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Show ifiiisr ; REVIEWS WQRK; Employment Obtained f of j 10,000 Persons Daily in j 18 Months. 1 ri Special to The Tribune. :j WASHINGTON, July 27. The record :J of Uncie Sam as employrnent agent Is I given in statistics made public today by the department of labor, which cover the - period from January, 191S, when the United States employment service was '". organized, -to June 30, 1919, the end of the government's fiscal year. J Ten thousand persons were placed in 7, Jobs of all kinds each working1 day for the eighteen months' period, according to the report, without costing them or e their employers a cent, and at a cost to r the whole country of but $1.34 per place-dent. place-dent. The saving in fees to the men and women directed to employment by Uncle Sam, in co-operation with states ;,r and municipalities, is estimated at not i : less than $10,000,000, while the saving to ; the country in hours of labor gained by minimizing the time lost by these work-: work-: ers between jobs and in reducing labor S turnover, is estimated at many more r. millions. The figures also indicate the labor con-hf con-hf ditlons during the last eighteen months,.! '- the steady and rapid increase in labor s. shortage during the war months, and the it reversal of the situation to one of labor surplus after the signing of the armistice i ind the beginning of military and industrial indus-trial demobilization. They also show the T;:i citent to which employers use the federal '' - employment offices. ' ,Fom January 1, 1918, to June 30, 1919, 7.108,655 workers of all kinds were regis-tered regis-tered by the United States employment service for employment. Of the total,' : (.146,294 were referred to positions and t; 055,109 were reported placed. A worker '; ;, Is reported as placed only after the serv-ire serv-ire has received assurance,-oral or written, ' ' from either worker or employer of place-ment. place-ment. Placements were made of every" kind of r worker; from common and domestic labor-(rs labor-(rs to high-salaried professional and tech-, tech-, ileal workers. It was not uncommon for , ,, an (1800 examiner to place a $15,000 engi- lege trained women have used the service, which has been working in conjunction with alumnae associations throughout the I country. The common labor placements were but ! 23 per cent of the total of slightly under -5,000,000 persons placed. The other 77 per cent consisted of skilled labor and other workers engaged in specified occupations. oc-cupations. At the time of the curtailment curtail-ment of the employment service last March extensive work in the field of bringing the highly trained man and woman and the position together was under un-der way. while vocational guidance for the juvenile workers in co-operation with state and municipal educational authorities author-ities was being established. A system j of trade tests for s.cilled workers to insure in-sure the placing of the right man in the right job was in operation in New York City and a second office was being opened In Cleveland. These features have since been continued as far as limited funds permit. The total figures of the work of the United States employment service divide into two groups the "war period," from January, 1918, to the end of November, