statements were prepared by this Branch on request—an increase of 243 over the previous year.
In addition to the legislative work, the Branch performs various legal services for the bureaus and offices. In rendering such services during the year, the Branch prepared 568 analyses, memoranda, and orders. The 779 letters prepared for the signature of the Secretary exceeded the number for the previous year by approximately 21 percent, while 1,521 letters were drafted for the Solicitor’s signature.
The Branch of Legislation and General Legal Services also furnished legal services in connection with the interests and activities of the Department in international labor affairs. It assisted in the preparation of the United States Position Paper on a proposed ILO convention and recommendation relating to discrimination in employment. This was prior to the adoption by the International Labor Conference at its 42nd session,
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June 1958, of a convention and recommendation dealing with this subject. In September 1957, the Solicitor attended the Second International Congress of Labor Laws in Geneva, under the auspices, among others, of the Director-General of the ILO.
The hearing examiners of the Hearing Examiners Branch conducted 30 hearings and issued 34 decisions during fiscal 1958 in proceedings involving violations of the provisions of the Walsh-Healey Public Contracts Act. Twenty-four of these decisions were concerned with violations of the health and safety standards of the act, 18 with the act’s minimum wage and overtime requirements, and 1 with violations of its child labor provisions. In addition, 6 hearings were held in proceedings involving the determination of the prevailing minimum wages in particular industries pursuant to the provisions of the Walsh-Healey Act.
The hearing examiners also presided at two hearings under other acts. One of these was conducted in proceedings under the Railway Labor Act to determine the merit of a labor organization’s claim to participate in the selection and designation of the labor members of the National Railroad Adjustment Board. The proceedings involved in the second hearing had been brought under the Fair Labor Standards Act to determine whether the Secretary of Labor should broaden the exemptions for student-learners enrolled in cooperative vocational training programs for employment in occupations previously declared to be hazardous.
The Branch of Special Services of this Division provides necessary legal services to the Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board in connection with the adjudication of compensation cases on appeal to the Board. It furnishes legal advice to the Board in connection with the adjudication of such cases, writes the opinions expressing the Board’s decisions, and performs special research assignments requested by the Board or by the Solicitor. During the past fiscal year, 242 decisions were written.
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BUREAU OF APPRENTICESHIP AND TRAINING
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BUREAU OF APPRENTICESHIP AND TRAINING
During the fiscal year 1958, the Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training carried out its responsibility of working with management and labor in formulating industrial training programs. Through various studies, it assisted in determining the need for apprenticeship and training in a number of areas and, with local cooperation, established programs in specific jurisdictions.
The Bureau stimulated business and industry in analyzing their individual skilled manpower needs currently and in the future. It urged these establishments to provide for tomorrow’s needs by training today. Whenever possible, the Bureau provided technical assistance.
Bureau personnel, both in Washington and in the field, carried out the following five specific functions:
1.	Conducted research studies of the need for skills in the Nation’s economy and the extent to which management, labor, government agencies, and individuals are taking steps to develop necessary skills.
2.	Endeavored to create public awareness of the need for apprenticeship and training; publicized outstanding training systems; and encouraged employers, labor organizations, and individuals to take appropriate action to insure the required number of skilled workers.
3.	Encouraged national employer and labor organizations to adopt policies and procedures to create a favorable climate for the development of apprenticeship and skill improvement systems.
4.	Worked with management, labor unions, and State apprenticeship and community agencies in developing organizational machinery for training programs and apprenticeship systems.
5.	Through its technical staff, developed training aids and other devices to increase the effectiveness of apprenticeship and training, and served as a clearinghouse for training materials.
Field Operations
Over 80 percent of the approximately 500 employees of the Bureau are in field offices in the United States and Hawaii. These persons provide direct technical assistance to employers and employee organizations, both individually and jointly, on training problems, and seek to create an awareness among the public of the need and opportunities f^t industrial training.
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In fiscal 1958, a total of 85,731 establishments received service, as did 6,813 joint apprenticeship committees. This included technical assistance to 18,089 firms and, in setting up and maintaining training programs for journeymen in new processes and methods, to 1,207 joint apprenticeship committees.
The field staff participated with other agencies and private groups in 8 community manpower studies. Training material centers were promoted in a number of areas and established in 3 cities. Members of the field staff followed up on the foundry survey of 1957 when some 3,000 job foundries were contacted to determine present training practices and future manpower needs.
Promotional activities included 2,205 speeches at conventions and conferences, 125 radio and television appearances, 1,212 completion ceremonies, 1,797 articles in newspapers and magazines, and 473 showings of training films. Staff members also assisted in the planning and conducting of 3 multistate apprenticeship conferences and a national railroad conference in which approximately 2,000 labor and management officials participated.
The services of four field representatives were made available on a loan basis to the International Cooperation Administration and the Office of International Labor Affairs for an average of 10 weeks each. A total of 121 foreign trainees wete placed with various industries for training in American methods of administration and technology, requiring the field staff to devote approximately 3 percent of its time in arranging for approximately 470 man-months of training.
August 3, 1958, marked the 10th anniversary of the International Branch of BAT, and the August issue of BAT News featured this event. During the 10-year period, trainees have been programed from 28 different countries, with 1958 seeing the first trainees from Ghana and Iceland
Management Services
The Division of Management Services placed major emphasis on improving practices in planning, communications, and budget control.
To strengthen the planning process in both field and headquarters offices, the Division developed a system for both planning and reporting activities. Procedures geared to changes in program direction were developed and will be put into effect in fiscal 1959. These will be reviewed and revised after a 6-month trial period.
Improvement of Bureau communications was a major objective. Among the activities undertaken to achieve this were: Establishment of a Bureau communications system, for dissemination of instructions and information to the staff; adoption of standard correspondence practices in the headquarters office; and training in effective writing for technical and clerical personnel.
An improved budget control system was installed. This provides data
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from which quicker and more accurate determinations can be made of the budget status of all established positions, current payroll costs, and pending personnel actions affecting payroll.
National Industry Promotion
Highlight of the year’s activity was the excellent bureauwide cooperation on industry projects. With the assistance of all divisions, a summary report and promotional aid were developed for the follow-up in the foundry industry. Using this tool, the field staff completed the foundry project calling on more than 2,000 firms. While foundry employment was not as high as previously reported, the follow-up resulted in a 27 percent increase in apprenticeship and training in this industry.
Initial top management and labor clearances were secured for 4 industry projects for fiscal 1959. Interest in and support of national organizations are assured in the electrical contracting, pulp and paper, aircraft and missile, and tool and die nationwide research and promotional campaigns. A preliminary study of tool and die contract shops showed that 421 of the 1,012 affiliated with the National Tool and Die Manufacturers Association have registered programs and are training apprentices. Through the bureauwide industry projects committee, a research and promotional tool has been developed for use of the field staff in contacting more than 3,500 firms in these 4 industries in fiscal 1959.
Five transportation programs received national recognition during fiscal 1958, bringing the total to 25 now registered with the Bureau. Transportation companies registered included Long Island Railroad, Railway Express Agency, Jacksonville Terminal Co., Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad, and the Houston Belt and Terminal Railroad.
Two additional national apprenticeship coordinators were employed by industry, one by the Associated General Contractors of America, and the other by the Structural Clay Products Institute. There are now 27 national apprenticeship and training coordinators.
The Division of National Industry Promotion participated in 63 national conventions; 16 National Joint Apprenticeship Committee meetings; made 17 addresses at national conventions; attended 8 multistate and other national conferences; and had working relationships with 221 national associations and 77 international unions.
The Division assisted the American Society of Training Directors with its 14th annual conference in Washington, where a Bureau exhibit was viewed by more than 1,000 training directors. Bureau personnel worked on preliminary planning for this conference, and served as hosts to 5 industry trade group meetings. The Department of Labor was host to the American Apprenticeship Round Table at its 15th annual meeting in Washington, when apprenticeship representatives of 30 top companies discussed apprenticeship trends and problems.
487100—59----5
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Representatives of the Division of National Industry Promotion authored several articles in leading trade association publications as part of the Bureau's program to advise on training needs and to stimulate action on the part of the association and its members.
Public Information
The Office of Information and Publications provided editorial assistance to the various divisions of the Bureau, and made use of mass communication media to publicize the Bureau’s activities.
In addition, some 168,400 Bureau publications were sent in answer to requests from employers, trade associations, labor unions, school officials, students, public libraries, private citizens, representatives of State, Federal, and foreign governments, and Bureau field representatives.
Thirteen news releases were prepared and 18 exhibits provided for apprenticeship, labor, and trade association conventions, State fairs, and similar group meetings. Technical assistance was given to the Office of International Labor Affairs and to the United States Information Agency in the preparation of a 16-panel manpower exhibit for overseas distribution.
One television script was drafted for field use and 96 film slides produced. Considerable time was devoted to the drafting and production or a series of flip charts to be used as a promotional tool in the 5 industry projects campaigns (aircraft-missiles, electronic, electrical, paper and pulp, tool and die).
The Office designed and arranged for the printing of the Waterville, Me., manpower survey; issued a booklet, Planned Training . . . Your Future Security, for high school career days; and a leaflet, Now Is the Time To Train. Covers and layout were handled for the draftsmen, electrical, and bricklayers standards; a foundry training promotional aid, two training and industry publications for the Division of Review and Registration, and three publications for the Division of Reseat ch.
A representative of the Office visited Lockheed Aircraft Co. at Marietta, Ga., West Virginia Paper and Pulp at Charleston, S. C., and Harig Tool and Die in Chicago, and prepared illustrated articles for the June Journal of the American Society of Training Directors. This issue featured apprenticeship. The West Virginia Paper and Pulp article was originally written for the April overseas labor packet of the United States Information Agency.
Reprints of 12 articles, dealing with apprenticeship and training, in national publications were ordered for public distribution. In addition, the Office redesigned and arranged for printing the certificate for completing apprentices.
In fiscal 1958, the Office started a monthly staff publication, BAT News. Reports from the national office and the field indicate this has not only been well received but is meeting the objective of closer liaison with all segments of the Bureau’s personnel.
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Research
The research program provides basic economic and manpower data to assist the Bureau in promoting sound training practices in industry. Published research studies are a source of information to management, union officials, and others seeking ways to organize and improve apprenticeship and training programs to meet the need for skilled workers. Among these studies are: (1) Surveys of particular industries to determine training needs, what training is being done, and what measures should be recommended to develop additional training; (2) surveys to evaluate the contributions of apprenticeship and other training to the Nation’s skilled work force; and (3) case studies of outstanding training programs to determine factors accounting for their success.
Each year the Research Division conducts several research studies related to the Bureau’s overall program. A report on labor-management cooperation in training patternmakers, a case study of the operations of the Chicago Pattern Makers’ Joint Apprenticeship Committee, was published. During its first 16 years of operation, approximately 100 pattern shops participated in this jointly sponsored program to meet requirements for journeyman patternmakers. Of the 463 apprentices enrolled in the program during this period, 229 achieved journeyman status, and 97 were in training in July 1957. Fmplovers and unions in other localities will benefit by studying the operations of this outstanding joint apprenticeship committee.
An article describing the results of the study of foundry skill requirements and training needs of production and job foundries was published in the October 1957 issue of the Monthly Labor Review. In addition to presenting survey findings, the article summarized action taken in the industry to improve the skills of its workers. The research staff participated in the development of the booklet on foundry training used by the field representatives in their promotional work.
Training development projects in the electrical contracting, tool and die, paper and pulp, and aircraft and missiles industries require considerable planning, particularly as regards the factfinding phases of the projects. Studies of training needs of the industries, and the extent to which these needs are being met, provide information to the Bureau in carrying out its promotional programs. In conducting such studies, the Division cooperates closely with management, labor, and other private and government organizations at national and local levels. Preliminary work concerned with the factfinding phase in the electrical contracting industry was completed so that field work on the project could begin in July 1958.
In addition to carrying out its own program of research studies, the Research Division relies heavily on the findings of other research organizations. A publication outlining the research interests of the Bureau and pointing up areas in which additional research is needed was released in October 1957. The report is designed to encourage research organizations of management, labor, colleges and universities, and other institutions to
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undertake projects concerned with skill development in industry. The publication outlines some of the research work that has been conducted or is under way. It offers technical assistance to researchers doing studies on skill development in industry. During the past year, the Research Division provided information and technical assistance on approximately 20 research projects conducted by private organizations. The results of most of these studies will be published by organizations sponsoring the research.
Review and Registration
Major activities during fiscal 1958 included further simplification of statistical procedures and apprenticeship records, the solution of apprentice classification problems arising from the national highway construction program, improvement and extension of review service on apprenticeship standards and occupations, and more effective liaison with other government agencies whose activities are related to the Bureau’s work.
During the fiscal year, 4,915 new or revised apprenticeship programs, submitted by Bureau or State apprenticeship agency field staffs, were reviewed.
Among important national apprenticeship programs or proposals reviewed were: Revised policy statement, Molders and Foundry Workers; redraft of proposed Lithographic Standards; addition of lineman trade to National Electrical Standards; second edition of Glaziers and Glassworkers National Standards; Railway Express Agency program; and proposed revision in Veterans’ Administration regulations pertaining to procurement of tools for disabled veterans in apprenticeship programs.
In the 21 States and Alaska which the Bureau served as registration agency, a total of 34,457 apprentice registrations, completions, or cancellations were recorded. A total of 8,513 apprentice completion certificates were issued. Certificates of meritorious service to apprenticeship were awarded to 253 individuals, representing management, labor, and the schools. Certificates of registration, in recognition of new or revised apprenticeship systems, were issued to 1,069 companies or joint apprenticeship committees.
Extensive changes were introduced in statistical processing of data on registered apprentices. The practice of maintaining a national roster of individual apprentices in the Washington office was abandoned in August 1957. This eliminated the need for punching biographical data on I. B. M. cards covering each apprentice. It also eliminated listing these data on I. B. M. tapes. As a result, it was possible to reduce the cost of machine tabulation operations. The Division also cooperated in a survey of Bureau statistical procedures undertaken by a BLS staff member. A number of requested statistical reports were prepared.
Planning has progressed in developing a simplified summary reporting
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of apprentice registration actions for the field staff. Methods of collecting statistics to improve the accuracy of this data are under study.
The rapidly developing national highway construction program resulted in the need for a clear definition of the type of apprenticeable occupations which would be recognized by the Office of the Solicitor of Labor under Federal wage determination regulations. The operating engineer craft posed particular problems due to variances in practices as to apprentice training qualifications. Conferences were held with highway contractor groups, and with officials of the Solicitor’s Office. Information on training practices used by equipment manufacturers was obtained. As a result, three categories of operating engineers were recognized experimentally for wage determination purposes and apprentice training. It is expected that this effort to standardize on classifications will have a beneficial effect on the development of apprenticeship and training for operating engineers in the wide variety of equipment involved.
A number of problems developed during the year requiring attention of the staff in conjunction with officials of other Federal agencies:
Members of the staff participated in departmental meetings concerned with the study of child labor standards, including the employment of minors in agricultural work and exemptions for exceptional children from child labor standards.
Bureau officials attended a number of labor conferences on the adequacy of present governmental data and statistics on the employment of migratory workers.
Officials also conferred with BLS on reissue of the Job Guide for Construction Trades. The BLS pamphlet Mathematics and Your Career was reviewed and changes suggested. This publication is aimed at helping students understand the importance of mathematics in various occupations. An article on “Opportunities in Construction Trades” was prepared for Occupational Outlook. It concerned opportunities for those interested in entering the building trades through apprenticeship.
Information relating to apprentice employment under Federal wage determination regulations was provided to a number of enforcement officials of Federal agencies. The Division cooperated with the Solicitor’s Office in checking apprentice wage schedules, and 9,151 project wage determinations were distributed to the apprenticeship field staff.
The Division conferred with Government Service Administration officials on the establishment of standards for employment and training of apprentices in maintenance crafts employed by that agency.
A new series of apprenticeship publications pertinent to the interests of particular trades or industries was started. Three such trade and industry pamphlets were prepared during fiscal 1958: Aviation industry occupations, including manufacturing, transportation, and service; industrial plant and equipment maintenance; and mechanical repair and personal service trades.
The Division prepared a report on training and vocational education requested by the president of the AFL-CIO Metal Trades Department and
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furnished statistical data on construction and metal trades to the AFL-CIO. Conferences were held with officials of the United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters as to proper identification of apprentices in refrigeration and air-conditioning work, and a suitable classification was agreed upon. Division representatives met with lead-burning industry officials to work out details of their national program. Data on training in the use of precision instruments in the machine-tool trades were prepared for the International Association of Machinists. A Division representative participated in the first national conference of full-time local training directors of the electrical contracting industry.
The Division chief conferred with the Solicitor’s Office and others regarding legislative proposals affecting apprenticeship, including a bill relating to disclosure of health, welfare, and pension funds. An analysis was prepared of S. 3974 concerning labor-management practices, and another clarifying legality of apprenticeship and training funds under the Labor Management Act of 1947. The deductibility of certain expenses of apprentices while attending school was discussed with Internal Revenue officials, and a bulletin was prepared for the field staff.
A study of the Brown-Olds NLRB decision was made concerning the functioning of joint apprenticeship committees.
State-Federal Relations
The Division of State-Federal Relations was established to work with the States in correlative areas of interest in the promotion and development of the national apprenticeship program. It prepares recommendations, programs, and plans on policies and procedures to encourage and create an atmosphere of mutual understanding and cooperation in the promotion of apprenticeship by State and Federal agencies.
During fiscal year 1958, the Division carried out the following activities in assisting the States and Bureau staff:
1.	Developed a continuing program of review of practices and procedures to improve the correlation of State and Federal apprenticeship activities; and instructions on the preparation of material used by other divisions when developing plans that affect the States or are of interest to them.
2.	Worked with the field staff in providing recommendations and plans, and in supplying information to enable them to perform their liaison work with the States more effectively; prepared material for regional directors on specific activities when working with the States.
3.	Maintained, on a current basis, information concerning State apprenticeship activities, legislation, policies, practices, procedures, and other information needed to understand the various State plans. This information has been used by members of the Bureau staff (headquarters
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and field) in planning activities, determining policies, and answering inquiries that affect the States.
4.	Represented the Bureau at national, sectional, and State meetings, to promote a more coordinated and effective apprenticeship program with the States. Also represented the Bureau at numerous conferences with State officials to encourage increased promotional efforts in a coordinated State-Federal apprenticeship program.
5.	Represented the Bureau in meetings, conferences, and through correspondence in dealing with problems of mutual interest with the States; provided assistance and suggested methods for maintaining continued effective working relationships.
6.	On request, provided consultative services to members of the Bureau staff on proposed State apprenticeship legislation, amendments to legislation, and recommended procedures in setting up proposed State apprenticeship activities; prepared proposals and developed material for other divisions dealing with areas of activity of interest to the States; provided assistance to BAT staff in working on programs with the States.
7.	Operated a continuing informational service to the States to keep them informed of the latest apprenticeship developments as they occur, and secured information requested by the States; conducted an exchange of informational and promotional pamphlets prepared by the States; checked with the States concerning activities that affect them; and assisted the States by informing them on changes while working out details with them.
8.	In addition to State-Federal relations activities, provided staff services in connection with the Federal Committee on Apprenticeship, in preparing for meetings of the committee and reporting on the results of these meetings; also prepared information of interest to members to keep them informed between meetings.
Training Service
In fiscal 1958, greater emphasis was placed on staff development activities. The two major categories are on-the-job and auxiliary methods.
Regional directors have the responsibility for staff training within their regions, and 10 full-time training technicians were assigned to regional offices to assist in carrying out training responsibility. Regional training committees were also established to serve in an advisory capacity to regional directors on such matters as identifying training needs, selecting training methods, administering training, and evaluating the results of training.
Recommendations of the committee are usually carried out by a technician under guidance of the regional director and the committee.
To assist the technicians in implementing the training recommendation of the committee, the Training Service Division prepared materials and “ tools” as requested. It also provided the technicians with projection equipment, recording machines, drafting equipment, and other supplies.
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Materials and tools were demonstrated at two conferences, planned exclusively for the development of the technicians’ ability.
Following are examples of types of material and tools demonstrated: Management and Supervisory Charts, High School Career Day Outlined Presentation and Sample Speech, The Conference Method, Visual Aids, and Foundry Promotional Packet.
Certain of the above materials have been adopted by industry and governmental agencies.
The technicians develop material and training aids to meet specific situations. Successful items were presented at the technicians’ conference where they were evaluated and revised for national use.
Additional items of projection equipment were assigned to regional offices enabling the field staff to make presentations to larger audiences. These presentations created community awareness of the need for manpower studies and development. Three sets of slides identifying these needs were made available to the regions.
The Division prepared 34 releases on professional aids and suggestions to the field and national staff. In one region, “Our Manpower Future’’ was presented 226 times to a total of 10,885 representatives of public groups.
Studies were made at the Atomic Energy Commission’s Hanford installation to determine standards of performance required of pipefitters, boilermakers, and electricians in the construction and operation of reactors. Findings of these studies were made available to the respective international unions, with appropriate follow-up to promote training with each craft as indicated by the studies. Application of these findings was recommended to Ingalls Shipbuilding Corp, at Pascagoula, Miss. This is the first private yard to receive contracts to build atomic power submarines. It will also install atomic reactors in two large tankers.
Clerical training was conducted on a continuing basis in several regions and in the Washington office.
The Industrial College of the Armed Forces continued to enroll field representatives in its field conferences, and 13 representatives completed these conferences during the year.
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BUREAU OF EMPLOYEES’ COMPENSATION
BUREAU OF EMPLOYEES’ COMPENSATION
This year marks the 50th anniversary of workmen’s compensation in the United States. The original Federal act providing limited benefits to certain civilian Federal employees injured at work was passed in 1908. By 1916 a uniform system for all civilian Federal employees was designed by legislative enactment. In 1927 a separate act established benefits for employees in private offshore stevedoring pursuits and also for shipyard repairmen.
Later legislation has encompassed private employees in the District of Columbia, defense base workers, Outer Continental Shelf lands activities, and civilian workers employed by nonappropriated fund instrumentalities of the Government. Other acts administered by the Bureau of Employees’ Compensation require continued benefits for injuries sustained by emergency relief workers, civilian war risk casualties, military reservists, and war claims cases.
Despite this necessarily complex network of legislation and heterogeneous coverage, the basic purpose of the Federal workmen’s compensation system is a very simple and specialized one. It is to provide immediate care for the injured employee. The essential elements of this care are timely first aid, adequate medical attention, compensation for loss of earning capacity, and rehabilitation.
As a pioneer venture, workmen’s compensation provided great impetus to accident prevention and significant expansion in the field of other social benefit legislation. Compensation benefits are paid by the Federal Government to its own injured employees through appropriated funds; those to private employees are provided and paid by commercial insurance or supervised self-insurance. Altogether, probably 3-5 million workers are covered under the system in the event of a work injury. Both traumatic injuries and occupational diseases are ordinarily compensable. During 1958, Federal disbursements for compensation benefits, including medical, amounted to $59.6 million, up 6.2 percent from the previous year.
Federal Employees’ Compensation Act
Nearly 98,000 civilian Federal employees reported work injuries during 1958, substantially the same number as in 1957 but up 15 percent over the base period 1947-49. Because of curtailed coverage for military reservists, reported fatalities dropped from 1,116 in 1957 to 456 in 1958.
71
Despite spectacular improvements in accident prevention in many Federal establishments, analysis of casualty rates over the past 5 years shows the overall frequency of disabling injuries practically unchanged at 7.8 per million man-hours of exposure. The severity rate reflects a favorable 10 percent decrease. The cost factor based on a rate per $100 payroll remains substantially the same at 25 cents, that is, one-quarter of 1 percent of payroll; but the cost per employee covered has increased nearly 9 percent due mostly to increased wage rates upon which compensation benefits largely depend.
During the past 5 years, the average evaluation of an approved fatal case has increased from $39,300 to $49,600, up 26.2 percent, while the average number of 240 dependents per 100 cases has remained the same. Disability compensation per compensated nonfatal case has increased 28.4 percent. Admittedly difficult as it is to measure satisfactorily the adequacy of Federal compensation benefits, the fact remains that over 98 percent of the disability cases receive their full two-thirds or three-fourths rate of compensation for compensated periods of total disability, whether of a temporary or permanent nature. The three-fourths rate of compensation, based upon wage rate earned at time of injury, is payable during periods when the injured has a dependent. Empirical data in thousands of cases point clearly to the fact that the average group rate is between 70 and 72 percent.
Use of sick leave rights, during which time up to 100 percent of wages is paid, provides an even more favorable position. Of the 102,924 case closings during 1958, there were 43,840 approved nonfatal cases with disability of 1 full day or more beyond the day of injury. Of these, 31,088 cases, by resorting to their leave privileges, averaged over 85 percent of their wage rate during their disability period, the other 12,752 cases were compensated from the Federal Employees’ Compensation Fund. During 1958, 33,830 cases were compensated, including 20,696 that remained active as of June 30. Of the active compensated cases, 10,674 were fatal.
Total disbursements made from the Federal Employees’ Compensation Fund amounted to $59.6 million in 1958. Of this amount, death compensation claimed $26.4 million, or 44.3 percent. Nearly 70 percent of the death compensation was due to fatalities arising under the military reservist program. Disability compensation for civilian Federal employees totaled $23.1 million, and medical treatment $7.7 million. Practically all of the remaining $2.4 million was attributable to cases reported under the War Hazards Act, War Claims Act, Civilian War Benefits Act, and emergency relief acts, and for Civil Air Patrol and Reserve Officer Training Corps injury cases.
During 1958, further decentralization of this activity was provided for in the appropriation act. Facilities for the local adjudication of claims were established in District offices of the Bureau in Chicago, Boston, and New York City. These three, together with the previously established facilities in the office in San Francisco, provide services for about 50 percent
72
of activities previously handled in the central office. The establishment of decentralized facilities provides increased opportunities for the injured employee to consult with officials of the Bureau and enables the latter to establish closer working relationship with Federal facilities and help expedite the adjudication of claims.
A sample study of 1,165 compensated disability cases for the last half of the fiscal year 1958 indicates average improvement of 26 percent in submission time for claims, and a substantial curtailment in adjudication time, such that the overall average time taken from stoppage of pay to payment of compensation is reduced nearly 35 percent. Administrative plans are being made to obtain authority to carry out a complete decentralization of the Federal workmen’s compensation program.
The utilization of Federal medical facilities, principally those of the U. S. Public Health Service, for treatment of injured Federal employees has continued at a high level. The newly decentralized offices have made it possible to develop closer and more realistic liaison with many of the governmental hospitals and medical facilities. This is helpful in medical care of injury cases. Closer cooperative relationship has been established with the vocational rehabilitation offices of the various States. Public and private rehabilitation centers have been used during the year for special surveys to determine work tolerance and other factors required in vocational rehabilitation efforts.
In connection with the special studies of obscure or unusual cases arising out of industrial conditions, the facilities of the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base have been made available to Federal civilian employees of air bases throughout the United States and to employees of other Federal establishments on clearance with the Office of the Surgeon General of the Air Force. At this facility, cases of alleged occupational disease are given a complete medical workup, including the analysis of materials believed responsible for the disease, and analysis of working environment when indicated.
This arrangement has proved to be of considerable assistance in resolving occupational disease cases of obscure or unknown etiology. A list o£ designated physicians was maintained during the year and there was additional extension of these facilities to some of the suburban areas of large metropolitan cities. There are about 3,000 designated physicians throughout the country. These physicians are selected because of their qualifications as surgeons, orthopedic surgeons, or general practitioners.
Private Employment Work Injuries
Private employment subject to Federal workmen’s compensation jurisdiction may conveniently be divided into the following groups: Longshoremen engaged in offshore stevedoring; ship repairmen; certain other employees engaged in maritime employment on navigable waters of the United
73
States; employees of private enterprise in the District of Columbia; defense base workers; employees engaged in operations conducted on the Outer Continental Shelf exploring for, developing, removing, or transporting by pipeline the natural resources of submerged lands; and certain civilian employees of nonappropriated fund instrumentalities of the Federal Government. Such coverage does not include a master or member of a crew of any vessel, or an officer or employee of the United States Government or of any State or foreign government.
Coverage for civilian employees of nonappropriated fund instrumentalities was provided by recent legislative enactment, Public Law 85—538, July 18, 1958. Included are certain employees of the Army and Air Force Exchange Service, Army and Air Force Motion Picture Service, Navy Ship’s Store Ashore, Navy exchanges, Marine Corps exchanges, Coast Guard exchanges, and other instrumentalities of the United States under the jurisdiction of the Armed Forces. This legislation increases significantly the Bureau’s jurisdiction over occupational injuries to nonfederal employees working within or outside the continental limits of the United States, and adds appreciably to the complexity of its administrative duties. Additional responsibility is also inherent in Public Law 85-477, June 30, 1958, whereby provisions of the Defense Base Act are extended to certain employees of contract work performed outside the continental United States, under the Mutual Security Act.
The exact number of workers in these various private employments subject to Federal workmen’s compensation is not known. It is believed that close to 350,000 longshoremen, ship repairmen, and other maritime workers are affected. Nearly 300,000 employees of private enterprise in the District of Columbia are covered. Defense base workers and others probably bring the total employment coverage close to the million mark.
Injuries reported during 1958 declined somewhat from the previous year, but the total of 102,633 cases was still higher than in 1956. Longshore and shipyard repair operations showed an 11 percent decrease in the number of injuries reported. Reports of injury under all other coverage totaled 31,557 in 1958, practically identical with that of 31,718 in 1957. The total number of deaths reported decreased from 205 in 1957 to 185 in 1958. Many of these deaths were later found not to be work connected, bringing the average annual number of awards during the past 3 years down to 103.
The professional task of determining the precise merits of all these non-fatal and death cases entails considerable work on the part of 14 district offices. During 1958, there were 34,061 personal interviews with claimants and employers or their representatives, 13,764 informal conferences relating to claims, 6,938 independent medical examinations ordered, and 371 formal hearings completed. Although such administrative activity in 1958 remained relatively the same as in the previous year, the number of informal conferences on claims increased 16 percent. On June 30, 1958, nearly 6,800 families or individuals were receiving compensation benefits under these various Federal compensation acts affecting employees of private
74
industry. This represents a 17 percent increase over the comparable figure for 1957. Included in the group were 1,088 families of fatally injured workmen.
Total compensation, exclusive of medical, in cases closed during the year amounted to $11.6 million, of which $8.9 million was attributable to injuries sustained by longshoremen and harbor workers, and $1.6 million to beneficiaries under the District of Columbia Workmen s Compensation Act. Reduction of the former 7-day waiting period to 3 days has increased the number of compensated cases nearly 32 percent since the legislation of July 26, 1956; at the same time average weekly disability benefits have advanced close to 35 percent. The aggregate amount expended in closed cases does not adequately reflect these significant relative changes. The present maximum of $54 compensation per week provides the full two-thirds rate of wages for compensated periods in disability cases up to a weekly salary of $81. In regard to medical care, the various Federal acts have from the beginning of such coverage in 1927 provided benefits unlimited both as to time and amount, a historical precedent set by the original Federal Employees’ Compensation Act of 1916.
Program Objectives
Major program objective is the completion of plans for more expeditious servicing of beneficiaries through complete decentralization of administrative functions. Pilot tests, one of more than 6 years’ duration, show conclusively the relative feasibility and advantages of such an approach. Research facilities also need to be strengthened. Continued emphasis during the coming year will be placed upon further improvements in claims forms and procedures, with particular attention to the pressing problem of securing more complete and expeditious reports of injury and claims from the employing agencies in which injuries occur.
75
Appendix table 1.—Operations under the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act 1 July 1, 1953, to June 30, 1958
ipensated,
76
► Ss
487100-59-
6
77
ppendix table 2.—Operations under the Longshoremen’s and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act, and extensions thereof, July to June 30, 1958
<	n	d	Q
78
S5S3 SSS®
Ci rH	Ci
	20,187 126	SSS2		
§Bs3	16,436 103	299 123 72 40 270 68 18 1		
1^3 def«	16,377 102	•|3RS		
i :	B§ «""4	§5-	gns	
i :	§§ 2	gS3		
Number of cases still
79
Appendix table 3.—Appropriations and expenditures, fiscal years 1954-58
Period covered	Salaries and expenses			Compensation benefits	
	Total funds available	Total expenditures, all acts, including estimated obligations	Net expenditures, Federal act, including estimated outstanding liabilities at the end of fiscal year	Total appropriations	Net expenditures
Year ending June 30: 1954 		$2, 290,000 2,338, 095 2,612, 700 2, 639, 471 3,214,834	$2,286, 830 2,335, 794 2,612,334 2,638,031 3,212, 647	$1, 297, 925 1,290, 598 1, 467, 891 1, 523,301 1,931,270	$43,679, 457 48,322, 444 50, 630. 739 56,092, 413 59,589,635	$43,679, 457 48,322,444 50,630,739 56,092, 413 59.589,635
1955						
1956							
1957						
1958							
					
Appendix table 4.—Trust fund accounts for fiscal years 1954-58
Longshoremen’s and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act	1954	1955	1956	1957	1958
Balance, July 1		 Receipts, fiscal year	 Future proceeds from investments ad-	$705,233.46 37,158.06	$734, 522.62 34, 805.30 1 19, 439. 00	$778,135.85 31, 548. 60	$794, 602.91 33, 484.65	$796,904.47 33, 890.90
Total						
	742, 391. 52	788, 766.92	809,684. 45	828,087.56	830,795.37
Expenditures:		131. 48 6.34 1,000.00 1, 504.08 2,148.57 5,840.60			
Purchase accrued interest		—		128. 45	724.45	—
Compensation, section 8 (f)	 Compensation, section 8 (g)	 Prosthetic appliances		417.12 2,103.01 5, 348.77		3,105.51 1,739. 71 10,107.87	4,167.91 5, 402.10 5,249.57	3,833.39 9,981.92 5,166.87
Reimbursement to salaries and				18, 500. 00 -2, 860.94	570.73
Discount on purchase of invest-ments						
Total		- Balance, June 30		7,868.90 734, 522.62	10,631.07 778,135.85	15,081.54 794, 602.91	31,183. 09 796,904.47	19,552.91 811,242.46
1 Adjustment.
Appendix table 5.—Trust fund accounts for fiscal years 1954-58
District of Columbia Compensation Act	1954	1955	1956	1957	1958
Balance, July 1	 Receipts, fiscal year	 Total	 Expenditures: Compensation, section 8(f)	 Compensation, section 8 (g)	 Prosthetic appliances	 Purchase accrued interest	 Discount on purchase of invest-ments		—		 Total	 Balance, June 30		$107,147.33 7, 613. 58	$111,953.75 9, 574.30	$118,176.20 3,923.70	$119. 283.30 7,002.40	$121, 585.81 4,952.40
	114, 760.91 88. 58 2, 718.58	121, 528. 05 55.85 3,296.00	122,099. 90 2,688.15 128.45	126, 285.70 4,698.66 53.73 -52.50	126,538.21
					2, 834. 20
	2, 807.16 111, 953. 75	3, 351.85 118,176.20	2,816.60 119,283. 30	4,699. 89 121,585.81	2,834.20 123,704.01
80
EMPLOYEES’ COMPENSATION APPEALS BOARD
81
EMPLOYEES’ COMPENSATION APPEALS BOARD
To the uninformed, an air of mystery prevails as to the mechanics of the operation of and procedure before the Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board. A broad outline of how the Board operates may do much to give a comprehensive picture of its processes, the rights on appeal, and the method of orderly procedure. The Federal Employees’ Compensation Act is the exclusive remedy for Federal employees for injury or disease sustained in the performance of duty.
The Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board consists of three members appointed by the Secretary of Labor. It is separate and distinct from the Bureau of Employees’ Compensation. The administration of the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act is vested solely in the Bureau. The Board is a quasi-judicial body, which was established by Congress in 1946, with exclusive jurisdiction to consider and decide appeals by Federal employees from final decisions of the Bureau of Employees’ Compensation pursuant to the provisions of the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act. Prior to that time there was no provision for review, although the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act had been in existence since 1916. A decision of the Board is final and not subject to court review. The jurisdiction of the Board extends to questions of fact, as well as law, and to questions involving the exercise of discretion. Board review is limited to the case record upon which the Bureau rendered its decision; new evidence may not be submitted to the Board.
Appeal is a matter of right, if the application for review is filed within 90 days from the date of the Bureau’s decision. For good cause shown justifying delay, the Board may extend the time for filing to 1 year. The application for review may be made on a form which the Board has available for this purpose. However, the Board will accept an informal request for appeal provided it furnishes sufficient information to identify the appellant, the decision to be reviewed, and succinctly states the ground of the appeal. It is not necessary for an appellant to be represented before the Board, but if he wishes he may designate a representative.
Within the discretion of the Board, at any stage of the proceeding, a party in interest may inspect the case record in the office of the Board in Washington, D. C. In some circumstances, the record is made available for inspection at a regional office of the Bureau of Employees’ Compensation.
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When an appeal is docketed, the Bureau is furnished with a copy and is permitted 30 days within which to file with the Board the original record of the case and its reply, which usually takes the form of a memorandum in justification of its decision. Since either the Bureau or appellant may demand oral argument of the issues on appeal, the Bureau memorandum states whether oral argument is, or is not, requested. The applicant then is furnished with a copy of the Bureau memorandum and is given an opportunity to respond thereto. If the Bureau does not request oral argument, appellant is advised of his right to request it and, if he does not do so within a specified time, the case is submitted to the Board for decision without oral argument.
If either party requests oral argument, a hearing is scheduled. The Board sets the issues to be heard and sends notices to the parties at least 10 days in advance of the hearing. Under present practice, hearings are held only in Washington, D. C. The hearing procedure is informal. An appellant may appear in person before the Board or by representative. The failure of an appellant to be present will not prejudice his case. Oral argument is first presented by appellant. The Bureau’s representative then makes his presentation, following which appellant is given an opportunity for rebuttal. As new evidence may not be introduced, the parties must confine oral argument to the evidence already in the record or to the legal issues raised.
The only difference in procedure between cases submitted on the record and “hearing” cases is that in the latter the parties have the opportunity orally to stress and argue points which are considered significant. Each Board member personally reads the record, regardless of whether it is a hearing case or one submitted on the record. This permits the most careful evaluation of all of the evidence by all three members before a decision is reached.
In each appeal reviewing the merits of a claim, the Board’s decision is accompanied by a written opinion setting forth the salient facts, the conclusions, the law, and the reasoning upon which the Board based its action.
The Federal employee aggrieved by an adverse decision of the Bureau is entitled to the highest standards of appellate review. The Board endeavors to maintain such standards and to achieve through its procedures and practices a just decision in every appeal.
The processing of most of the cases follows the above pattern. However, many other actions may develop, such as motions to dismiss the appeal because of alleged lack of a final decision by the Bureau or contention of other basis for lack of Board jurisdiction, motions to remand for a particular purpose, etc., which may necessitate a variance from the procedure outlined dependent on the nature of the motion or allegation. In any event, in each case the Board enters a formal order disposing of the matter on appeal. The order may affirm or reverse the decision of the Bureau or may remand the case to the Bureau for such further proceedings
84
as the Board may direct. The Board also may enter an order dismissing the appeal for lack of jurisdiction or inherent insufficiency or permitting withdrawal of the appeal. A copy of the Board’s order is sent to all parties in interest.
All fees for legal services performed in connection with the appeal require the approval of the Board. Receipt of any fee or other consideration for such legal services without Board approval is a misdemeanor. Application for approval is submitted by an itemized statement of the extent and character of necessary work performed before the Board and a fee is approved in an amount which is considered fair and reasonable. Legal services performed before the Bureau of Employees’ Compensation require a separate application to be submitted to the Bureau for its approval.
The opinions of the Board are comprehensive and constitute a valuable fund of precedent which serves not only to guide the Bureau in the adjudication of claims but also as an important source of reference to injured employees, attorneys, and others concerned with problems of workmen’s compensation. Each decision with opinion is first issued in multilith form. Later the decisions are assembled and printed in volumes. At present, the Board’s decisions through June 1956 have been published in 8 volumes. The volumes now are available for reference to anyone who wishes access to the Board’s decisions at 180 depository libraries, at the workmen’s compensation commission of each State, and at the regional offices of the Bureau of Employees’ Compensation. In addition, there has been a limited distribution to various university and law libraries throughout the United States. The volumes may be purchased from the Government Printing Office, which has a limited supply. The prices are volume 1, 65 cents; volume 2, 75 cents; volume 3, 60 cents; volume 4, $2.00; volume 5, $1-75; volumes 6 and 7, $2.75 each; and volume 8, $2.25.
The Board commenced the fiscal year with 152 pending cases. During the year, 287 new appeals were docketed, making a total of 439 cases. The Board disposed of 299 cases, ending the year with 140 open cases. Of these open cases, 80 were ready for Board adjudication, of which 39 had been “decided” in executive session and were in the process of preparation of formal decision with opinion. The remaining 60 open cases were not in posture for decision and were awaiting either a Bureau pleading or appellant’s reply or some other preliminary action.
The average time lapse from the date of filing an appeal to the date of closing was 8.7 months for cases in which hearings were held, and 8.9 months for cases submitted on the record. The average for all cases was 8.8 months. Applications for approval of attorneys’ fees were received in 14 cases.
85
BUREAU OF EMPLOYMENT SECURITY
87
CONTENTS
Page
Introduction......................................... 91
The Economy in Fiscal Year 1958...................... 92
Trends in production............................  92
Employment and unemployment...................... 92
Characteristics of the unemployed...............  93
Area labor market developments................... 94
Local occupational shortages...................   95
Unemployment Insurance............................... 95
Paying benefits to the unemployed................ 96
Financing of unemployment insurance.............. 96
Financing benefits..............................  97
The problem of "exhaustees”...................... 99
Temporary unemployment compensation.............. 100
Unemployment insurance for ex-servicemen.......	101
Permanent improvement of the program........	102
Employment Service................................... 105
Placement activities............................  105
Employer relations............................... 106
New tool for matching workers and jobs........... 107
Services to the professional worker............. 108
Talent scouting through aptitude testing......... 109
Serving special applicant groups................. 110
Counseling service............................... 114
Strengthening local office internal operations.	115
Community employment programs.................... 116
Farm Placement Service............................... 116
Recruitment of local labor....................... 118
Domestic migrant farm labor...................... 119
Improved conditions for migrant labor............ 119
Foreign workers.................................. 120
Farm labor committees............................ 122
89
Page
Veterans Employment Service.......................... 123
Training program................................. 123
Veterans’ organizations.......................... 123
Other programs................................... 124
New applications and placements.................. 124
Occupational Research and Information................ 124
Job opportunities information.................... 124
Current occupational information................. 125
Job Guide for Young Workers...................... 125
Technicians’ study............................... 126
Progress toward a new DOT........................ 126
Industry manpower surveys........................ 127
Putting Labor Market Facts to Work................... 127
Informing the public............................. 127
Improved information for economic analysis......	129
Improved assistance to State agencies............ 129
Special Activities................................... 132
Management improvement........................... 132
Administrative financing operations.............. 134
Defense readiness and manpower mobilization.....	135
' Federal Advisory Council......................... 137
International labor activities................... 138
Appendix Tables...................................... 141
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Introduction
The Bureau of Employment Security is the Federal partner in the nationwide Federal-State employment security system. This system serves the people of the Nation by providing free job services to workers and employers, and by providing income to meet the essential nondeferrable expenses of workers when they become unemployed.
The operation of the employment security system in fiscal year 1958, as in other years, was shaped by events in the economy. In a recessionary year, those operations are expanded and take on added significance as more workers call upon the services provided by the system. In a recessionary year, too, the information garnered through the operation of the system and analyzed by the Bureau takes on added significance. Statistics on such matters as the extent of employment and unemployment and the classification of area labor markets become guideposts for legislative proposals and policy determinations.
The strength of the system, tested as never before in its history, was evidenced during the economic downturn of fiscal year 1958.
At a time when local public employment offices were overflowing with workers filing unemployment insurance claims, 250,000 high school seniors about to commence their work life received counseling and assistance in selecting jobs in line with their interests and abilities. At a time when nearly $3 billion in benefits was being paid out to unemployed workers, 1 million job placements of workers aged 45 or over were made. While local public employment offices were being reorganized to accommodate the 3% million unemployed who crowded the doors in an average week, nonagricultural jobs were found for nearly 1,231,000 veterans—more than 103,000 of them disabled.
In October 1957, when the Russian “sputnik” went into orbit and the United States awakened to its shortage of engineers and scientists, the new national network to recruit professional workers, and the new specialized recruitment technique for the placement of engineers, proved of value.
Progress was made in other phases of the system’s programs. Work went forward on such diversified projects as the Dictionary of Occupational Titles, the review of procedures governing foreign workers, and studies to improve the service of the 1,800 local offices affiliated with the Bureau.
Problems, some of them long-standing and many of them relating to the policies and operations of the unemployment insurance program, were brought to the forefront of public thinking during fiscal year 1958. The
91
amount of benefit payments, the duration of payments, and the question of how to assist the unemployed worker who experiences a prolonged period of unemployment were subjected to close scrutiny. Legislative action on both State and Federal levels took cognizance of these and other problems relating to unemployment insurance.
This report describes actions taken on local, State, and Federal levels as they relate to all programs for which the Federal-State system is responsible. The accomplishments of the system, in meeting the continuing challenge of protecting the job security of America’s work force, are recorded against the economic climate of fiscal year 1958.
The Economy in Fiscal Year 1958
Trends in Production	<
One of the most significant single indicators of economic conditions in the United States is gross national product, which estimates the value of total goods and services produced. Consequently, the economic changes in fiscal year 1958 can be summarized by changes in gross national product.
Gross national product was at an annual rate of $441 billion in the April-June quarter of 1957, and rose to a record rate of $445-6 billion the following quarter. In the ensuing 6 months, however, gross national product declined sharply to $425.8 billion in the first quarter of 1958, a drop of 4.4 percent, and rallied to $429 billion the next quarter.
Industrial production began to slip in August 1957, dropping fairly sharply in the next few months until a low of 126 percent of the 1947-49 average was reached in April 1958. Industrial production increased in the next 3 months, but the July 1958 rate of 133 percent was 12 points lower than a year earlier.
Most of the reduction in industrial production over the year was in durable goods manufacturing, with machinery and transportation equipment production showing especially sharp declines. -Employment and Unemployment
Changes in employment and unemployment levels during the year followed closely on changes in the output of goods and services. The total number of workers in civilian jobs dropped sharply from a record level of 67.2 million in July 1957 to 62.0 million workers in February 1958, as reductions stemming from the recession were augmented by seasonal cuts. Small seasonal gains in the next 2 months, and somewhat more than seasonal advances in the ensuing 3 months, brought civilian employment to 65-2 million in July 1958, or 2 million lower than a year earlier. About half of this decline reflected the relatively low level of farm employment in July 1958.
92
Although there were gains in the last months of the fiscal year, nonfarm employment of wage and salary workers in most major industry divisions in July 1958 was lower than a year earlier. The greatest over-the-year loss was a drop of 1.5 million workers in manufacturing, which reduced the total number of factory workers to 15-2 million in July 1958. Employment losses in durable goods industries accounted for more than four-fifths of the employment drop in manufacturing. Partly offsetting these declines, were employment increases over the year in State and local government., and in service and miscellaneous industries.
Unemployment in July 1958 totaled 5-3 million, or 2.3 million higher than a year earlier. The rate of unemployment (seasonally adjusted) was 7.3 percent, an improvement from the April level when 7.7 percent of the civilian labor force were jobless, but well above the 4.2 percent figure of a year earlier.
Insured unemployment increased from an average of 1.3 million in July 1957 to 2.5 million workers in July 1958—a 95 percent increase. The peak during the year came in April when insured unemployment reached 3.3 million—120 percent higher than in April 1957.
Increases in unemployment were widespread, and, as indicated by both the rates and volumes of insured unemployment, there were relatively sharp increases in all States. In mid-July 1958, the rate of insured unemployment nationally was 6.2 percent, compared with 3.3 percent a year earlier. All but one of the 22 States west of the Mississippi River had rates below the national average, while in 15 States east of the Mississippi River, the rates were above the average.
Characteristics of the Unemployed
The increase in the number of unemployed workers was accompanied by major changes in the characteristics of the unemployed. Though workers in all major industrial groups were affected, the sharpest unemployment rise was among durable goods manufacturing workers. The unemployment rates of workers in the mining and transportation equipment industries were about doubled. The smallest relative increases over the year were among service and public administration workers.
Unemployment rose more sharply among men than among women workers. The 3.5 million unemployed men in July were nearly twice the number a year earlier, while the number of jobless women rose by 50 percent over the year to 1.8 million in July 1958.
The sharpest rise in the rate of unemployment was among men workers in the 25-44 year age range, although their rate in July 1958, as a year earlier, was below the average for all workers. Unemployment of youths and of men under 25 continued to be considerably higher than the national average. Workers 45 years of age and over had lower than average rates of unemployment in July 1958, as in 1957, but their unemployment generally lasted longer.
487100—59----7
93
Area Labor Market Developments
Employment declined between July 1957 and July 1958 in five-sixths of the 149 major areas which comprise the regular labor market reporting program of the Bureau and its affiliated State employment security agencies. Even in those areas where employment gains were reported, unemployment increased to some extent, as the job pickup failed to keep pace with normal growth in the local labor force.
In some areas, unemployment began to turn upward relatively early in the fiscal year, as revised defense procurement schedules forced cutbacks in aircraft employment in a number of the industry’s major production centers. By the middle of the fiscal year, joblessness was rising rapidly in most centers, spurred by a mounting volume of curtailments in autos, machinery, metals, and other durable goods industries.
The employment situation steadied in most sections of the country by late spring, however. Unemployment began to recede slowly from the early spring peaks as weather conditions improved and a number of nonmanufacturing industries expanded seasonally. As the fiscal year drew to a close, small gains in durable goods were contributing to the pickup in employment in some areas.
The generally unfavorable employment and unemployment developments of fiscal year 1958 resulted in sweeping changes in the Bureau’s classifications of local areas according to the relative adequacy of their labor supply. In July 1957, when the fiscal year opened, 24 of the 149 areas were classified in the labor surplus groupings (D, E, and F). This number had increased to 89 by July 1958—the highest total since the present area classification system was introduced in 1951.
At the same time, the number of areas classified as having relatively low unemployment or overall labor shortages (Groups A and B) decreased steadily throughout the early months of the year, and finally dropped to zero by mid-March. Forty-one of the 149 major areas were listed in the Group B (low unemployment) category, and two in Group A (overall labor shortages) in July 1957.
On the other hand, 60 major areas reported that local labor surpluses remained relatively moderate (Group C classification) in July 1958, despite the overall employment downtrend of the past year. This group included such key centers as Boston, San Francisco-Oakland, Washington, D. C., Cincinnati, Atlanta, Seattle, Dallas, New Orleans, and Denver. In a number of other Group C areas—among them, Des Moines, Iowa, Sacramento, Calif., Omaha, Nebr., Madison, Wis., and Oklahoma City, Okla.—unemployment in July 1958 was considerably below the average for the country as a whole.
A complete listing of year-end (July 1958) area classifications showed the 149 major areas grouped into the following labor supply categories: Group A, none; Group B, none; Group C, 60; Group D, 49; Group E, 19; Group F, 21. In July 1957, the areas were classified as follows: Group A,
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2; Group B, 41; Group C, 82; Group D, 16; Group E, 7; Group F, 1. In addition, 182 smaller areas were listed in the substantial labor surplus category in July 1958, as compared with 61 a year earlier.
Local Occupational Shortages
Local occupational shortages, as measured by State inventories of job openings in clearance (out-of-area recruitment), decreased in calendar year 1957. The downtrend anticipated the recession. From the post-Korean peak of 42,000 vacancies in November 1956, a low was reached in November 1957 when local public employment offices listed 14,000 jobs in clearance. This was the smallest November figure since 1950, the earliest period for which comparable data are available. Over 70 percent of the July-to-November 1957 decline of approximately 15,000 openings was accounted for by reductions in vacancies for professional and managerial workers and for skilled craftsmen.
After November 1957, total job openings recovered slightly and for the second half of the fiscal year fluctuated at about 15,000. The upswing in openings after November was largely in professional classifications—especially electrical and civil engineers, nurses, social and welfare workers, and teachers. Of the 15,000 openings listed in July 1958, nearly 9,000 were vacancies for professional personnel.
Unemployment Insurance
During fiscal year 1958, the role of unemployment insurance as an economic stabilizer for the community and the family came into prominence, as insured unemployment reached the highest levels in the history of the program. Workers’ earnings reached a peak of nearly $250 billion, at a seasonally adjusted annual rate, in August 1957, from which point they declined steadily to a low of $241 billion in April 1958. Unemployment insurance benefits helped to offset this decline as they rose from an annual rate of $1.4 billion in August 1957 to $4.7 billion in April 1958.
At the beginning of the year, about 42.8 million individuals were employed in jobs covered by the Federal-State unemployment insurance program. Covered employment declined during the year as unemployment benefits rose sharply month by month to amounts over twice the levels of the previous year. Benefits totaling $2,927,929,000, approximately $1% billion more than during the previous year, undoubtedly contributed significantly toward stabilizing the Nation’s economy in general and the economic life of hard-hit industrial communities in particular. In addition, the payments provided by private supplemental unemployment benefit plans to jobless workers, particularly in the automobile and steel industries where unemployment was especially heavy, further compensated for the wage
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losses of these workers. Noteworthy is the fact that the steel workers’ private benefits continued even after State benefits were exhausted.
A recent nationwide survey indicated that in 1 out of every 6 families one of its members, usually the primary earner, was unemployed sometime during fiscal 1958. For many of these families, unemployment insurance provided all or nearly all of the income available for expenses during such periods. For these people, such benefits represented the main defense against the effect of the recession on their person?! finances.
Paying Benefits to the Unemployed
A basic rule in unemployment insurance operations is the payment of benefits to eligible workers at the time they need it. The 1957-58 recession created complex administrative problems. Between the end of October and the end of February, weekly insured unemployment almost tripled, from 1% million to 3% million. In a numbei of local offices, the rise was even more drastic. In Hartford, Conn., for example, claims rose within 3 months from about 10,500 to over 41,000. Prompt payment of benefits became difficult in offices crowded beyond their capacity.
Emergency measures were taken in almost every aspect of the process. The Bureau provided advice and assistance as the States took direct action to cope with the sudden flood of claimants.
Temporary staffs were hired. In a fewT months, agency staffs increased by about 13,000. But untrained and unskilled people cannot be used on tasks requiring technical know-how, as in the operation of an electronic data processing machine, or requiring legal and program know-how, as in the assessing of disqualifications. The physical set-up of some local offices was found inadequate to handle the increased claims loads. In some cities, additional office space could be rented. But generally, additional nearby office space centrally located for the majority of workers could not be obtained on a short-time lease.
The problems were met by combinations of procedural shortcuts, double shifts, and overtime. As a result of these emergency measures, benefits were, on the whole, paid promptly. For example, in the last 3 months of fiscal year 1957, 82 percent of the first unemployment insurance checks were paid within 2 weeks of the claim. In the same period in fiscal year 1958, when unemployment was approaching its top plateau, 81 percent were paid within 2 weeks.
Financing of Unemployment Insurance
Money for the employment security system is appropriated by the Congress. The year opened with the States and the Bureau prepared, budget-wise, to handle an average of 1,300,000 unemployed claimants per week. As the number of insured unemployed began to mount rapidly, it
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became clear that existing funds and existing methods of allocating the funds would be inadequate.
In December, with the approval of the Bureau of the Budget, administrative funds were provided the State agencies on a deficiency basis. Congress acted swiftly in passing a supplemental appropriation. The appropriation total for administration of the full employment security program was $292,814,000.
At the beginning of the fiscal year, reserve funds available for payment of benefits under all State unemployment programs combined totaled $8.5 billion. However, since each State can only draw on its own reserve funds, an analysis of reserve fund adequacy must be based on individual State reserves rather than on nationwide data.
Financing Benefits
At the beginning of the fiscal year, most State reserves seemed strong and secure. Reserve funds in 45 of the 51 State jurisdictions were at levels high enough to finance benefit payments at the rate experienced in the last fiscal year for an additional 3 or more years; about half of the States had reserve funds amounting to at least 7 times the benefits paid in fiscal year 1957.
The rather ample reserve funds that were available in most States at the beginning of the year reflected, to a large extent, the favorable economic conditions and peak employment levels that had prevailed since the 1954-55 recession; as a result, benefit payments during this period were moderately low and were exceeded by the amount of tax and interest income realized by most State funds.
In 9 States, however, despite moderate benefit payments, total income over the last several years has been lower than aggregate benefit payments, and as a result reserve funds in those States declined steadily, both as a percentage of taxable wages and as a multiple of the benefits paid during the year. By the beginning of this fiscal year, reserve funds in 5 of these States amounted to less than 5-0 percent of taxable wages. In 3 of the 5 (Delaware, Oregon, and Pennsylvania), the decline was due primarily to the lack of balance between total income and the moderately low total of benefit expenditures over the last few years. In the other 2 States (Alaska and Rhode Island), benefit costs experienced in recent years approached or exceeded 2.7 percent of taxable wages.
In the remaining 4 States (Maryland, Michigan, Tennessee, and West Virginia), the reserve funds were still above 5-0 percent of taxable wages at the beginning of this fiscal year although they were declining at an increasing rate.
Nevertheless, at the beginning of the fiscal year, in only 1 of the 9 States were the reserve funds so low that it was eligible for a loan. Alaska had borrowed $3,000,000 in fiscal year 1956, repaid it in fiscal year 1957 and,
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in the same year, reborrowed $2,630,000. In the early part of fiscal 1958, Alaska was eligible for an additional loan.
Sharply increasing unemployment which began around the second quarter of this fiscal year resulted in the highest benefit payments on record for any fiscal year. Income to the 51 State funds, on the other hand, approximated $1.8 billion—including taxes paid by employers, interest earned on reserve funds, and surplus Federal taxes (over administrative expenditures) collected during fiscal 1957 and credited to State accounts at the beginning of this fiscal year. The imbalance between income and benefit payments during the year caused total State reserve funds to drop from $8.5 billion to $7.4 billion at the close of the year, the lowest level since the end of fiscal 1951.
However, not all State reserve funds decreased during the year; reserves in Arizona, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Louisiana, New Mexico, and South Dakota were higher, dollar-wise, at the end of the year than at the beginning of the year. In most of the others, State reserve funds during the year decreased by relatively small amounts.
Generally, the States that suffered heavy drains on their reserve funds were the States in which income and benefits payments had not been in balance during recent years.
Delaware........................................................
Michigan........................................................
Ohio............................................................
Oregon..........................................................
Pennsylvania......................................................
Benefit reserves (in millions')
Begin-	
ning	End
fiscal	fiscal
1958	1958
$15.6	$10.9
301.1	156.1
619.8	501.9
44.9	23.0
361.3	208.9
At the end of the fiscal year, five States had reserve funds equal to less than twice the amount of benefits paid during the year. Since benefit payments during this fiscal year were at record high levels in most States, substantially above normal long-range costs, it is not likely that any State which has reserves higher than twice the benefits paid during this year will experience any financial problems in the immediate future, especially in view of definite signs of an upturn in economic conditions at the close of the year.
The heavy drains on the reserve funds of four additional States permitted them to become eligible for loans under the provisions of the Reed Act. Two States became eligible for loans during the year, Alaska and Oregon, and the other two, Michigan and Pennsylvania, became eligible on the last day of the fiscal year. Both States that were eligible for loans during the year borrowed funds from the loan fund: Alaska borrowed an additional $2,635,000 and Oregon borrowed $14,000,000. Oregon, however, repaid its loan before the end of the year as a result of a question raised with respect
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to the authority of the Governor, under State law, to request a loan under the provisions of the Reed Act. Consequently, at the close of the year, only Alaska owed funds to the loan fund—a total of $5,265,000.
At year end, the cash balance in the loan fund was $205,268,575. However, under the terms of the act setting up the loan fund, the 4 States eligible for loans at the close of the year could borrow, in the first quarter of fiscal year 1959, a total of approximately $247 million, a sum in excess of the balance of the fund. In Oregon and Pennsylvania, however, legal questions concerning the right of the State Governor to request a loan might prevent these States from borrowing.
The Problem of “Exhaustees”
From December 1957 to January 1958, the number of persons exhausting their unemployment benefit rights increased from less than 111,000 to over 147,000. In April, the number reached over 230,000. The rate of increase eased somewhat between April and June; nevertheless, in the last month of the fiscal year, almost 254,000 claimants exhausted benefit rights.
For the entire year of 1957, some 1.2 million claimants exhausted benefit rights; the first 6 months of 1958 equaled this figure.
NUMBER OF CLAIMANTS EXHAUSTING BENEFIT RIGHTS 2/ by month, January 1957-June 1958
U Data include exhaustions under State VI, L'CFE, and UCV programs (combined); UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR exhaustions by rai 1 road workers excluded.	bureau of employment security
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Temporary Unemployment Compensation
In response to the increased number of exhaustees, Congress met the problem by passing the Temporary Unemployment Compensation Act of 1958, signed on June 4, 1958.
The TUC Act authorizes Federal funds to States which enter into voluntary agreements with the Secretary of Labor to extend temporarily the duration of unemployment benefits to persons who have exhausted their regular unemployment benefits after June 30, 1957, or such later date as the State selects. The total amount of additional benefits may not exceed 50 percent of the total amount of regular unemployment benefits to which an individual was entitled during the benefit year in which he exhausted his regular claim. In effect, this provides a 50 percent increase in duration of benefits. The temporary benefits are not payable for weeks of unemployment beginning after April 1, 1959.
The act provides, generally, that the same eligibility, disqualification, and weekly benefit amounts applicable to regular claimants under the State employment security laws will also apply to TUC claimants.
The administrative and benefit costs of the TUC program are borne by the United States Treasury. These amounts, with the exception of unemployment benefits paid under Federal programs, must either be restored by the signatory States or the 0.3 percent tax imposed on employers in these States under the Federal Unemployment Tax Act will be increased by 0.15 percent in 1963 and each year thereafter until the amount outstanding is repaid.
The TUC Act of 1958 went into effect 15 days after passage. Based on some earlier preparatory work, the Bureau completed within the 15 days regulations, Secretary’s agreements, manuals of procedures, publicity, and training material, and held training sessions for all regional staffs and State agencies. This work was completed early enough to provide time for the States to prepare their own procedures and hold their own training sessions. As a result, the first claims under the new law in States signing the agreement with the Secretary were paid promptly.
As of June 30, 1958, 14 States and the District of Columbia had signed agreements with the Secretary of Labor, signifying their election to become fully participating States in the TUC program; that is, they had signed agreements to extend the potential duration of unemployment benefits with respect to persons who exhausted regular benefits under the following programs: The State’s unemployment insurance law, the unemployment compensation for Federal employees law QJCFE), and the unemployment compensation for veterans law (UCV).
Four States set up their own programs, amending their State laws to extend benefits temporarily. These four States also entered, however, into limited agreements with the Secretary of Labor to pay extended benefits under TUC to veterans. Eight States signed agreements to extend benefits under TUC to UCFE.
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By June 30,1958, States with about 67 percent of the labor force protected by regular unemployment insurance programs had adopted the Federal temporary unemployment compensation program, or temporarily extended duration under their own State law.
Fully participating States under TUC program as of June 30, 1958 (14 States')
Alabama
Arkansas California Delaware
District of Columbia
Indiana Maryland Michigan Minnesota New Jersey
New York Pennsylvania Rhode Island West Virginia
Limited participating States under TUC program as of June 30, 1958 (12 jurisdictions')
I. Federal employees and veterans (8 jurisdictions)
Alaska Arizona Florida	Idaho	Puerto Rico New Mexico	Virgin Islands Oregon IL Veterans only (4 States)1
Colorado Connecticut	Illinois	Wisconsin
Detailed and complete operating statistics, as well as any evaluation of the TUC program as a whole, will have to await the expiration of the program. Preliminary figures for the week ending June 28, 1958, show that approximately 172,000 1 2 initial claims were filed under the temporary programs (TUC and State). These claims do not, of course, indicate the eventual size or extent of the program.
Unemployment Insurance for Ex-Servicemen
The Federal program of unemployment insurance for veterans expires after January I960. It does not cover ex-servicemen entering the Armed Forces after January 31, 1955.
This inequity was remedied by the 85th Congress. The Ex-Servicemen’s Unemployment Compensation Act of 1958 (H. R. 11630) was passed after the end of the fiscal year.
The new law extends title XV of the Social Security Act, which establishes unemployment compensation for Federal employees, by providing that active military service is “Federal service,’’ under certain conditions. Thus, unemployment insurance coverage is afforded to all former members
1 These 4 States and Ohio temporarily extended duration for UI and UCFE exhaustees by action of the legislature. Ohio subsequently signed an agreement.
2 Excludes Connecticut; data not reported.
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o£ the Armed Forces, whether Korean veterans or other ex-servicemen. Benefits are payable under this law for weeks of unemployment ending after October 27, 1958.
Permanent Improvement of the Program
The experience of the year highlighted certain inadequacies of many of the unemployment insurance programs. These inadequacies reflected not only a need to extend the protection of the system to millions of workers presently excluded, but also a general need to increase the size and duration of benefits to those workers now protected.
At the State level, legislation during the fiscal year, excluding the temporary emergency extensions discussed above, followed the pattern of most even numbered years. Only a minority of the legislatures met. Consequently, relatively few changes were made in the State unemployment insurance laws.
During 1958, five States including Louisiana, whose law was approved July 9, 1958, increased the maximum basic weekly benefit by amounts ranging from $2 to $10—Arizona from $30 to $35, Delaware from $35 to $40, Kentucky from $32 to $34, Louisiana from $25 to $35, and New York from $36 to $45, retroactive for benefit years beginning after July 1, 1957. Kentucky changed from an annual wage to a high-quarter formula for computing the weekly benefit amount. Mississippi enacted a flexible maximum of the lesser of $30 or 55 percent of the State average weekly wage in covered employment. However, because of the $30 limitation, the maximum basic weekly benefit amount was not actually increased.
Including the 1958 amendments, maximum basic benefits now range from $26 in 3 States to $45 in Alaska and New York. Over one-half of those in the covered labor force are employed in the 21 States which have a maximum basic weekly benefit amount of $35 or more, and about one-fourth are in 8 of these States which provide a maximum of $40 or over. A distribution of the number of States by specified maximum weekly benefit amounts is shown below:
Basic benefits
Maximum weekly-benefit
Number of States
Percent of covered workers
With dependents’ allowances 1
$50 or more. $40-$49_____ $35-$39_____ $30-$34_____ $26-$29_____
1 Same maximum in the District of Columbia with or without dependents.
Five States amended the duration provisions of their laws during the 1958 legislative sessions. Kentucky changed from a 26-week and Mississippi from a 20-week uniform duration period to a variable duration period
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of the lesser of 26 weeks or one-third of base period wages. Louisiana increased its variable duration period from the lesser of 20 weeks or one-third of base period wages to the lesser of 28 weeks or two-fifths of base period wages. Delaware made no change in its maximum variable duration period of 26 weeks but increased the duration fraction from 26 to 29 percent of base period wages. Massachusetts increased its extended duration period from 10 to 18 weeks for an individual certified as attending an industrial retraining course, and specified that such individual shall be deemed to be available for work.
Including the 1958 amendments, maximum weeks of duration now range from 16 weeks to 30 weeks. In 6 States it is now possible for all eligible claimants to receive 26 weeks of benefits, and in Pennsylvania 30 weeks. About one-fourth of the covered labor force work in these 7 States. In 24 other States some claimants may receive benefits for a maximum period of 26 weeks, in one State for 26% weeks, and in Louisiana for 28 weeks. Fifty-three percent of the covered work force are in these 26 States. Altogether, 77.9 percent of the covered workers are employed in the 33 States with maximum potential duration of 26 weeks or more of benefits as shown below:
Maximum duration (weeks)	Number of States		Percent of covered workers in States 1
	Uniform potential duration	Variable duration	
Total		13	38	100.0
30 . 		1		7.7
26 to 28			6	26	70.2
20 to 24		6	9	17.7
16 to 18			3	4.4
i Percent of covered workers in States in terms of total of uniform and variable duration.
Future Action
There still remain on the average about 13.3 million workers who are denied unemployment insurance protection by reason of the employment in which they are engaged. The various types of excluded employment and the average number of workers affected are listed below:
Worker exclusions from unemployment insurance coverage, fiscal year 1958 1
Type of employment
Average number of workers (millions)
State and local government employment			 Domestic service in private homes	 Employment with small firms below State size-of-firm restrictions	 Agricultural employment (including agricultural processing)	 Employment with nonprofit organizations			 Miscellaneous exclusions				5.2 2.4 1.9 1.9 1.7 .2
Total workers excluded		13.3
i Members of the Armed Forces were included after the end of the fiscal year.
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The President in his most recent Economic Report to the Congress repeated the recommendation made in previous reports for the extension of the Federal Unemployment Tax Act to firms in industry and commerce which employ under 4 workers. The President also urged those States which have not already done so to provide unemployment insurance coverage to State and local government employees. While approximately 300,000 such workers now have unemployment insurance protection, there remain some 5-2 million State and local government workers who are excluded. Coverage of these employees is exclusively a matter for State action since the Federal Government under the Constitution cannot tax State or local governments or their instrumentalities.
Duration
The problem of exhaustees, and the action taken by Congress to provide temporary extension of benefits, has already been described. Provision for and payment of such extended benefits, along with the accumulation of research into the post-exhaustion experience of unemployed workers, will focus attention in the States on the adequacy of the duration provisions in their laws. The completed post-exhaustion studies show that large proportions of exhaustees continue to be unemployed well beyond the period compensated, particularly during a recession. The fact that 2 States now provide for more than 26 weeks of benefits in their laws, coupled with the enactment of the programs for temporary extension of benefits, indicates the need for reexamining the thinking associated with duration which has kept benefits limited to 26 weeks or less.
Benefit Amounts
The adequacy of the weekly benefit amount has also come in for its share of attention. Findings from studies conducted in this area have emphasized the inadequacy of weekly benefits, particularly for the worker who is the main wage earner in the family. All of these studies show that benefits fall considerably short of meeting the day-by-day expenses of the family for food, shelter, clothing, and medical care. Making up the deficit and keeping up regular payments on installment purchases force many a family to use up its limited savings, or go into debt or both. These findings take on even greater significance when one considers that the increase in unemployment during the past year was concentrated among young men upon whom the burden of family support falls the heaviest and whose savings or other liquid assets are likely to be the least.
Financing
Financial experience during the fiscal year emphasized the need for more adequate tax policies and tax structures in some States. Of the handful of States with the least adequate reserve funds at the close of the year, most reached their low levels, as a result of low employer tax rates in comparison with moderately low benefit costs, during the last several years when
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employment was at peak levels. As a result, when the sudden and heavy increase in unemployment occurred last fall, reserve funds in those States were not high enough to withstand the heavy drains. This condition was aggravated further by relatively low current tax rates and legal provisions in State laws that prevented immediate increases in tax income.
Experience during the current fiscal year indicated that a Federal loan fund limited to a cash balance around $200 million, under the current provisions of the Reed Act, is inadequate to meet State needs when a sudden and sharp increase in unemployment brings severe, concentrated drains on State funds.
Employment Service
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the nationwide employment service, the part of the Bureau of Employment Security which is concerned with finding jobs for workers and workers for jobs. These activities take place in the 1,800 local offices of the State employment services.
The changing patterns of business activity during the 12 months of the fiscal year 1958 confronted the United States Employment Service and the local offices with a shrinking demand for workers, while at the same time the number of workers seeking help in finding jobs increased.
This situation tested the operations of the employment service to the maximum. How such aspects of its functions as local office operations, employer relations, occupational analysis and research, professional and special applicant services, counseling and testing services, and community employment development responded to the challenge in the fiscal year 1958 is described in the following sections.
Placement Activities
The industrial distribution of nonfarm employment during 1958 was somewhat different from the previous fiscal year, and this had its effect on turnover, the availability of job openings, and placements made by the local State employment offices.
There was a marked difference, also, in the occupational distribution of placements. Professional and managerial placements accounted for the only actual increase (4.5 percent) over the 1957 volume. (See table, p. 106.)
The total of nonfarm placements in 1958 was 5,235,910. This was 12.1 percent below the 1957 volume of 5,957,490 placements.
A total of 10,413,000 persons applied for work at local public employment offices during fiscal year 1958, as compared with 8,546,000 during the previous year. Counseling interviews also increased slightly, from 1,508,000 in 1957 to 1,543,000 in 1958. Individuals tested dropped from 1,446,600 in 1957 to 1,350,000 in 1958. However, the testing of aptitudes, through the use of General Aptitude Test Battery, developed by the employment service, increased by about 25,000 over the previous year.
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Comparison of nonfarm placements, 1957 and 1958
industry division:
Total_______________________
Forestry and fishing__________
Mining________________________
Construction__________________
Manufacturing_________________
Transportation, communica-
tion, and public utilities__
Wholesale and retail trade____
Finance_______________________
Total service_________________
Domestic___________________
Government____________________
All other_____________________
Occupational group:
Total_______________________
Professional and managerial___
Clerical and sales____________
Service_______________________
Skilled_______________________
Semiskilled___________________
Unskilled and other___________
Fiscal year 1958	Fiscal year 1957	Percent change between 1957-58
5,235,910	5,957,490	-12.1
9,952	9,752	+2.1
23,632	33,692	-29.8
405,908	457, 508	-11.3
1,218,435	1, 562,025	-22.0
231,817	304,325	-23.8
1,167,360	1.316,974	-11.4
107,167	113,452	-5.5
1,895,414	1,988,167	-4.7
1,167,270	1,219, 295	-4.3
173,707	168,718	+3.0
2, 518	2,877	-12.5
5,235,910	5,957,490	-12.1
128,799	123, 298	+4.5
763,738	845, 747	-9.7
1,729, 513	1,861, 534	-7.1
283,674	320,728	-11.5
673,694	818,137	-17.6
1,656,492	1,988,046	-16.7
Employer Relations
The activities of the Bureau’s employer relations program are directed toward encouraging wider use of the State employment services through direct contact with top management of multistate firms, with employer associations, and with government procurement officials. Parallel to this objective, the program also assists State employment services to develop job opportunities for workers, identify the specific employment needs and problems of individual employers, and provide appropriate services to meet those needs.
In fiscal year 1958, employment service representatives from 26 States and 4 regional offices participated with representatives from industry, universities, unions, personnel groups, trade associations, and sales management groups in employer relations workshops. Major emphasis in the workshops was given to kinds of services needed in selected industries; working relationships needed with trade associations, unions, government organizations, and personnel groups; promotion techniques used in finding jobs; organization and operation of employer relations programs in metropolitan areas; employer relations programs in periods of labor surplus; and responsibilities of the State office employer relations technician and techniques for developing an effective statewide employer relations program.
In turn, training was provided by State agencies to employers in the use of various employment service tools to be directly applied in their own personnel work.
A cooperative program was developed with the American Association of State Highway Officials, the American Road Builders Association, the
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National Association of County Officials, the American Municipal Association, the Council of State Governments, the Bureau of Public Roads of the U. S. Department of Commerce, and Federal, State, county, and municipal officials to encourage their contractors to make full use of public employment services to meet the manpower demands of the stepped-up highway construction program.
A cooperative program, developed at the request of the Linen Supply Association of America, with more than 1,000 company members, was completed with the publication in June 1958 of a book entitled “Employment and Training Guide for the Linen Supply Industry.” Bureau staff launched the project and technicians of the Illinois State Employment Service completed the work with the association and made studies at selected plants in the Chicago area. Copies of the Guide containing the results were made available by the association and distributed to the State agencies for the use of local employment service offices in providing maximum service to the linen supply and laundry industries.
Liaison activities with the Department of Defense and its military services were continued to assure continuity of working relationships in view of the customary and frequent changes in assignments of military procurement officials, and to acquaint them with the role of the employment service in assisting contractors to meet their manpower requirements.
As one result of this work, the headquarters of the Air Materiel Command, U. S. Air Force, issued instructions to its field installations to file all current and future vacancies for civilian personnel, when eligibles are not available from civil service lists, at the nearest local office of the State employment service. The field installations were also advised to authorize out-of-area recruitment for openings which cannot be filled locally. Following up these arrangements with the manpower representatives of AMC district offices in Philadelphia, New York, and Chicago showed that in all three instances the AMC instructions were being followed.
As a result of employer relations promotional activities, company executives of about 80 of the Nation’s major employers and about 40 national trade associations encouraged their plants and branch establishments to make use of State employment service facilities and services; and trade association managers and directors publicized such services through articles and descriptive statements published in their magazines, bulletins, and newsletters.
New Tool for Matching Workers and Jobs
The Estimates of Worker Trait Requirements for 4,000 Jobs is a volume providing ratings for each job in terms of aptitudes, interests, training time, temperaments, physical capacities, and working conditions, arranged alphabetically by job title. It also provides manuals and procedures for defining and applying the ratings to job descriptions. The volume, a byproduct of the functional occupational classification program, was dis
107
tributed to the States in fiscal year 1958 for use in placement and counseling activities in the local offices.
Through 12 regional training sessions, the technique of estimating worker traits was introduced to the State agencies. A total of 31 agencies installed the worker trait program in pilot offices during the year.
Preliminary evaluations of their pilot installations by several States indicate that the technique, when properly applied, has generally improved the quality of application cards and orders. It was usually found to have wider application for entry, handicapped, and counseling cases than for other applicants.
Considerable progress also was made toward the development of a new occupational classification structure which, it is anticipated, will replace the structure in the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT). The new structure is designed to express more effectively the pattern of skills, knowledges, and abilities of the worker. On the basis of this tentative structure, work has also started in grouping the additional 18,000 jobs in the DOT. Specially trained occupational analysts from 5 States are assisting in this work.
Services to the Professional Worker
On October 9, 1957, an experimental network of local public employment offices cooperating in special placement procedures for professional occupations was merged into the national clearance system and expanded to include 83 key employment offices throughout the Nation. The purpose was to improve placement service in the professional field through direct contact between the office serving a professional worker and any other office listing a suitable job opening in the biweekly State inventories of job openings.
Four national professional societies requested the United States Employment Service and its affiliated State employment services to provide job placement service at their annual conventions. As a result, the employment service was enabled to expand occupational coverage in placement service and to encourage development of year-round placements to members of the professional societies. Definite gains in understanding and acceptance by large groups of professional employers and applicants also resulted.
A program of service to retired or involuntarily released military personnel was continued and expanded. Operational responsibility was assigned to the USES for the District of Columbia, since the armed services retired officers’ activities units operate from the Pentagon. Close cooperative efforts between these two offices resulted in improved methods of dealing with the special placement problems faced by this group of entrants to the civilian labor market. Many of these applicants have entered the teaching field as instructors in mathematics and science.
A specialized recruitment technique for the placement of engineers affected by temporary cutbacks in the aircraft and related industries
108
proved to be very effective. Applications from all areas were forwarded to USES for D. C., which coordinated the placement activity by a job development campaign with government agencies and private industry.
Fourteen States maintained separate teacher placement services, and in the remaining States teachers were served through regular placement facilities. Plans were developed with the American Association of University Women, the Labor Department’s Women’s Bureau, and the USES to utilize the teaching ability of qualified AAUW members to help alleviate local shortages of teachers.
Nurse-medical placement services functioned effectively in such cities as New York, Boston, Kansas City, Salt Lake City, and Johnstown, Pa. Meetings were held in Washington, D. C., with nursing and medical associations to develop ways and means of locating qualified nursing and medical personnel.
In the changing labor market of the period, positive recruitment—where the employer-hiring representative recruits in a number of local offices on itineraries arranged by the employment service—continued to be the preferred method for fast recruiting of large numbers of personnel. Telephone referral, in which employers interview out-of-area applicants by telephone, was promoted vigorously by the employment service as a fast and inexpensive way to recruit. This method allows employers to tap applicant supply in smaller and off-the-beaten-path areas without the added expense of personnel time and travel.
Talent Scouting Through Aptitude Testing
An awakened interest in the early identification of aptitudes has resulted in an increasing demand for aptitude testing services to help youth assess their abilities in arriving at suitable vocational choices in line with their potentialities. The United States Employment Service’s General Aptitude Test Battery (GATB) has been used extensively in identifying the occupational potentialities of high school seniors about to seek their first job. In addition, many school officials have requested GATB testing for students in the 9th to 12th grades.
Tentative norms are being developed on the basis of data already available for 5,921 high school students in the 9th and 10th grades tested by 8 State employment services. To verify the tentative norms, an experiment was undertaken for testing 9th, 10th, and 11th grade students and retesting the same students in the 12th grade to determine the effects of growth and education. Nineteen State agencies tested a total of 36,207 students in large, medium, and small schools between February 1 and April 30, 1958. A study was also started to determine the usefulness of the GATB in measuring academic as well as occupational abilities.
A new edition of the occupational aptitude pattern norms for the GATB was published which provides standards for interpretation of aptitude test scores in terms of the requirements of about 600 occupations. Emphasis in
487100—5!
8
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validation studies was placed on new occupations that are originating as a result of the emergence of new technologies in such fields as missile development and electronics. Both unions and employers were greatly interested in test-selected apprentices and other entry workers from local employment service offices after test norms were established as a result of such studies; they cooperated by making available sample groups of employed workers. To date, about 700 employers and about 40,COO workers have cooperated in the Federal-State employment service occupational validation of the USES aptitude tests.
During the year, the Bureau granted permission to the U. S. Air Force to use the GATB in making an aptitude survey of enlisted men to determine how the abilities of Air Force recruits compared with the general population. The Ordnance Civilian Personnel Agency is using the GATB to conduct research on about 5,000 workers in approximately 40 of its installations throughout the Nation to develop test norms which can be used by the agency to upgrade and transfer its civilian personnel. The project will also provide data regarding the occupational potentialities of the agency’s total civilian work force.
BES cooperated with the American Institute for Research in the use of the GATB in a pilot study conducted in connection with a nationwide research project on “The Identification, Development, and Utilization of Human Talents.” A psychologist concerned with bio-astronautics operation was also granted permission to use the GATB in a study of the differential aptitudes required of airmen in the operation of equipment related to reentry vehicles for the Atlas and Thor missiles.
A suggested plan of cooperation with the Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training (BAT) in referring test-selected applicants to apprenticeable and other trainee jobs was prepared and distributed to the State employment security agencies. A leaflet entitled “Aptitude Testing of Potential Trainees” was prepared and distributed to all BAT field representatives and to all State employment security agencies for use in making arrangements with joint apprenticeship committees for the referral of test-selected workers and for employer contacts.
There has also been an increasing international interest in the GATB. It has now been translated into a number of foreign languages, and research is being conducted by 182 individuals or organizations in 42 countries to adapt and standardize it for use on populations in those countries. Thus far the Bureau has received copies of the French, German, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, and Turkish translations.
Serving Special Applicant Groups
Older Workers
An accelerated program of service to older workers was carried out nationally during fiscal 1958, based on findings in the 1956 studies on older
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workers and the subsequent development of improved methods and techniques for serving these jobseekers.
Improved methods for serving older workers were introduced by the Bureau through a series of regional conferences held throughout the Nation. State administrators, specialists, and trainers were prepared to launch statewide programs for training State and local office personnel. Over 5,000 State and local office personnel have since received this training.
The Bureau’s program of improved and expanded service to older workers consists of two important aspects. First is improvement of direct services to middle-aged and older jobseekers in the local employment offices. These services include increased use of job counseling and of aptitude and proficiency tests; assistance in presenting qualifications effectively to employers; solicitation of suitable job opportunities; referral to training facilities, or to other community agencies, for further training or other needed services; and special efforts to eliminate or modify age restrictions in job orders.
Second, the Bureau and the affiliated State employment services are engaged in widespread and sustained community programs to convince management, labor, and the general public that age barriers in hiring are economically unsound. This program consists of such activities as visits to individual employers to discuss employment and practices affecting the hiring of older workers; discussions with groups of employers; discussions with civic, fraternal, and other groups; and stimulation of the establishment of statewide and local committees to bring to the attention of the public actions which can be taken in the community.
The results of the increased efforts on behalf of older workers are evident in the statistics for fiscal year 1958. They show that over 1 million placements of jobseekers 45 years and over were made through the employment service offices. The percentage of older worker placements to total non-agricultural placements rose steadily from 18.2 percent in July 1957 to 21.7 percent in April 1958. This proportionate rise is especially significant since it occurred during the period of declining job opportunities, when placement prospects of older jobseekers ordinarily are more severely affected than those of other jobseekers.
The increase in percentage of placements was not centered on one or two occupational categories, but was across the board. The greatest rise was in the professional and managerial group (one of the groups with a high degree of age restrictions, according to the 1956 study). The next highest rises were, in order, in the semiskilled, skilled, and clerical and sales occupations—indicating increased effort not only to place older workers but to place them in jobs utilizing their skills and experience.
To aid in proper utilization of skills, about 112,000 job applicants 45 and over were provided job counseling service during the fiscal year. In addition, group guidance sessions, staff clinics, and other specialized group sessions were used in efforts to assist older jobseekers in overcoming problems interfering with successful job search.
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Services to Youth
Services to youth through local employment service offices fall into four major categories, each of which requires different procedures.
Graduates.—In the counseling program for graduating seniors, the employment service worked in 7,878 of the Nation’s 25,000 high schools in the school year 1956-57. There were increases in the percentage of high schools served in all but 9 States in 1957-58. The current emphasis in programing for youth services is to extend service to graduates entering the labor market from small towns and rural areas.
About one-third of a high school class customarily needs employment service counseling services. In school year 1956-57, counseling interviews were held with 227,419 seniors. Ninety-six percent of those counseled were given the General Aptitude Test Battery (GATB). There were 58,328 placements of June 1957 graduates, in jobs which were to last 6 months or more.
Dropouts.—Approximately a million children drop out of school each year. Most of these have a need for some assistance by the employment service in resolving employment problems. Thirty State employment services were known to have formal programs for job counseling assistance to school dropouts in school year 1956-57, the last year for which figures are available.
In Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania State Employment Service is doing outstanding work with mentally retarded youth and with youth referred by agencies interested in the prevention of juvenile delinquency.
Students for Summer Jobs.—Forty State employment security agencies have reported outstanding programs for students seeking summer jobs. In many localities, this is carried on in cooperation with junior chambers of commerce or other service clubs.
The Bureau has provided consultation service and materials to youth leaders in the 4-H Clubs, National Grange, and the Inter-Organization Committee on Rural Youth. All these organizations have been taking a new interest in career exploration, largely because of the increasing number of youth who must leave the farms each year.
Services to Minority Groups
Cooperation with the President’s Committee on Government Contracts was strengthened through the distribution of materials to aid employment service staff members in the application of Point D of the Minority Groups Policy. This point calls for cooperation with procurement agencies and other appropriate agencies of the Government in their efforts to secure compliance with nondiscrimination clauses in Government contracts.
Selected data covering employment, unemployment, and industries in metropolitan areas with nonwhite populations in excess of 50,000 were prepared and presented at the National Newspaper Publishers Convention in Washington, D. C., May 12-13, 1958.
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A digest of the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and a statement on the Bureau of Employment Security’s minority groups program was prepared to be included in Notes on the Economic Situation of Negroes in the United States revised by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 1958.
Material on various minority groups in the United States was submitted to be included in the Department of Labor’s position paper to be presented at the ILO meeting in Geneva, June 1958.
A new evaluation method developed to assist local offices in appraising their services to minority groups, the Basic Data Study, consisting of instructions and a series of tabulation forms, was developed during the year. A successful test run was made at the Columbus, Ohio, office in August-September 1957.
Ex-Servicemen.—An analysis was made of employment assistance provided by State agencies to releasees at military separation points, and a summary statement was prepared for the information of the agencies. Large numbers of men are still being separated, and the need for services given at the separation centers will continue for the foreseeable future.
Reservation Indians.—There was exploration of further cooperation with the Bureau of Indian Affairs in its program of relocation of reservation Indians. Under this program, which provides for the vocational training of some 1,000 Indians per year, the State agencies in many areas now give the GATB to prospective trainees.
Services to the Handicapped
The effect of the economic maladjustment of late 1957 and 1958 was acutely felt by the handicapped. Hence, efforts were intensified to maintain job opportunities for this group at the highest possible level, and to assist those with severe handicaps to enhance their competitive possibilities through rehabilitation services. During this fiscal year, 479,473 new applications were received by State employment service offices from handicapped workers. This number was 13.8 percent higher than that for the previous fiscal year. State agencies made 259,406 placements of handicapped workers, 12.8 percent lower than the accomplishment for the previous fiscal year. State rehabilitation agencies referred 11,187 rehabilitated clients to employment service agencies for placement services. From this group, made up generally of persons with the most disabling impairments and most difficult problems, the employment service made 5,571 placements.
To help make higher quality service a reality, the Bureau promoted specialized staff training beyond that given in the regular in-service training program for State and local office staff assigned to serve the handicapped. A considerable number attended short-term institutes for counselors, sponsored by the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation. Also, some State supervisors of the program attended a pilot institute designed especially for employment service personnel. This institute focused special attention
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on the practical problems of severe disability groups in finding and holding suitable employment.
With staff of the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation, new procedures and forms were developed for jointly evaluating cooperative relations between employment service agencies and State rehabilitation agencies on a local basis. These tools were successfully introduced and tested in Madison and Milwaukee, Wis. This method of joint examination and evaluation of interagency relations will be extended throughout the country.
The Bureau assisted the President’s Committee on Employment of the Physically Handicapped in planning its programs, gave it technical assistance, and, with State agency staff, participated in regional meetings in Oakland, Calif., Omaha, Nebr., Salt Lake City, Utah, and Hartford, Conn. At the State level, State employment service staff gave Governors’ committees on employment of the physically handicapped strong, close support.
The Bureau worked closely with the National Tuberculosis Association to revise the Interviewing Guide on Pulmonary Tuberculosis to reflect the most recent progress in treatment, rehabilitation, and placement of ex-tuberculous persons.
Counseling Service
Efforts to improve counseling service moved ahead on two broad fronts— through programs to increase counselor competence and through efforts to extend this service to more jobseekers who have problems of job choice or adjustment.
More than 897,000 jobseekers, 19,000 more than last year, were furnished counseling service during the year. These applicants were provided 1,543,000 interviews, 35,000 more than last year.
A short-course curriculum for supplemental professional preparation of employment service counselors was developed by the University of Iowa and made available to all State agencies. Plans were made for conducting out-of-service training sessions, based largely on this curriculum, at 9 universities during the summer of 1958. Approximately 165 counselors from 18 States were scheduled to take this training.
Some of the tools made available this year to employment service counselors to help them do a better job include an improved Interest Check List, the 1957 edition of the Occupational Outlook Handbook, and use of the “Estimates of Worker Traits” technique in counseling. Methods for evaluating the impact of this technique on counseling were also developed, and were tried out in three pilot offices. They were to be released later in 1958.
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Strengthening Local Office Internal Operations
Adapting to Conditions of Heavier Unemployment
A study was undertaken to determine what steps State agencies might take in periods of increasing unemployment to maintain a vigorous, effective employment service and insure the quality of employment service local office operations. A listing of some of the opeiating and policy questions which might become pressing during a period of increasing claims load was made. The material also indicated actions which might be taken to prevent or offset some of the operating difficulties that were being encountered. Application-taking policy and practice were given emphasis by requesting information of the State agencies about the steps taken to conserve their staff resources in the light of the existing high load of claims.
Revised Management System
As a result of the work of a committee composed of Bureau and State agency technicians, the Employment Security Manual section on organization and management of local offices was reorganized and rewritten. Revisions were based on experience gained from the application of the management principles contained in the previously issued instructions on this subject.
The revised Manual section provides evaluation and management control forms and procedures for employment service operations in large, medium, and small offices. It recognizes that the need for management controls is greater in larger than in smaller offices, and emphasizes the necessary flexibility in the use of management controls.
Time Factors Keyed to Quality Work
The emphasis on the evaluation of employment service standard time factors continued during fiscal year 1958. (Time factors are the standard allowances in minutes by which totals of specified activities are converted to personnel requirements.) The end result of this continued effort in representative local offices around the country is a validated time factor for each operation that is used in the budget process as a guide in determining the proper assignment of staff, and in evaluation of the utilization of local office or State agency staff when compared with the workload produced.
Need for Opening New Local Offices
Based on the results of developmental work and 2 years’ experience in applying previously developed standards and techniques, the Bureau issued Employment Security Manual instructions during the year to guide State agencies and the Bureau’s regional and national offices in determining the need for establishing new local offices in communities located outside of metropolitan areas.
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The Manual techniques provide a uniform method for determining the labor market area in which a local office can furnish active placement service, and the claims service area in which claimants should file claims in person at a local office. The Manual material also furnishes methods for gathering facts on the extent of need for these services within such areas.
The Manual standards provide criteria with uniform bench marks against which the needs of labor market and claims service areas are measured to determine whether an area warrants an office and, if justified, the type and tenure of the office which should be established.
Community Employment Programs
The Federal-State employment security system has an important responsibility to stimulate and assist in community employment planning. Since the local employment office has its finger continually on the pulse of one of the more important factors in economic activity—manpower and employment—it is in a unique position to help communities plan their own economic development.
Bureau representatives participated in a number of economic development meetings during the year. These included three Small Business Administration meetings at Worcester, Mass., Richmond, Va., and Providence, R. I.; an Armed Services Labor Surplus Area Procurement Conference in Rhode Island; and the Rural Development Conference at Memphis, Tenn. In addition, State agencies participated in numerous State industrial development conferences, new technology exhibits, procurement clinics, and business opportunities meetings, sponsored by State and Federal agencies (Departments of Commerce and Defense, as part of their labor surplus area assistance programs, and the Small Business Administration) and local business and community leaders.
The Bureau continued to support legislation to establish a Federal program of assistance for industrial development of areas of substantial and persistent unemployment. Late in the final session of the 85th Congress an enrolled bill, the Area Redevelopment Act, was passed. This bill was “pocket” vetoed.
Farm Placement Service
The Farm Placement Service of the Bureau is responsible for developing and coordinating programs relating to labor for farms and food processing plants. State employment security agencies and their local employment offices have farm placement field representatives whose chief function is to bring together the agricultural worker and employer.
The farm placement field representative’s duties include contacting employers to ascertain their labor needs, estimating crop yields to determine manpower requirements, informing employers and workers of new
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laws governing farm labor, encouraging States and employer groups to improve conditions of employment for farmworkers, planning work schedules for farmworkers, and providing employers with both seasonal and year-round labor.
Since the labor situation in agriculture is often influenced by the vagaries of nature, farm placement personnel very often find themselves confronted with sudden emergencies that may threaten to wipe out an entire crop. During the height of a season, they sometimes work around the clock to save a harvest from sudden temperature changes, floods, freezes, and other onslaughts of nature that cannot be predicted, or to find new employment for workers stranded by such disasters. One of the most serious of these latter situations occurred last December and January when thousands of migrants were stranded in Florida as a result of freezes that hit the winter vegetable crop and seriously damaged citrus fruit.
A new challenge, caused by the economic downturn, was presented to Farm Placement Service in fiscal 1958. The problem involved making immediate readjustments in long-range plans in order to bring into the farm labor force jobless nonagricultural workers, particularly those with previous experience in farmwork.
A directive from the Secretary of Labor requested all State agencies and local employment offices to intensify recruitment efforts so as to offer a farm job to every unemployed worker, especially those in urban areas, thus reducing the need for importation of foreign workers. To achieve these ends, program revision was necessary in many areas, including a review of procedures governing certification of foreign workers and determining prevailing wage rates.
Since, at the end of fiscal 1958, peak agricultural activity was still many months away, no conclusive meaning could be read into farm employment statistics. The figures did show, however, that cumulative farm placements for the last 6 months of the fiscal year were running higher than any previous year recorded, and employment of foreign workers was down about 37,000 from the past year.
Total farm employment continued to decline in fiscal 1958, falling 5 percent from 6.4 million in fiscal 1957 to 6.1 million, according to census figures. Most of the drop took place among farm operators and unpaid family workers. The number of seasonal hired workers fell slightly. This was due primarily to a decline in cotton production caused by unfavorable weather and soil bank withdrawals. Because of these two factors, about 100,000 fewer workers were employed in cotton in mid-October of this fiscal year than the previous year, according to BES estimates. The total of all hired workers at about 1.7 million remained the same as last year.
Seasonal shifts in agricultural employment shared the same large fluctuation as in previous years. According to BES reports from 265 of the Nation’s leading production areas, seasonal farm employment varied from 300,000 in February 1957 to about 1,300,000 at the October harvest peak. Cotton continued to use the greatest number of workers—600,000 in
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mid-October. Large numbers were also recruited for vegetables, berries, tree fruit, tobacco, and livestock care.
The seasonal work force was made up largely of local workers within commuting distance of their homes, although nearly all States continued to rely on migratory workers to help meet the heaviest seasonal requirements. At the peak, more than 300,000 interstate, intrastate, and Puerto Rican migrant workers were reported.
Recruitment of Local Labor
Volunteer Farm Placement Representatives
Volunteer farm placement representatives—local people who serve without pay to bring together farm employers and workers in small communities where it is not practicable to establish a local employment service office— continued to make a valuable contribution to the farm placement program. During the calendar year, 3,409 volunteer representatives were appointed by employment security agencies in 27 States. They made a total of 149,158 placements—nearly 22,000 more than last year.
Year-Round Workers
Scarcity of year-round farm labor continued. Selective placements, a good indicator of year-round worker placement activity, increased by more than 44,000 to 868,017 in calendar year 1957. An effective method of securing year-round workers has been the so-called Farm Employment Day. On a specific day, well publicized in advance, qualified farmworkers meet with farm employers at local employment offices or other locations. During the year, 93 local offices conducted 1,400 such employment days.
"Day-Haul” Programs
Three factors caused a decrease in the need for day-haul workers: adverse weather in many areas, soil bank withdrawals, and the use of sterile-pollen seed corn which obviates the need for detasselers. Under the agency-operated type program, 1,015 towns participated in day-haul activity, resulting in the placing on peak days of 205,162 adult and youth workers. An estimated 100,000 additional workers were placed through the employment service’s “established” type program. Under this plan, the employment service directs workers to certain points where they are picked up by employers without employment service supervision each day.
Youth Programs
During calendar 1957, nearly 3,700 youth were recruited to “live in” at carefully selected farm homes. Under a ‘ ‘ camp’ ’ program, local employment offices stepped up efforts to place college and high school students— generally organized into crews with teachers or coaches as leaders—in approved camps maintained by employers. An estimated total of 400,000 agricultural jobs were found for youth in fiscal 1958.
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Domestic Migrant Farm Labor
Annual Worker Plan
Almost all States using migratory workers have now adopted the Annual Worker Plan. Under this plan, farm placement personnel in local employment service offices schedule jobs for migrant workers at their home base and as they travel from one State to another, thus reducing the loss of time searching for employment. The plan also helps to assure farm employers of an adequate supply of labor when they most need it. The number of crews or groups of workers participating in the plan increased from 4,441 in 1956 to 6,487 in calendar 1957, while the total number of workers of all ages in the crews also rose, from 97,398 to 120,548.
Supporting Annual Worker Plan activities are information stations and farm labor information bulletins, both of which provide latest information on crops and labor conditions to itinerant migrants. Operated by farm placement personnel of the local employment service offices—often 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, during peak labor demand periods—the number of such stations increased during the year. Farm labor information bulletins were issued by 37 States, which published a total of 1,502 editions with total distribution reaching 654,842.
Other Sources of Domestic Farmworkers
During the year, 43,444 reservation Indians were provided placement services in 18 States. In addition, 13,214 Puerto Ricans were contracted from the island to work on mainland farms. These figures do not include the many more Puerto Ricans, including those remaining in the continental United States year after year, who made their own arrangements for mainland jobs, nor the Indians who applied at established local offices and needed no special service.
Referral of Machines and Crews
Referring grain combines and cotton harvesting machines is another phase of seasonal migration requiring close coordination between employment service offices. During the year, some 7,500 employers in 13 States employed the services of small grain combines, and cotton harvesters were referred to more than 300 farmers in 7 States. Five persons on the average were referred with each grain combine placed.
Improved Conditions for Migrant Labor
The employment service continued during the year to emphasize better housing, safer transportation, stricter health and sanitation laws, child care, school facilities for migrant children, recreation, and facilities for religious services. Farm employers and local communities were urged by employment service offices to work for these welfare measures. In addition,
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employers were encouraged to provide transportation expenses for workers, as well as worker insurance and worker agreements spelling the jobs out clearly.
The President’s Committee on Migratory Labor, chaired by the Secretary of Labor, met in May 1958 to give first-hand consideration to migrant problems. It requested BES to investigate the need for migrant rest camps between points of departure and arrival, to look into the possibility of preparing legislation requiring the national registration of crew leaders, and to study ways and means of financing migrant transportation.
It also urged the appointment of more State migratory labor committees to study migrant problems and make recommendations for improvements. Seven such committees were formed in fiscal 1958. The total number of States providing for such committees is now 21.
Employment security offices increased efforts to educate migrants concerning their rights to social security coverage. Local offices continued to impress upon employers and others concerned with migrant workers their responsibilities under the new ICC regulations regarding interstate migrant transportation, and child labor regulations. Most of the activity in these areas took the form of literature distribution and personal contact with employers, crew leaders, and State personnel.
The Bureau and the State employment security agencies also played an important advisory role in ptograms designed to extend and expand further the employment services to low income rural areas.
Foreign Workers
In fiscal 1958, as in previous years, shortages of domestic farmworkers made it necessary to bring in foreign workers. The majority were brought from Mexico, but sizable numbers also came from the British West Indies and Canada. A few Basques, Japanese, and Filipinos were admitted under special arrangements.
To determine accurately the number of foreign workers who could be employed without adversely affecting the wages or job opportunities of the domestic labor force, the States conducted a study of the 132 areas where farmworker shortages were expected to develop. Analysis was made of labor supply and demand, production trends, technology, and nonfarm employment. In addition, 376 decisions on quotas, including amendments, were taken by the Bureau covering the employment of foreign workers in the 132 areas.
Foreign workers, other than Mexican, amounted to 20,399 during the peak season. This figure takes into account those held over from the previous year. Also included were 7,291 Canadians, most of whom were employed in the Maine potato harvest, and a little over 12,000 British West Indians, most of whom are used in Florida’s citrus and vegetable harvest in the winter, and in Connecticut tobacco and the Great Lakes
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States’ vegetables during the summer. On the other hand, the United States continued to supply workers to Canadian tobacco growers. In fiscal 1958, 4,056 Americans worked Canadian tobacco crops.
Mexican Nationals
There were 31,186 fewer Mexican workers brought into the country in fiscal 1958, compared with the previous year. The total was 418,976 contracted through reception centers at Hidalgo, Eagle Pass, and El Paso, Tex.; Nogales, Ariz.; and El Centro, Calif. During the same period, 35,069 Mexican nationals were recontracted, an increase of 2,163 from fiscal 1957. A total of 410,896 were returned to Mexico.
A report, filed by the House Agriculture Committee and based on extensive hearings on the Mexican labor program held by a House Agricultural Subcommittee in March, June, and July, noted that the Mexican program “has been successful in more than one respect.” The report pointed out that the program had made farmworkers available when no domestic workers could be found and had “proven an effective vehicle in the elimination of persons who enter the United States illegally from Mexico to obtain work. The so-called wetback and the bad conditions of employment that accompanied the use of such labor have largely disappeared.”
Foreign Labor Program Activity
Decentralization of the “skip” assessment program from the Washington office to the five reception centers through which Mexican workers are contracted was effected in fiscal 1958. Under the “skip” assessment program, employers failing to return workers to centers are assessed the cost of transporting such workers from the area of employment to the center through which they were initially contracted. Employers, however, may document the voluntary repatriation of missing workers without expense to the U. S. Government and thereby avoid such assessment. In fiscal 1958, out of a total of 1,926 assessments, collections amounting to $56,472 were received. Since the program’s inception in 1951, a total of 6,766 preliminary assessments involving more than $444,000 have been processed by the Washington office. Of this total, nearly $289,000 was collected from 5,779 employers after resolving claimed exemptions.
Continuing efforts to strengthen operations at border reception centers into the United States resulted in a number of improvements during fiscal 1958. A fire prevention and safety survey uncovered hazards; these were removed and a program of self-policing was established at all centers. Procedures for administering blood tests to Mexican workers were perfected in cooperation with the U. S. Public Health Service. Facilities are being set up to make blood testing standard procedure at all centers. Authority to make local emergency purchases of certain items was raised from $25 to $100.
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Prevailing Wage Determination
The Farm Placement Service, on behalf of the Secretary of Labor, made 1,585 prevailing wage determinations of agricultural work in areas where Mexican nationals were employed. These determinations, embracing 2,014 separate rates, are made in accordance with the Migrant Labor Agreement of 1951, as amended, between the United States and Mexico. They were based on wage surveys conducted by 24 State employment security agencies. By terms of the agreement, Mexican workers must be paid wages not less than the prevailing wage rates of domestic workers in the respective crops and wage areas.
Examinations were made of payroll records in a number of areas and activities in which Mexican nationals are employed on piece rates to determine average hourly earnings. This was done preparatory to consultations involving departmental policy changes in the area of piece rate earnings.
Housing and Feeding
Continued emphasis was placed during the year on the improvement of Mexican worker housing. More than 7,000 inspections were made to assure that employers were complying with the Minimum Acceptable Standards for Housing Mexican Workers, published in March of 1957.
Deficiencies, mostly minor, were found in about 40 percent of the camps inspected, a substantial reduction from last year’s figure of two-thirds. Fewer camps were closed—73 compared with 225 last year—and the incidence of major deficiencies affecting the health or safety of workers was reduced from 25 to 12 percent.
Standards and menus designed to improve the quantity and quality of food served Mexican workers in restaurant-type feeding facilities were developed this year. About 120 such facilities out of almost 300 inspected disclosed deficiencies. Most, however, were minor.
Investigation of Complaints
Field representatives conducted 5,706 investigations during the fiscal year. Violations were found in about 64 percent of the cases. Nearly 30 percent of the complaints related to wages and slightly less than half were substantiated, resulting in the payment to Mexican workers of about $104,000 in back wages. Periodic inspections of employers’ payrolls, as opposed to complaint investigations, resulted in the payment of an additional $28,400. A total of $132,400 in back wages was paid by 742 employers to 8,213 workers. Eighteen employers lost their privilege of contracting Mexican workers because of willful wage violations or refusal to take corrective action.
Farm Labor Committees
Three committees continued during the year to assist the Farm Placement Service in carrying out its objectives in both the domestic and foreign
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labor programs. They were the Farm Labor Subcommittee of the Federal Advisory Council, the Special Farm Labor Committee, with 48 members representing all States and all branches of agriculture and food processing, and the Labor Advisory Committee which is composed of representatives of organized labor. In addition, the Mexican Subcommittee of the SFLC proved particularly helpful in reaching agreement on the Secretary’s wage policies.
Veterans Employment Service
An estimated 710,000 servicemen were separated from military duty and returned to the civilian labor force during fiscal year 1958. To speed their readjustment to civilian employment, the State employment security agencies provided services at 266 military separation and transfer points. Veterans now make up nearly 45 percent of the Nation’s male labor force.
The Veterans Employment Service has the responsibility of functional supervision of services provided veterans through local State employment offices. The Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, as amended, requires that the Secretary of Labor appoint a veterans’ employment representative (VER) in each State.
In fiscal year 1958, State VERs contacted some 5,000 employers to develop a favorable attitude toward veterans’ employment problems; made 6,400 contacts with veterans’ organizations and 6,900 contacts with other organizations, including government agencies and civic and union groups. VERs also gave advice and counseling to over 16,500 individual veterans.
Training Program
Major emphasis was placed on the training phase of the Veterans Employment Service program in fiscal year 1958. Three regional training conferences were held with 33 State VERs participating. Members of the Veterans Employment Service headquarters staff visited all States and Territories except Alaska to provide on-the-job training to State VERs and their staffs. Stepped-up training of local office personnel through use of the VES Refresher Training Unit resulted in approximately 60 percent of State employment service local offices receiving special training. A supplement to the State VER Handbook on Conference Leadership, a self-study training unit, was distributed by the VES to all State VERs. VES also completed a two-part training booklet to assist VERs in the performance of their duties.
Veterans’ Organizations
Cooperative programs to help provide better employment opportunities to veterans were carried on with all veterans’ organizations by VES and State VERs. Traceable accomplishments of this cooperation include
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adoption by the American Legion of a detailed program for assisting in employment problems, production by the American Veterans of World War II (AM VETS) of a new manual of operations and instructions for volunteer employment officers, and a strengthened employment program by the Disabled American Veterans.
Other Programs
The rise in the numbers of veterans released from Veterans’ Administration neuropsychiatric hospitals, owing to new and better methods of treatment, prompted a review by the VES of its cooperation with VA officials and State employment security agencies. VA officials from several hospitals met with VERs at three regional conferences where plans were made for improving the placement service for veterans being released from mental hospitals.
New Applications and Placements
Local State employment offices in fiscal year 1958 took 2,432,000 new applications for employment from veterans, a rise of 29.6 over the previous year. Disabled veterans accounted for 145,400 of total applications. The total number of veterans placed in nonagricultural jobs was 1,230,100. Disabled veterans placed in jobs in fiscal 1958 numbered 103,300—more than 40 percent of the total number of male handicapped placements.
Occupational Research and Information
Occupational research and analysis are basic techniques used by the employment service to develop occupational information aimed toward one goal—that of helping workers find jobs and helping employers solve employment problems. Such information facilitates the placing of applicants and the filling of job orders, and is a means of providing a variety of other personal services to the worker, the employer, and the community. The extensive changes in employment and unemployment that occurred in fiscal year 1958 emphasized the importance of this information and led the Bureau to stimulate increased Federal-State activities in this field.
Job Opportunities Information
The growing need for labor market information during fiscal year 1958 led to an intensification of State agency development and the release of local job opportunity information. The two major types of research conducted by the States in this field were the preparation of occupational guides and the preparation of area skill surveys.
By the end of the fiscal year, 32 States were publishing or developing occupational guides. These were usually published as a continuing series
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containing basic information on the job content and economic factors associated with a single occupation or group of occupations.
Each guide contained information about current and future employment opportunities, job duties, education and training and experience requirements, local training facilities, entry methods, advancement opportunities, and hours and earnings. Such guides are essential to employment counseling and job development activities in the local office, and provide authoritative information to school counselors, students, and jobseekers who desire occupational guidance.
Thirty of the State and territorial employment security agencies participating in an area skill survey program made analyses of current and future labor demand and supply, by occupation, for individual labor market areas. Area skill surveys contribute to community employment develo -ment, assist communities in planning their economic growth and develo -ment in terms of their occupational resources, and provide a basic guide to local vocational training needs and programs. Significant actions in the field of vocational training have resulted in several areas. For example, the Arizona area skill surveys have been used extensively in planning school training curricula and industry training programs. In Bridgeport, Conn., during the course of an area skill survey, a manpower council was established to promote the expansion and improvement of local training and to encourage the utilization of workers at their highest skills.
Current Occupational Information
A report covering all openings for which local State employment offices can find no local applicants appears monthly in the publication Labor Market and Employment Security. Another report was initiated during fiscal year 1958, when interest by the National Science Foundation and the President’s Committee on Scientists and Engineers led to the publication of bimonthly reports on “Current Labor Conditions for Engineering, Scientific and Technical Personnel,” dealing with shortages in selected scientific and engineering professions.
Job Guide for Young Workers
A new edition of the popular Job Guide for Young Workers was issued the latter half of fiscal year 1958. This Guide provides concise, up-to-date information on duties and characteristics, qualifications required, employment prospects, advancement prospects, and entry methods for more than 100 entry jobs. The occupations included in Job Guide are primarily those requiring no more than a high school education.
The Guide also identifies Federal and State agencies that provide labor market information and counseling services. It sets forth the advantages of education beyond high school and gives advice on how to go about getting a job.
487100—59----9
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A section on job outlook, which forecasts changes in the occupational? structure of the Nation’s work force, emphasizes the expected greater demand for better educated, better trained people. Some 40,000 copies of the Job Guide for Young Workers have been distributed to local employment offices, secondary schools, libraries, and community organizations throughout the country.
Technicians’ Study
As a result of a pilot analysis completed in 1957, a basic study to identify and describe those technical jobs which are considered supporting to engineers and physical scientists was begun early in the fiscal year under the joint sponsorship of the National Science Foundation and the President’s Committee on Scientists and Engineers. The assumption underlying this study is that the number of available engineers and scientists can be increased to the extent that technically trained personnel can be utilized to perform the more routine aspects of these occupations requiring professionally trained personnel. The cooperation of 11 States was enlisted for field assistance, and the agency analysts were given specialized training. Work on the project was begun in four key industries. Progress was made despite such inhibiting factors as layoffs, frequently resulting in reorganization of technical staffs so that the technicians were performing duties not representative of usual assignments. However, 500 job studies were made and their analyses processed, and an outline of a brochure devoted to technicians, engaged in research and development work was prepared.
Progress Toward a New DOT
Toward an eventual new and revised edition of the Dictionary of Occupational Titles, a three-pronged program was planned and initiated in fiscal year 1958: (1) The processing, by both State agency and Bureau analysts, of job studies accumulated over the past several years, into job definitions;. (2) the verification of special groups of definitions, presently in the DOT, by professional and other authoritative associations; and (3) the establishment of five occupational analysis field centers to undertake a mass verification of definitions currently appearing in the DOT, and to make new field analyses of jobs not already covered. Work was begun on the first two parts of the program, involving the assistance of five State agencies, which prepared definitions in five industries, after special methods and procedures were developed for the work.
Four State agencies (California, Michigan, Missouri, and New Jersey) accepted the proposal to set up and operate occupational analysis field centers. Plans provide for personnel of each center to be hired by and administratively responsible to the State agency; they will receive their assignments from and be technically and functionally responsible to the national office of the Bureau.
Exploratory work also was done in revising the format of the DOT, particularly as it relates to the definition. The aim is toward a more meaningful definition, containing both more and clearer occupational information without sacrificing necessary brevity and simplicity. In this work, functional occupational classification concepts and principles were considered and those applicable were incorporated.
In addition to work specifically for the Dictionary, 7 State agencies, working under special project grants, made job studies in 15 industries. Included were studies resulting in descriptions of 13 selected jobs in electronic data processing.
Industry Manpower Surveys
As part of the general function of providing current manpower information, numerous inquiries originating from other Government agencies and the public were serviced on a continuing basis during fiscal year 1958. In addition, industry manpower surveys on aircraft and parts manufacturing and blast furnaces, steel works, and rolling mills were prepared and circulated. These surveys covered employment trends and outlook, area impact, labor shortages, recruitment methods, hours, earnings, and turnover, as reported by major establishments to local offices of State employment security agencies.
At the request of the National Science Foundation and the President’s Committee on Scientists and Engineers, a special industry survey was completed on the manpower situation in scientific and engineering occupations in the chemical industry. From each establishment contacted, information was obtained on employment, vacancies, and 1-year requirements, and an analysis was made of labor demand and supply problems, turnover, utilization, and hiring practices.
Putting Labor Market Facts to Work
The daily transactions in each of the 1,800 local State employment offices provide a wealth of information on the changing conditions of employment, unemployment, and labor supply and demand. The collection and analysis of this information formed the basis for the regular reporting of a wide range of labor market facts. These facts, secured and reported by State employment security agencies, and analyzed and published by them and the Bureau, entered into the plans, policies, and manpower operations not only of the Department of Labor and other Government agencies but also of many private organizations and persons.
Informing the Public
In fulfilling its responsibilities to the public, to Government agencies, and the State employment security agencies, the Bureau issued a variety
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of publications and releases which measured the extent of unemployment, employment, wages, and other related developments in the Nation’s labor market.
Reports on Unemployment
The rise in the numbers of jobless workers in fiscal year 1958 lent greater importance to the periodical reports on employment and unemployment issued by the Bureau, either on its own or in cooperation with other departments of Government. These reports include:
1. Area Labor Market Trends, a bimonthly bulletin (and 3 interim releases) prepared and published by the Bureau, classifying 149 major areas and between 61 and 182 smaller centers according to relative adequacy of labor supply. Overall national analyses of the area labor market situation and outlook, tracing the impact of employment and unemployment developments upon different areas and summarizing area employer hiring intentions, were prepared and issued as a part of each issue of the Area Labor Market Trends bulletin.
1 2. Characteristics of the Unemployed, a monthly report developed and prepared by BES and the Bureau of Labor Statistics and issued by the Department of Labor. Based primarily on data obtained from BES, the State ■employment security agencies, and the Bureau of the Census, the report presents an analysis of the volumes and rates of unemployment for various population groups and describes the most significant characteristics of these groups.
3. Combined Employment and Unemployment Release, a monthly report issued jointly by the Departments of Labor and Commerce. BES participates in the preparation and distribution.
4. Unemployment Insurance Claims, a weekly news release and report prepared by BES, providing data on week-to-week changes in volume of unemployment insurance claims, together with reported reasons for differences.
Area Manpower Guidebook
A comprehensive Area Manpower Guidebook, prepared with the cooperation of the State employment security agencies, presenting background data comparative labor market statistics, and summary labor market facts about the economic and manpower resources of 174 of the Nation’s more important labor market areas, was released by the Bureau in fiscal year 1958. This publication brought together in a single volume basic manpower information for local areas—their industrial characteristics, major sources of employment, skills of the work force, long-term labor market trends, and related items. The book facilitates the work of the Bureau and the State agencies in serving workers, employers and the public, and in planning national manpower programs and policies.
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Federal Civilian Worker Employment
Important new information on the employment and wages of Federal civilian employees became available for the first time on a regular basis through the efforts of the Bureau and its affiliated State agencies. The new statistical series provides data on the monthly employment and quarterly wages of Federal civilian workers, classified by industry, State, local area, and agency. The new series represents a major addition to the economic data available to business, labor, and the public.
General Publications
The Bureau continued issuing two monthly technical publications. The Employment Security Review is designed primarily as a medium for exchange of experience among the States with respect to developments in operating methods and procedures. The other monthly, The Labor Market and Employment Security, is designed to provide a variety of economic and administrative data and analysis of operating value to personnel in the employment security system and the general public. The Bureau also issued, during the active agricultural season, a monthly periodical, Farm Labor Market Developments, which describes the farm labor market situation, as indicated by semimonthly reports submitted to the Bureau by 264 major agricultural areas.
Improved Information for Economic Analysis
The number of workers who file for unemployment insurance benefits under the Federal-State unemployment insurance program has become one of the very widely used economic indicators. To improve its value and significance, factors have been developed for seasonally adjusting national totals of inti tai claims and insured unemployment totals. Seasonal factors were also prepared on initial claims for some 50 labor market areas.
For the first time, the Bureau developed factors for estimating the annual rate of benefits paid under the four regular unemployment insurance programs—State UI, UCFE, UCV, and RRB. As a result, it has been possible to provide information on the annual rate of total unemployment insurance benefits under the four programs each month during the recessionary movement, and to indicate the extent to which such payments contributed to the maintenance of total personal income on an annual rate basis.
Improved Assistance to State Agencies
Guidance and technical assistance were provided the State employment security agencies in research work designed to improve existing data and develop new data for use in labor market analysis and in the management of employment security operations. At the end of fiscal year 1958,
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ACTUAL AND SEASONALLY ADJUSTED UNEMPLOYMENT TRENDS
FISCAL YEAR
Note: State Programs and Federal Employee Program, Continental United States.
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
BUREAU OF EMPLOYMENT SECURITY
OFFICE Of PROGRAM REVIEW ANO ANALYSE
WaAl^tMtS.D.C
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some 28 States were engaged in studies designed to improve data on unemployment and related labor force activities; 18 were working on studies to improve employment and other establishment data; and 26 States were engaged in a variety of special manpower and labor market studies such as those on characteristics of unemployed workers, sources of workers for new establishments, and manpower resources of areas of chronic unemployment.
Exchanging Research Information
In order to keep the State agencies acquainted with the extent and scope of employment security research programs being conducted by all of the State agencies, and to keep them abreast of methodological developments in research programs, preparations were well under way at the end of the fiscal year for the issuance of a revised Employment Security Research Exchange. The new Exchange is based on semiannual reports submitted by the State agencies on research projects completed, planned, under way, •or being conducted on a continuing basis.
A new and improved procedure has been established for the systematic •distribution of State agency research studies through a Research Transmittal Series.
To provide improved labor market analysis tools to State agencies, preliminary versions of six chapters of the Handbook on Area Labor Market Analysis were completed and distributed to the State agencies.
Review of Standard Metropolitan Areas
The Bureau continued its active participation in the Bureau of the Budget •committee on review of standard metropolitan areas. The Bureau of the Budget has issued a revised set of criteria for defining these areas which now makes them identical in concept with BES labor market areas. The responsibility for determining the volume of worker commuting has been placed by the Bureau of the Budget with the BES in cooperation with the State employment security agencies. To provide the necessary information to the Bureau of the Budget on worker commuting, some 20 studies were completed or undertaken during the fiscal year.
New Standard Industrial Classification
Guidance and assistance were provided to the State employment security agencies in the conversion of industry codes in State unemployment insurance records to the revised (1957) Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) Manual codes. Employment and wage data for some 42.5 million workers covered by Federal-State unemployment insurance programs in January, February, and March 1958 are being tabulated by the State agencies using revised SIC codes for the industry distributions. These will be the first data available in Government to reflect the revised coding structure.
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Revision of Farm Labor Reports
A work committee composed of State, regional office, and Bureau staff reviewed and revised the reporting requirements in connection with establishment of foreign worker ceilings and the determination of prevailing wages to be paid to Mexican nationals. The revisions are designed to yield more useful information as well as to simplify State agency reporting procedures.
Special Activities
Management Improvement
To promote the economical and efficient administration of the employment security program and maximum achievement of employment security objectives, the Bureau has undertaken a continuous program of cooperation with the State agencies to develop and maintain sound organizational structures and to apply sound management techniques and operational methods. The Bureau also as a part of its program of management improvement renders technical assistance to State agencies on staff development and training.
State Management Surveys
This program is being accomplished through an objective examination and appraisal by a management survey group of all phases of a State employment security agency’s organization and management. The management survey of a State employment security agency covers the administrative framework and machinery of the agency, its place in State government, its sources of authority, and similar broad phases of administration.
Specifically, the agency’s organization and management are evaluated through an analysis of the suitability of the organizational structure; adequacy and soundness of basic policies in relation to program objectives; effectiveness of administration, including such management phases as administrative planning and direction, delegation of responsibility and authority, adequacy of staff, efficacy of controls and communications, and utilization and coordination of line and staff resources in achieving operating goals; and the adequacy of standards, methods, techniques, and systems for assuring efficient and economical operations. The survey group follows a basic plan developed from practical experience in making surveys and incorporating survey methods and techniques formulated by recognized authorities in the field. However, the individual survey itself is always adapted to meet different situations caused by varying organizational structures, laws, policies, methods of operations, and administrative problems encountered in the States.
The Bureau survey team is representative of the major programs and services and is frequently augmented by a member of the appropriate regional
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office. Usually the State agency assigns staff to participate as team members. In all surveys, the findings and recommendations are discussed with the agency administrator and his executive staff as each phase is completed.
Six management surveys were completed during the past fiscal year, and follow-up action was initiated on three previously completed surveys. Plans for fiscal year 1959 call for an expansion of the program in response to an increasing number of requests from State agencies for this type of assistance.
Staff Development and Training
The staff development and training program has placed emphasis on cooperation with State employment security agencies in the development of training materials and in the exchange of information and experiences in training activities.
In October 1957, representatives from 12 State employment security agencies and 1 regional office, in cooperation with the Bureau training staff, revised the handbook Staff Training io Employment Security and developed a draft of a supplemental guide for supervisors to aid them in training their employees. The participants were training supervisors and operating officials. In May 1958, training supervisors from 18 State employment security agencies and representatives from 2 regional offices met in Washington, D. C., to discuss specific training problems and to share experiences.
The Bureau has presented a proposal to the Brookings Institution to seek their cooperation in conducting a series of management training conferences for State agency administrators and in helping to finance the meetings. This proposal was to provide the administrators with training in management skills in an effort to improve the overall operations of the employment security program in the State agencies.
Personnel Management in State Agencies
Sound and effective personnel administration is basic to proper and efficient administration of the State programs. Bureau plans for fiscal year 1958 included, at the request of the Interstate Conference Committee on Personnel Management, a proposed expansion of Bureau assistance to the State agencies in this field. The changed economic situation also brought new problems to State agencies of hiring and training staff to meet the additional claim loads, adding urgency to the need for personnel planning and technical assistance.
The Bureau continued to work closely with the Interstate Conference Committee on Personnel Management on a program to improve personnel administration in several designated problem areas. Bureau policy on compensation, longevity plans, salary advancements, and fringe benefits were reviewed after surveys were made of practices and problems in State agencies. A major study was started on local office interviewing and claimstaking functions, calling for analysis of education, experience, and
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personal characteristics necessary to perform the various duties of these basic local office positions. Guide materials on recruitment planning and replacement of retiring State and local office personnel also were distributed.
As a first step in the general project of improving the quality and competence of State personnel, a work committee of Bureau and State agency representatives drafted standards for the selection and development of employment counselors, including sample class specifications for three classes of counselor positions. The Bureau also developed, in conjunction with the counselor standards, a policy on out-service training of State agency personnel.
Administrative Financing Operations
As of July 1, 1957, $71,195,200 was credited to the States’ accounts in the Unemployment Trust Fund in the U. S. Treasury in accordance with the provisions of the Employment Security Administrative Financing Act of 1954. This amount represented the total excess of Federal unemployment tax collections during the fiscal year 1957 over the total of State and Federal employment security expenditures for that year. The entire excess of tax collections was distributed to the States because the balance in the Federal unemployment account was in excess of the $200,000,000 provided by the act.
The balance in the Federal unemployment account in the Unemployment Trust Fund in June 30, 1958, reflected a decrease of $3,317,824 from the previous year-end balance. This represented the difference between the interest earnings of the fund, amounting to $5,395,776, and charges against the fund of $8,713,600, namely, for a loan to Alaska ($2,635,000) and for fiscal 1958 administrative costs of the Bureau ($6,078,600) charged in accordance with the provisions of Public Law 85_67, 85th Congress. While the latter amount reduced the balance in the Federal unemployment account at the end of the fiscal year, it was restored to that account on July 1, 1958, and was considered an employment security expense in determining the excess tax collections available for distribution to the States’ trust fund accounts.
The excess of Federal tax collections over employment security administrative expenditures during fiscal year 1958 was $33,453,482. This amount was allocated in its entirety to the States in proportion to their taxable wages and was credited to their trust fund accounts on July 1, 1958. Employment security administrative expenditures for 1958 were over $44 million higher than in 1957, but Federal tax collections rose only about $7.5 million during the year. The larger increase in expenditures was due to the significant increase in covered unemployment during the fiscal year.
The excess funds allocated to the States may be used, under certain conditions, to pay expenses incurred for administration of unemployment insurance laws and public employment security offices. Through the end
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of fiscal year 1958, 20 States had appropriated funds from this source in the total amount of $26,236,447 for administrative purposes, primarily for the purchase of land or construction of buildings. Seven of the 20 States which have appropriated funds under the act made such appropriations during the fiscal year 1958.
Defense Readiness and Manpower Mobilization
Assistance to States
Of the responsibilities delegated to the Department of Labor by the former Federal Civil Defense Administration, the Bureau of Employment Security is charged primarily with those relating to the recruitment, distribution, and utilization of manpower, the estimation—at State and local levels—of survivors following an attack, and the provision of income maintenance to members of the labor force made idle by enemy action.
The Bureau is also concerned with responsibilities delegated to the Department of Labor by the former Office of Defense Mobilization. These responsibilities include the dissemination of mobilization labor market information, the recommendation of adjustments in procurement and production programs in the light of manpower considerations, and development of programs to meet defense-supporting and essential civilian labor requirements in mobilization situations.
The Bureau gave primary emphasis during the year to assisting the State agencies in developing and documenting comprehensive blueprints of their proposed methods of operation in a postattack emergency. During the course of fiscal year 1958, 23 of the agencies completed new or revised written plans containing such blueprints, bringing to 32 the total number of agencies which have filed copies of such plans with the Bureau. In some cases these plans were independently developed employment security agency documents; in others, they were appendixes to overall State survival plans, developed jointly with representatives of the State civil defense coordinating authorities.
The Bureau’s assistance to the States in their defense readiness planning was also reflected in its action to refine and expand its guidelines to employment security agencies regarding the program and procedural aspects of their responsibility in the postattack recruitment, distribution, and utilization of manpower. The improvement of these guidelines, which are contained in the BES Defense Readiness Handbook, was undertaken through the following two projects:
1. The development and issuance of a document, in the form of an appendix to the Handbook, on the subject “The Effect of Radiation Hazards on Manpower Operations.” It was designed to assist the State agencies in carefully and realistically evaluating the radiation factor in planning for the development of labor market data following a nuclear attack, and for the recruitment and allocation of workers in such a situation.
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2. The complete revision of the Handbook chapter dealing with the employment service activities particularly involved in these manpower operations. With the growth of the employment security system’s experience in defense readiness planning and with the increasing clarification of the Government’s assumptions regarding the effects of a nuclear attack, it became evident that greater recognition had to be given to the fact that the heaviest impact of the postattack manpower job will fall on employment service staffs serving areas swollen by evacuees—that the devastating effects of a nuclear attack would limit severely the type and amount of employment service assistance which could be given to an attacked area. Therefore, a committee composed of Bureau staff and representatives of four State agencies has developed a new set of guidelines for postattack recruitment and placement activities, based upon this revised concept.
Test Exercises
The joint participation of the Bureau and the State employment security agencies in the week-long Operation Alert 1957, in July of that year, was highlighted by the effectiveness with which manpower and incomemaintenance activities were carried out, in an assumed postattack situation, under the coordination of the Department of Labor in a simulated emergency organizational posture.
Under the provisions of simulated executive orders, delegations of authority, regulations, etc., the Operation Alert 1957 manpower organization worked out problems designed to test the ability of the employment security system to carry out its basic functions during a disaster period. These problems covered such areas as establishment and maintenance of interagency working arrangements; collection and analysis of labor market information (including estimates of labor force survivors); recruitment and allocation of workers; application of manpower controls; payment of emergency unemployment benefits; and consultation with committees, representing labor and management, in activating and carrying out applicable manpower programs.
In May 1958, all the State employment security agencies participated in the first part of Operation Alert 1958, the “State and local action phase.’’ Major emphasis during this test was on the analysis of the effects on the labor force of a simulated attack involving 282 nuclear blasts, and on the evaluation of the agencies’ capability to continue operations following such an attack.
Critical Occupations and Essential Activities
The Interagency Advisory Committee on Essential Activities and Critical Occupations (chaired by the Department of Labor, and composed of representatives of the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Interior, Labor, and the Selective Service System) continued its work in developing and maintaining lists of essential activities and critical occupations. These
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lists make possible an equitable distribution of needed manpower between the military services and the civilian economy both currently and during a period of full mobilization.
During the fiscal year, the Interagency Advisory Committee recommended the inclusion of 18 activities (and the revision of 3 other activities) on the Standby List of Essential Activities for use during full mobilization. This makes a total of 35 activities recommended for inclusion on the Standby List. A number of other activities were reviewed by the Committee but were not recommended to be placed on the list since they did not meet the criteria for inclusion.
The Department of Labor Technical Committee on Critical Occupations (chaired by this Bureau) made, along with other research, a study of white-collar occupations in the Federal Government which identifies certain skills which would be critical during a period of full mobilization.
Federal Advisory Council
During the year, the Federal Advisory Council initiated a review of the implications of long-range manpower trends on the employment security program. However, the Council gave its principal attention to the problems growing out of the economic recession.
At the November 1957 meeting of the Council, attended by the Secretary, the Council was asked to consider two different aspects of the employment security program: (1) The long-run population and labor force trends; (2) the immediate problems arising from anticipated increases in the claims loads, and increased difficulty in making placements that would result from a softening economy.
The Council established a steering committee to examine and present for action its recommendations on these problems. Because of the immediacy of the unemployment problem, the steering committee’s recommendations to the States were used in developing a memorandum on emergency action before they had been formally reviewed by the Council. The recommended actions endorsed by the Council at its February 1958 meeting, with some modifications, included the screening of registrations of work during mass layoffs; hiring of temporary personnel for claims work, and other necessary steps to prevent the impairment of placement work; placing emphasis on greater use of the employment service by employers, and counseling of those forced to make job changes; and simplification of the claimstaking process, greater flexibility in applying tests of availability for work provisions in areas where unemployment is heavy, and increased attention by the States to the solvency of their unemployment reserve funds.
In recognition of the current emphasis on selection and training of students in engineering and science, the Council recommended that the employment service increase its activities in the testing and counseling of young people. Tests should be developed for use with 9th and 10th grade students.
The Council also recommended a systematic program for revision of the
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DOT at intervals of not more than 10 years, and supported the Bureau’s efforts to obtain funds for such purpose.
The Council recommended that the Department intensify its efforts to secure a permanent program of unemployment compensation for ex-servicemen.
In view of the narrow margin between anticipated Federal unemployment tax receipts and the administration’s appropriation requests chargeable to such tax receipts in fiscal 1959 due to increased claims loads, the Council directed the chairman to appoint a committee to bring in recommendations as to appropriate legislation that would provide adequate funds for the administration of the employment security program in periods of increased unemployment.
With an eye on both the current recession and the long-range aspects of the unemployment insurance program, the Council made the following recommendations to the Secretary of Labor and BES in the legislative field:
1.	The States should be urged to appraise their eligibility and disqualification provisions with a view to correcting such inequities as may exist and improving qualification requirements, where necessary.
2.	Those States that cannot interpret their laws to consider a claimant as satisfying the availability for work requirement while undergoing a course of study should be urged to consider appropriate legislation, with a safeguard that his enrollment in the course must be approved by the State agency.
3.	A study of the desirability of providing extended duration of benefits during times of high unemployment, in the opinion of the Council, merited high priority.
The Council, itself, also decided to study the question of benefit adequacy in all its aspects. It referred the question to the steering committee for study in order to bring back to the Council recommendations calculated to insure the payment of adequate benefits. The Council also decided to study the practicability of increasing the duration of benefits for claimants over 45 years of age.
International Labor Activities
Through fiscal year 1958, the Bureau continued to give technical consultative assistance to governments and international agencies, and to give training in employment security programs to foreign officials, International Labor Organization fellowship holders, International Cooperation Administration participants, U. S. Department of State recipients of leader grants, and international visitors.
New Assignments in International Activities
An employment service testing specialist began his services with the United States Operations Mission (USOM), Lima, Peru, during this fiscal year. Because the co-director of the employment service in Lima returned
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to ICA in Washington, the testing specialist also served as general employment service adviser to the Peruvian employment service.
At the request of ICA, the chief of field operations in the California Department of Employment began a 4-month assignment as manpower specialist for the USOM, La Paz, Bolivia. He has recommended that 5 of the 8 local employment offices receive financial and technical assistance from the ICA.
The Bureau Deputy Director participated in conferences in Geneva, Switzerland, on “The Placement of Seamen through Public Employment Offices.” The regional director of the BES office in San Francisco represented the United States at the meeting of the Manpower Committee of the Organization of European Economic Cooperation in Paris, France, which considered the subject “Questions about Vacancies and Applications for Employment in the United States.”
The International Activities Chief served as Department of Labor adviser for the State Department Selection Board reviewing personnel classifications of certain State Department Foreign Service personnel (labor attaches).
The Chief of the Program and Legislation Division of BES was given leave of absence to serve as social insurance adviser with the International Labor Office in Geneva, Switzerland.
A BES labor market program specialist received an ILO appointment to conduct manpower surveys for 1 year in Bangkok, Thailand.
The Bureau’s International Activities Chief served as the Labor Department member of the Interdepartmental Subcommittee on Bi-Lateral Consultations on Import Restrictions (Article XII, GATT). Studies were made by the Bureau to serve as bases for recommendations by representatives of these committees and representatives of the Department of Labor at the Geneva meetings in the negotiations in connection with the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. Studies were also made of Tariff Commission reports and legislative bills for use by the Secretary of Labor in making recommendations to Congress.
Continued Assignments in Foreign Service
At the request of the Institute of Inter-American Affairs (IIAA) and the ICA, the services of Bureau representatives were continued in Peru and in El Salvador.
Services of a Bureau representative in the development of an employment service program in the Ministry of Labor in Iran were continued for a fourth year. This representative also served as Deputy Director and Acting Director of the Labor Division of the USOM in Iran. At the conclusion of the fourth year, this representative was asked to conduct a 4-month manpower survey in Tunisia.
The Bureau extended leaves of absence from its regional offices to United States Employment Service and Farm Placement Service representatives to serve, respectively, as manpower adviser to the Government of Guatemala and as a member of the ICA Agricultural Mission in Indonesia.
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At the request of the ICA, the fotmer Chief of the Bureau’s State Audits Division began the second year of his 3-year assignment with the United States Operations Mission (JJSOM) in Iran as fiscal adviser to the Government of Iran.
The Bureau’s Chief of International Activities continued to serve as alternate member of the Interdepartmental Trade Agreements Committee.
Training of Foreign Teams and Individuals
The Chief of the Placement Division of the Ministry of Labor in Santiago, Chile, and two members of the Indonesian employment service, studying under ILO fellowships, received training from the Puerto Rico employment service, a number of State agencies, and the BES in Washington, D. C. The Deputy Minister of Labor in the Federal German Republic studied manpower programs with the BES and affiliated State agencies and also at the University of California, California Institute of Technology, the University of Chicago, the United Automobile Workers, Ford Motor Co., and the United Nations. He was studying under a State Department leader grant.
The head of the manpower directorate in Indonesia, two officials of the Ministry of Welfare in Korea, and members of the employment service in El Salvador, Iran, Peru, and the Philippines studied with the BES under ICA grants. The chief of counseling and testing in the Indonesian employment service began a 16-month period of study of testing and counseling with the BES, affiliated State agencies, and the University of Minnesota Psychology Department under an ICA grant. Training was given by the Bureau’s national and regional offices to the head of the Manpower Prefecturate of Fukuoka, in the Japanese Ministry of Labor.
Two French ICA reams were given special training. French Team No. 1 studied labor-management relations in seasonal and part-time work; and French Team No. 2 studied personnel administration and observed BES national and regional offices and State employment security agencies operations. Team No. 1 also received training from U. S. Steel, United Auto Workers, Ford and General Motors, Hormel Packing Co., National Management Association, and the American Management Association. Team No. 2 also received training from the International Association of Machinists, University of Pennsylvania, Psychological Corporation of America, United Nations, International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union, Standard. Oil of New Jersey, American Management Association, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Chicago, the National Railroad Adjustment Board, the Society for the Advancement of Management, and the University of Minnesota.
In addition to the primary training given by the Bureau, which constituted approximately 144 man-months during the fiscal year, secondary training, supplementing that given by other agencies and bureau, was given
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to 580 participants from other bureaus and OILA in the Department of Labor, ICA, Department of State, United Nations, ILO, Department of Defense, and foreign governments; plus about 86 casual visitors.
Other International Activities Within the Bureau
Manpower statements portraying the supply and demand situation in the United States were prepared for the Organization of European Economic Cooperation. The Bureau continued to serve, at the request of the ICA, PIT.A, and ILO, in the recruitment of specialists for overseas assignments. Assistance was also given to the ICA in the recruitment of an employment service testing specialist for Peru and an employment service adviser in Bolivia. In addition, assistance was given to the ILO in the recruitment of a labor market program officer in Thailand.
Appendix table 1.—Selected activities showing services provided veterans, fiscal year 1958
Activity	1958	Percent change from fiscal year 1957
All veterans		
New applications, total		- - _	- -	-		 		10,412,879	+21.8
Men	- -	 -		 -			 - -	6,686,305	+28.3
Veteran	- _______ 	 _ __ _ 		- — 		2,421,756	+29.1
Percent veteran of men 					 	- - -			36.2	
Nonagricultural placements, total		5,235,910	-12.1
Men			 -	- --				 -	- -	2,922, 548	-13.9
V eteran	_ _ _ - -  - 	-				 	-	1,226,772	-16.5
Pp.rc.ent veteran of men	_ _ 				__	42.0	
Initial counseling interviews, total		_	_ _	- ______________	897,103	+2.2
Men	- 	 	 — - 				556,120	+2.1
Veteran		- -		 		 			171,180	-4.5
Percent veteran of men	_ 						30.8	
Disabled veterans		
New applications, total handicapped				479,473	+13.8
Handicapped men _ 			 _	_ _ __	382, 564	
Disabled veteran 	 	-	-- 		156,203	+15.3
Percent disabled veteran of handicapped men.	40.8	
Nonagricultural placements, total handicapped				259,406	-12.6
Handicapped men 		-		-	-						204,402	— 15.4
Disabled veteran. 	 	 -	-	-			 		103,235	-15.5
Percent disabled veteran of handicapped men	50.5	
Initial counseling interviews, total handicapped		- 	 		153,523	-9.3
Handicapped men. 	 - 	-		 -				118,583	-10.7
Disabled veteran.	- 	 -	- 				47,912	-11.1
Percent disabled veteran of handicapped men		40.4	—
487100—59----10
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Appendix table 2.—Selected employment service activities, United States total for fiscal years 1956-58, by State, fiscal year 1958
State and Territory	New applications i	Total counseling interviews	Individuals tested	Placements	
				Non-agricultural	Agricultural
1955-56		8,083,024	1,444,669	1,314,134	6,173,684	9,248,459
1956-57		8,546j 028	1,507' 825	b 448i 607	5' 957,490	9; 002; 052
1957-58		10; 412; 879	i; 542; 846	i; 349,924	5,235,910	8; 709; 763
Alabama. _ - 	 ._	148,141	15,545	28, 318	86,905	59,837
Alaska 	 - .. -	19,093	1,505	4' 371	6'689	55
Arizona	 		107,662	13,647	14^ 013	54,966	650,365
Arkansas		 - - - -		135,272	18 097	22,309	64,977	283,411
California		 _ _	1,219,779	139,941	120, 593	373,195	843; 208
Colorado	-	__________			' 104j371	17,861	20,218	82j 461	157; 983
Connecticut ______ _ ___ __ 			210; 207	26,893	15’ 293	79,553	li; 886
Delaware 		 _______ _ ____ _ 		18^ 705	3, 689	2,067	5,984	9; 265
District of Columbia	 - 		66, 755	20,912	13,156	39,730	14
Florida 	 ________________	_ _	200.623	22,970	34, 785	198.681	164,427
Georgia 	 - -	201,712	23,966	26,175	98,807	130,331
Guam 2 _ __	- 			735	0	0	' 193	0
Hawaii 		25,441	4 109	3,599	11,040	1,786
Idaho 		-			52,673	9,079	7,037	39,267	156,990
Illinois		 _ _.	498j 074	73,940	5b 302	199' 988	103; 202
Indiana ______ 		 _ ___	_	251' 264	24,558	20^ 998	64, 300	105; 999
Iowa _ _ 		106' 451	22,833	32,360	78j 567	36; 112
Kansas 			95' 517	12 424	9,623	92' 883	37; 374
Kentucky. 				154,827	23,171	31,046	44,070	112,275
Louisiana ______		 _ _ _ __	140^888	16 837	16,490	87,906	109; 651
Maine.. 	 - - - 	 - - - -	47,148	8,161	3,945	20;874	45; 748
Maryland 	 		137,851	26 097	18.999	59^ 156	59; 203
Massachusetts	 _ _ _			 __ _..	245,270	49 389	27,388	164,079	53; 480
Michigan			 - 				587,123	60 230	51,767	113,709	173,074
Minnesota 		__________ __ ___ _	166' 502	14,981	35,503	93, 595	70,277
Mississippi		121,138	15, 289	22,540	82,683	1,582; 123
Missouri 	 --		250,070	34,793	36,002	76,243	186,606
Montana 			 _	__ _	52' 927	6 529	7,105	25.988	31.928
Nebraska			 ____________	60' 502	12 879	15,167	56,653	46,938
Nevada . - - -- 				3b 574	3,119	4,129	21,089	9,279
New Hampshire		__ __	32' 656	6 840	4,046	15,455	b844
New Jersey.... - 	 _ __ _	_ _	_	307,081	32 137	14,042	117,955	109; 984
New Mexico 		54,185	6 850	6,465	40 561	28,892
New York			__	1,033,320	168,227	74,291	781,901	128,085
North Carolina			 __ __	226'975	29,971	34,106	135 106	425,401
North Dakota			29,630	4 326	6, 816	24,217	21, 588
Ohio 	 		661,089	109,519	88,439	221,149	164,902
Oklahoma 	 	 _	112,929	20 640	27,244	13 b 666	90; 831
Oregon - -	- -	- - - - — - -	107^ 972	20,944	19, 393	47,038	376,970
Pennsylvania	 _ __________	655,917	120 565	61' 257	231,411	199; 052
Puerto Rico _______________ _ __ _	12b 188	16,701	20,343	45 750	8 337
Rhode Island		62,143	8 171	6,466	16,072	167
South Carolina _				 _	89^ 826	11,988	19,155	71 554	139,671
South Dakota_______		 		23,981	3,736	5,801	19, 692	11,664
Tennessee		-	122,157	24,066	40,189	91,777	678,004
Texas 		606,759	99,002	93,460	493’ 787	555,870
Utah 		51,509	13' 599	17^ 810	32^ 756	35; 271
Vermont			20,422	1^804	2,166	12,780	5,690
Virginia -	_____________________	137^ 303	4b 056	27^ 756	67' 941	107; 838
Virgin Islands _		 - -	b754	' 431	' 343	2' 774	31
Washington- 	 	 -	168,219	30,281	30,603	79, 042	255,439
West Virginia	 ~			 - _ __	107, 873	17,230	14,786	2b 195	36; 072
Wisconsin			-		 		199' 502	27,522	36,842	93, 899	81,647
Wyoming		20i 194	3i 796	1,807	16; 201	13; 686
' i The number of applications taken should not be interpreted as a measure of the total number of new job applicants at employment service offices since there are some types of applicants for whom written applications are not taken.
2 As of February 17, 1958, an employment service office was established officially at Agana, Guam, performing all employment service functions.
142
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143
Appendix table 3.—Significant provisions in State unemployment insurance laws, September SO, 1958—Continued	Maximum benefits	Minimum qualifying wages		A. High-quarter formula—Continued	$1,713.01 2,600 00 1,800.00 2,684.01 3,260.40 840 00 1,960.01 3,583.34	B. Annual wage formula	8888888 8888888 oo oo o —< o th cm~cdcm co"cd cd
			■al S cr		$676 00 650 00 754.01 702 01 988. 00 728 00 675. 01 1,050.01		। । । t । । । i i । । । । । । i । । । । ।
		*Annual amount2			88888888 n 6 q ow ow CMO£-- 8 00 T—l r—4		*$1,755. 00-$2,730.00 858 00 *1,482 00 832 00 832 00 910.00 *1,080. 00
		Weekly amount2			$26 28 30 28 39 28 28 43-49		2 $45-$70 33 38 32 32 35 30
	Minimum benefits	Minimum qualifying wages	m 2		$240.00 600.00 320.00 • 450.00 400.00 300. 00 250 00 375.00		$500.00 300. 00 520. 00 400 00 500. 00 800.00 500.00
			wjT- rt C3 W 5 &		88888888 ssssssss r- CM »-» r-i —< CM CM		1	1	1	1	1	t	1 1	t	1	1	1	1	1 1	1	1	1	1	1	1 1	1	1	1	1	1	1 1	1	1	1	1	1	1 1	1	i	1	i	1	I
		‘Annual amount2			$80.00 160. 00 176. 00 » 113. 00 150.00 260.00 64 00 120.00-156. 00		*2 $225.00-$337. 50 182 00 *324 00 234. 00 286. 00 204. 00 *360. 00
		Weekly amount2			$8 12 8 t 7 10 10 8 10-13		2 $10-$15 7 12 9 11 17 10
	Size of firm	Minimum period of time i			i i i । i i I । o । ■ o : : ; ;9 : ;S J2-: i	-s * : ! io* i-S 8 1 1 IZ8		At any time	 20 weeks	 	do.’...	 	do	 	do	 At any time	 20 weeks	
		CQ UM			Xt< TT< rH ^4		i-i -a< — -n w -a<
	State				1	1	1	i	1	l	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	t 1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	I	1 1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1 1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1 1	1	1 i 1	1	1	1	>1)1111 1	1	1	1	1	1	i	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1 1	1	1	1	1	1	1	l	1	1	1	1	1	1	1 lllllll)	1	1	1	1	1	1	1 ।	।	।	।	।	। i ।	i	i	।	> i	।	i 03 i i i	i i i i	•	i	i a3	i	। .35 i :	: : : :	:	:	i-g-9	:.a : J legs :	u iw>	;	’.-SB Ofl % ;	1 g-S-9	■	1	S5O a S’S ■ 64S’	S2-S gg§S553Ja>>		
144
145
Appendix table 4.—Claims, beneficiaries, amount and duration of benefits, United States total for fiscal years 1953-58, and by State, fiscal year 1958 [Note: Data for fiscal years 1955-58 include activities under the new program of unemployment compensation for Federal employees and represent an unduplicated count for both
		Percent of all benefi-	cianes 6		33S3SS23I323SS3SSS3523S3S53S5
1		Number		sssgss gggBl'g	
i		Exhaustees		ssssss	XOOl^OOOOOOtNxfHO^CDHtNiOOCOCOO^O^OHOHr-*-
1 Average a<	tion of	All beneficiaries		OOO CO 00	3S222322353S3222§32S232S2223S
	Average weekly payment, total unemployment			$23.32 24. 45 25.05 26.33 27.53 30.08	
	Weeks compensated for	an types oi unemployment ‘		SSESSS	ft	C>‘ M	>6cf «-T	f-T
	Number of	uoieiiw aries3		EiaSaS ISsggg	
1		Insured claimants3		8B88IB 8‘ggSIS ^-tCco-io-asoS-	
		Total i		(dosoot-TrCj^	
146

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148
149
Appendix table 6— Selected data on unemployment compensation Federal employees, United States totals for January-June 1955, and fiscal years 195b os, and by State, fiscal year 1958
						Average weekly	
	Federal		weekly	First	Amount of	benefit am >unt	
Year and State	employ-	Initial	number of	aayments			
					benefits paid3		
	ment as of December 1	claims2	beneficiaries 3	n benefit years 3		UCFE total4	UCFE only
January-June 1955	 1955-56 --- 		2,361,700 2,414,800	98,822 140,414	27,017 22,166	59,122 75,679	$16,051,094 30,280,092 26,055,746 52,437,181	$25.27 26.62 27.15 29.40	$26.42 27.85 28.75 30.97
1956-57 		2,421,209	135.051	18,780	64,484			
1957-58		« 2,601,335	203,105	34,500	113,803			
Alabama		58,795	3,904	540	2,015	669,772 1,160,053 523,712 299,899 7,614,644	23.98 32.28 27.59 22.72 32.81 31.79 33.20 32.60 28.51 27.28 26.77 30.41 32.75 29.53 30.88 24.14 27.66 24.20 23. 59 20.65 33. 57 30.10 32.27 25.57 21.98 25.64 26.14 28.86 37.74 19.20 34.02 26.17 32.33 23.01 24.61 32.20 26.17 33.12 30.42 25.20 28.92 23.08 25. 51 25.33 25. 86 33. 78 25.37 25.93 20.69 29.20 17.63 30.20 35.44	24.69 36.56 28.52 23.69 34. 81 32.82 35.23 33.48 29.27 28.36 27. 50 31.81 34.25 30.77 31.54 25.36 29.00 25.94 24.09 26.21 34.65 34.18 32.40 29.24 23.48 27.13 28.47 29.43 39.73 27.03 34.16 27.39 34.95 24.59 25.66 33.07 26.52 35.04 32.32 25.20 29.19 23.98 25.58 25.84 26.30 34.51 25.69 26.69 20.69 31.83 20.01 30.20 36.35
Alaska 		16,357	2,332	694	1,869			
Arizona		19,302 17,261	2,846	367	1,443			
Arkansas			2,055	256	1,023			
California		250,814	24,688	4,526 383	14,257			
Colorado -------------	36,008	2,115 940		1,604	622,228		
Connecticut			15,465		225	624	386,155 101,261		
Delaware - 		5,876 204, 351 53,847	481	61	245			
District of Columbia •	 Florida 			6,274 4,492	1,312 482	4,627 2,415	1,942,846 675,109 1,081,818 483,889 359,144 1,647,094 1,187,234		
Georgia 		61,266	4,268	781	2,702			
Hawaii		25,408	1,916	314	1,225			
Idaho ---------------	7, 592	1,327	206	865			
Illinois _ 		115,513	7,101 3,389	1,089	3,998			
Indiana 			38, 517		741	2,589			
Iowa		21,965	721	69	310	83,075 363, 582 922,306		
Kansas		27,122	1,681 2,617	255	1,130			
Kentucky		32,406		740	2,008			
Tunisian a _ 		28,049	2,474	291	1,024 839	351,323		
"Maine _ 		8,615	1,123	193		211,102 1,628,507 1,091,859 739,185		
Maryland 		76,193	4,653	940	2,883			
M assachusetts		63, 552	5,688	708	2,424 1,530			
Michigan	- 		49,207	3,169	442				
"Minnesota		32,811	2,688	528	1,506	697,644		
Mississippi	- 		20,184	3,061	432	1,456	488,914		
Missouri 		65,358	3,444	459	1,797	596,254		
Montana			8,961	1,522 1,036	317	1,101	435,433		
Nebraska		18,818		199	748	294,459		
Nevada		6,439	1,274	175	603	340,168 94,698		
New Hampshire		11,146	692	95	408			
New Jersey		72,876	4,587	975	2,589	1,71/, 131		
New Mexico		23,522	2,118	248	992	332,706		
New York 		243,736	25,103	3,247	10,333	5,615,012		
North Carolina 	- -	34,337 7,687 111, 367	3,780	639	2,180	748,179		
North Dakota 				470	63	230	78,020		
Ohio 			5,253 2,521	928	2,932	1,533,775 597,542		
Oklahoma 		43,676		445	1,556			
Oregon		20,965	3,605	494	1,690	843,253 3,387,513		
Pennsylvania	173,020	9,071	2,166	4,992			
Puerto Rico			9,176	990	205	635	267,820		
Rhode Island			14,788	1,345	266	743	396,837		
Smith Carolina 		 _ _ _	25,840	2,090 719	264	932	314,34/		
South Dakota		10,819		99	424	129,061		
Tennessee		42,801	6,062	1,296	3,223	1,694,791		
Texas 		131,790	9,906	1,763	5,986	bb / , 32b 506,509 38,668 816,422 1,327		
Utah 		27,625	1,737	294	1,025			
Vermont 		3,691	202	30	96			
Virginia __ 		85,177	4,206	611	2,614			
Virgin Islands	-			760	51	1	6			
W ash in gton 		55,404	11,655	2,037	6,616	3,062,879		
West Virginia 		12,082 33,158	831	122	418	110,489		
Wisconsin				2,160	352	1,810	547,026 247,182		
Wyoming	__________	6,137	672	134	513			
							
i Excludes temporary Christmas assistants of the Post Office Department.
2 Excludes transitional claims filed by persons who were already in benefit status under State laws.
3 Data relate to total of jokit (State and UCFE) and UCFE-only claims; may include some;veterans who are receiving supplementary benefits under provisions of the Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act of 1952. 3r< Includes both UCFE-only payments and the Federal portion of joint State-UCFE payments.
District of Columbia area.
150
.Appendix table 7.—Selected data on unemployment compensation for veterans’ program, United States totals for fiscal years 1954-57, by State for fiscal year 1958
Year and State	Estimated number of eligible veterans in civilian life as of June 301	New claims	First payments	Amount of benefits paid1 2	Claimants exhausting benefits
1953-54		2,897, 000	348,373	252,639	$74, 497,924	33, 535
1954-55		4,015, 000	368,999	282, 750	106,916, 550	78,348
1955-56		4, 682', 000	272, 111	204, 529	70,096,109	50, 263
1956-57		5,105, 000	199,900	159,893	55,113, 326	40, 774
1957-58....			5; 353; 000	236j 064	197,289	74; 292,118	53; 284
Alabama		116,000	6,007	4,794	2,217, 650	2,165
Alaska			3,000	215	48	76,630	18
Arizona 		33,000	2,133	1,692	461, 735	337
Arkansas.	...			59, 000	2,566	2, 517	1, 003, 769	917
California			437,000	20, 517	17,124	5, 414, 432	2,025
Colorado		47, 000	ij 971	2, 446	' 546,128	'264
Connecticut	 ..	70j 000	3,943	2,182	633,241	232
Delaware				12; 000	' 521	'501	127, 598	103
District of Columbia		2L 000	2,309	1, 518	522, 701	315
Florida		134,000	5,916	5,201	1,259, 795	581
Georgia			112; 000	5,620	5,143	2,007,221	1,567
Hawaii	 		22,000	1^ 296	1,034	' 255, 294	126
Idaho				21,000	R232	'953	334, 219	181
Illinois		264, 000	7^ 333	6,783	2,225,102	1,212
Indiana. 			135, 000	6,433	5, 749	2,358,155	1', 742
Iowa	 _. 	 		83* 000	3j 187	2'241	' 712, 071	'370
Kansas		68, 000	2,120	1,988	520, 844	303
Kentucky				101,000	5,338	4,940	2,161,006	1,978
Louisiana	 . .. 				8L 000	3, 707	2,132	' 900,407	'538
Maine		 .	35' 000	2,280	lj 907	597,049	371
Maryland.. 	 . ..	81, 000	4,346	2, 865	864j 060	473
Massachusetts	 _ .	165' 000	6,912	4, 772	1, 434, 500	690
Michigan		 		21L 000	17, 981	13,921	6,264,914	5, 463
Minnesota				105j 000	4, 688	4,527	i; 560, 312	L 107
Mississippi				65,000	2, 948	2j 522	' 987,275	'743
Missouri*				135, 000	4, 718	4', 357	1,640, 776	1,166
Montana	 ...	21; 000	'970	li 140	' 312,232	3
Nebraska			50j 000	1,059	'886	298i 231	230
Nevada. 		 . 		9, 000	'344	258	71, 386	36
New Hampshire	 	 .	21,000	1,267	1,044	242, 389	83
New Jersey		 . .	169,000	4j 819	4,117	1, 508,674	882
New Mexico			25,000	L085	968	313,105	233
New York			452, 000	13,231	11,854	3,370, 582	1,107
North Carolina		146, 000	6,706	6A18	2, 337,104	1, 768
North Dakota		23, 000	984	' 756	' 267' 276	' 183
Ohio 		259, 000	14, 375	10, 728	4,109,374	2,649
Oklahoma		89,000	3,058	2,277	' 888,663	666
Oregon	 _. __	50; 000	3,367	2, 870	1,126, 504	727
Pennsylvania 			374,000	11, 630	9,950	3,671, 760	2,528
Puerto Rico		60,000	3,769	3, 565	3,419, 671	5,154
Rhode Island			30, 000	L 640	R287	611,102	449
South Carolina	 		71, 000	3^ 521	2,819	1,291,863	1,086
South Dakota		24, 000	853	' 715	' 275,608	' 185
Tennessee		117, 000	6, 238	5,678	3, 009,908	2,793
Texas			 		220,000	9' 735	7,956	3,010, 444	2,523
Utah		27, 000	L 050	L011	' 284, 565	' 148
Vermont		14, 000	758	' 540	175,287	71
Virginia	 		129, 000	4,420	3, 733	1,334,841	983
Virgin Islands		59, 000	53	48	36,824	38
Washington			87, 000	5, 323	4, 927	1, 738,903	1,288
West Virginia		78, 000	4, 494	4,070	1,829, 703	L 505
Wisconsin		112,000	4,736	3, 760	1,569,062	'909
Wyoming			9,000	342	'357	' 100,117	70
1 From statistical summary issued by the Veterans’ Administration.
2 Adjusted for voided benefit checks and overpayments; includes payments supplementing benefits paid under State unemployment insurance laws. Fiscal year totals include supplemental payments to veterans less than $26 a week under the railroad unemployment insurance program.
151
§
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c
f 1	Per 1,000 claimant contacts *	NOOCMQiO HHHHH *	04	Tt CC' ® M	a	rH	1- LN IAJ 'T	u.	.	.	;
Refusal of sui	Number		gss^gsssijggSFgggsssssgggssgg 00-	co	-Trocfco
Not able or not available	Per 1,000 claimant contacts 3	CD O b-00 CO CO 00 b'^ 00 ode©	2.2 7.8 7.1 2.6 7.6 3.5 3.6 1.7 13.6 6.3 1.4 16.9 5.5 13.1 2.9 3.0 11.8 1’1 2 J 7.1 4.5 8.9 1.7 1.9 7.6 6.7 3.3
	Number		gggg|gS§aS«S3§B^sgg§^OISg8 OScfofcsT^'r-Tar -^OOC^COrH^m w~X>OC<'C<'*-^ Employees engaged in Interstate commerce or the production of goods for interstate commerce who are not exempt under section 13 (a) of the Fair Labor Standards Act, and employees who were working on Government contracts subject to the Public Contracts Act. These data relate to employment during a payroll period, usually that preceding the time of investigation.
3 Includes (a) employees who were paid less than $1 per hour or less than other applicable minimum wage rates, and (b) employees paid less than times the regular rate of pay for overtime hours worked.
3 Estimated.
4 Includes amounts employers were ordered to pay after statistical closing of cases.
242
agreed to		Amount	$10, 953,896								
Payment		Number of employees	116, 797	iq S S *r5"°o S							
		Overtime compensation	$13, 509, 914								
Amount of underpay		Minimum wages	$6,145,385								
		7a o	$19, 655, 299	w co* ww’co* ncf							
		Not paid full overtime compensation	130, 792								
Number of		Paid at less than minimum wage rate	63 349	^-eo*eo*rorH*N*cfocf;J«5'eo*							
	Number of	employees subject to minimum wage 1	1,910,127								
Number of establishments investigated			53, 796	Mia>*co^*co*«^*>o*M<'^* U							
		§ Sb	! !	; i : i		!	i i i i ; i				
			All regions		! Ig Ilsl		>>	VII. Kansas City.-. VIII. Dallas	 IX. San Francisco. X. Nashville		Puerto Rico	 North Carolina		1	!	
1 Employees engaged in interstate commerce or the production of goods for interstate commerce who are not exempt under section 13 (a) of the Fair Labor Standards Act, and employees who were working on Government contracts subject to the Public Contracts Act. These data relate to employment during a payroll period, usually that preceding the time of investigation.
243
Appendix table C.—Findings disclosed by investigations under the Fair Labor Standards and Public Contracts Acts, by industry group, fiscal year 1958
Industry group	Number of establishments investigated	Number of employees underpaid		Amount of underpayment disclosed			Number of minors illegally employed
		Paid at less than minimum wage rate	Not paid full overtime compensation	Total	Minimum wages	Overtime compensation	
Total, all industries.—	53,796	63,349	130, 792	$19,655,299	$6,145, 385	$13,509,914	7,214
Manufacturing industries	 Food and tobacco prod-	25,145	30,791	53, 899	7,307,108	2,414,109	4,892,999	4,478
ucts	 Textile, apparel, leather	3,182	8,737	10,616	1,918,857	849,478	1,069,379	935
products	 Lumber, furniture, and	6,062	11,762	11,024	1,410, 624	654,332	756,292	563
wood products	 Paper, printing, publish-	3,666	4,349	8,697	1,137,660	394, 673	742,987	1,043
ing	 Chemicals, rubber, and	2,145	1,424	3,034	472,588	136,385	336, 203	577
related products	 Stone, clay, and glass	1,234	415	2,838	374,763	61,207	313,556	172
products	 Metal and related prod-	765	453	1,948	245, 295	36,991	208,304	78
ucts	 Miscellaneous manufac-	5,936	2,085	13,257	1,398,067	166,149	1,231,918	722
turing industries	 Nonmanufacturing Indus-	2,155	1,566	2,485	349,254	114,894	234,360	388
tries		28,651	32,558	76, 893	12,348,191	3,731, 276	8, 616,915	2,736
Mining		2,395	5, 517	9, 593	1, 928,143	687,075	1,241,068	340
Construction	 Trade: Food and farm	2,752	4,197	22,073	2,050,668	264, 958	1,785, 710	200
products	 Trade: Other than food	3,288	3,748	5,559	1,242,319	484, 699	757, 620	507
and farm products	 Finance, Insurance, real	9,162	6,205	14,709	2,862, 866	882,025	1,980,841	852
estate	 Transportation, commu-	3,457	2,763	4,481	628,948	270, 011	358,937	55
nication, and utilities.. Miscellaneous industries,	3,642	4,198	7,894	1,741,884	565,307	1,176, 577	289
n. e. c.1		3,942	5,878	12,521	1,889,024	575,006	1,314,018	482
Forestry and fisheries		13	52	63	4,339	2,195	2,144	11
i Not elsewhere classified.
244
Appendix table D.—Changes in minimum wage rates in Puerto Rico during
fiscal year 1958
Rate (cents per hour)
Industry and division or classification
June 30, 1957
June 30, 1958 1
Effective date of current rate
Alcoholic beverage and industrial alcohol______________________________
Artificial flower, decoration, and party favor_________________________
Banking, insurance, and finance________________________________________
Button, jewelry, and lapidary work:
Gem stone classification__________________________________________
Hair accessories classification-----------------------------------
Hair ornaments classification_____________________________________
Industrial jewel classification___________________________________
Plastic costume jewelry classification----------------------------
Precious jewelry and metal expansion watch band classification. Rosary and native jewelry classification---------------------------
General classification____________________________________________
Chemical, petroleum, rubber, and related products:
Agricultural chemicals, fertilizer mixing, hormones, antibiotics, adrenalin, miscellaneous rubber products, and petroleum refining classification.
Drugs, medicines, bay oil, aromatic alcohol, toilet preparations, industrial inorganic chemicals, and rubber bucket classification.
Miscellaneous petroleum products classification--------------------
Rebuilt and vulcanized tire and miscellaneous chemical products classification.
Rubber footwear classification_____________________________________
Children’s dress and related products:
Hand-embroidery classification_____________________________________
Other operations classification------------------------------------
Communications, utilities, and transportation:
Motor carrier transport and express classification-----------------
Radio broadcasting classification----------------------------------
General classification_____________________________________________
Construction, business service, motion picture, and miscellaneous:
Business service, motion picture, industrial and other building construction and special trade contractors, and miscellaneous industry classification.
Highway and street and other heavy construction classification.
Janitorial and custodial service classification____________________
Corsets, brassieres, and allied garments_______________________________
Electrical, instrument, and related products:
Lens classification. ----------------------------------------------
Radio and television components and resistance-type household appliance classification.
Shaver and hair dryer, storage battery, drafting machine, electrical terminal and connector television antenna and lead-in cable, and portable hand-tool classification. General classification_____________________________________________
Fabric and leather glove:
Hand-sewing on fabric gloves classification------------------------
Hand-sewing on leather gloves classification-----------------------
Other operations on hand-sewn gloves classification----------------
Machine operations on machine-sewn gloves classification-----------
Other operations on machine-sewn gloves classification-------------
Fabricated plastic products:
Dinnerware, sprayer, and vaporizer classification------------------
Phonograph record classification___________________________________
Wall tile and flexible plastic bag classification------------------
General classification_____________________________________________
Food and related products:
Citron brining and fruit, vegetable, nut, and coffee grading, and packing classification.
Milk products and ice cream, biscuit and cracker, soft drink, frozen sea food, yeast, and animal feed classification.
General classification---------------------------------------------
Handkerchief, square scaif, and art linen:
Hand-sewing classification_________________________________________
Other operations classification____________________________________
Hosiery:
Full-fashioned hosiery classification______________________________
Seamless hosiery classification------------------------------------
Leather, leather goods, and related products:
Baseball and softball classification_______________________________
Belt classification______________________________________________—
Hide curing classification__________________________________________
Smaller leather goods classification-------------------------------
Sporting and athletic goods classification-------------------------
General classification------------------------------------------—
100
54
100
100
58
67
75
50
80
43
60,63
80,100
65,70,75
75 75,80
60
35
50
75
70
33,90,100
70,85,100
70
85
75
70
75,80
85,90,100
60,85
24
33
50 67J4 50
80,100
80
63,70
63
43,55
55
55
25 49
65
63
49
65
85
45
51
50,51
100 54 100	July 16,1958 Apr. 3,1958 July 16,1958
100	Do.
61	Do.
71	Do.
90	Do.
57	Do.
87	Do.
43	Do.
63	Do.
100	Oct. 13,1957
75	Do.
80	Do.
85	Do.
70	Do.
42	Sept. 5,1957
57	Do.
80	July 16,1958
90	Do.
100	Do.
100	Jan. 17,1958
80	Do.
85	Do.
80	May 15,1958
75	Nov. 15,1957
85	Do.
100	Do.
88	Do.
25	Mar. 21,1958
35	Do.
51	Do.
72 J4	Do.
60	Do.
100	Oct. 21,1957
90	Do.
70	Do.
68	Do.
60	Dec. 14,1957
70	Do.
65	Do.
26	Aug. 29,1957
51	Do.
67	Apr. 3,1958
65	Do.
57	Mar. 21,1958
65	Do.
85	Do.
50	Do.
60	Do.
53	Do.
See footnote at end of table.
245
Appendix table D.—Changes in minimum wage rates in Puerto Rico during fiscal year 1958—Continued
Industry and division or classification	Rate (cents per hour)		Effective date of current rate
	June 30, 1957	June 30, 1958 ‘	
Lumber and wood products: Carpet grippers classification		90	100	Dec. 30,1957
Furniture, woodenware, and miscellaneous wood products	50	57^	Do.
classification. Lumber and millwork classification._ 		60	70	Do.
Men’s and boys’ clothing and related products: Suits, coats, jackets, neckties, hats, and caps classification		70	72^	May 24,1958
General classification	 _	.		 		65	72	Do.
Metal, machinery, transportation equipment, and allied products: Fabricated wire products, steel spring, and slide fastener clas-	80	87	Nov. 15,1957
silication. General classification		90,100	100	Do.
Needlework and fabricated textile products: Crocheted hats and infants’ bootees classification: Hand-embroidering and hand-crocheting operations		40	50	Sept. 9,1957
Other operations		60	70	Do.
Dungarees, slacks, and related products classification		60	70	Do.
Knit glove, crocheted slipper, and leather handbag classifica-	50	62	Do.
tion. General classification	.			 		60	72	Do.
Paper, paper products, printing, and publishing: Dailv newspaper and news syndicate, photoengraving, filing	60, 85	100	Oct. 9,1957
cards and indexes, decalcomania transfers and posters, fototype letters, and paper for sanitary use classification. Paper bag classification				70	95	Do.
Paper box classification		75	85	Do.
Pulp, paper, and paperboard classification		75	93	Do.
General classification	 .	_ 		60	75	Do.
Shoe and related products		51	55	Mar. 21,1958
Stone, clay, glass, cement, and related products: Abrasive products, cement, dry cement mixes, glass and glass	70,90,100	100	Jan. 11,1958
products, hot asphaltic plant mix, ready-mixed concrete, concrete block and tile, concrete pipe, precast concrete construction components, structural clay products, and ceramic floor and wall tile classification. Asbestos-cement, and lime and lime products classification—	70	85	Do.
Handmade art pottery classification		40	50	Do.
Mica classification		_ 		62	72	Do.
Vitreous and semivitreous china food utensils classification—	55	62	Do.
General classification		_ 		70	80	Do.
Straw, hair, and related products: Artists’ brush and native handicraft classification		37,42	45	Apr. 4,1958
Hair and bristles processing and other straw, hair, and related	53	55	Do.
products classification. Hairpiece and doll wig classification		65	70	Do.
Sugar manufacturing		 		 	 	-	90	100	Dec. 14,1957
Sweater and knit swimwear: Hand-embroidery classification		77J$	77^	Sept. 6,1957
Other operations classification		iiy2	90	Do.
Textile and textile products: Bag cleaning and repairing classification		52	57	Apr. 3,1958
Hooked or punched rugs and carpeting classification: Multiple-needle power-driven machine operations		65	70	Do.
Hand-guided power-driven machine operations		53	55	Do.
Other operations.. 		49	52	Do.
Mattress and pillow classification		100	100	Do.
General classification		56	62	Do.
Tobacco: Machine threshing classification: Machine operations		75	80	Dec. 8,1957
Other operations		36	60	Do.
Puerto Rican cigar filler tobacco processing classification		36	36	Do.
Wrapper type tobacco processing classification		65	70	Do.
General classification	...			65	75	Do.
Wholesaling, warehousing, and other distribution		90,100	100	July 16,1958
Women’s and children’s underwear and women’s blouse and neckwear: Hand-sewing classification		35	45	Sept. 1,1957
Other operations classification		56	66	Do.
1	Wage orders for 5 industries were published by June 30, 1958, but did not become effective until July 16( 1958.
246
Appendix table E.—Changes in minimum wage rates in the Virgin Islands from May 4, 1957, to April 26, 1958
Industry and classification	Rate (cents per hour)	
	May 4, 1957	April 26, 1958
Air transportation		84	100
Alcoholic beverages and industrial alcohol		55	60
Banking, real estate, accounting, and insur- ance		 		75	85
Bay rum and other toilet preparations		70	75
Fruit and vegetable packing, farm products assembling, and meat packing		40	40
Handmade art linen and straw goods: Hand-sewing operations on art linen		20	25
Hand-sewing and hand-weaving operations on straw goods		15	20
Other operations		40	45
Shipping, marine transportation, ship and boat building		84	95
Wholesale distribution, trucking, construction, and communications		 	 _	70	70
Miscellaneous industries (all industries not specified above)		55	55
Appendix table F.—Changes in minimum wage rates in American Samoa from June 22, 1957, to June 21, 1958
Industry	Rate (cents per hour)	
	June 22, 1957	June 21, 1958
Fish canning and processing		38	52
Petroleum marketing		45	52
Shipping and transportation	 Miscellaneous industries (all industries not	40	50
specified above)		35	38
Appendix table G.—Number and value of unclassified contracts subject to the Walsh-Healey Public Contracts Act, by fiscal year, 1937-58
Fiscal year	Number of contracts 1	Value (in thousands)2	Fiscal year	Number of contracts 1	Value (in thousands 2
Total, all years— 1937 (9 months)	 -	957,411	$201,026,014	1947 		19,303 21,413 27,393 22,349 57,493 65,475 54,210 44,081 33,270 30,916 53,002 50,519	1,656,595 2,360,105 3,606,280 2,784,325 10,422,848 10,978,395 10,978,817 7,932,035 6,383,855 6,051,504 10,671,587 9,270,474
			1948 			
	3,223 5,158 6,396 9,324 24,333 59,536 101,224 98,167 135,260 35,366	177,789 294,953 528,393 799,733 5,085,694 15,867, 769 30,935,632 30,216,662 28, 798,335 5,224,234			
			1949			
1938	_ .	__			1950			
1939				1951			
1940 .			1952			
1941			1953 			
1942			1954			
1943				1955			
1944			1956			
1945 -			1957			
1946			1958			
					
Note: Amendments and supplemental awards to existing contracts are treated in the same manner as the original contract.
i Includes contracts for which no value was reported on the notice of award; some of these contracts may not be covered by the act.
2	For statistical purposes, the amount included for indefinite-amount contracts indicating only an upper limit (e. g., “not to exceed $50,000”) is that limit; contracts for “more than $10,000” are coded $10,000; and no value is included for those contracts reported as “indefinite” or for which no value is shown.
247
INDIX TABLE H.—Summary of minimum wage determinations applicable under the Walsh-Healey Public Contracts Act, June 30, 1958
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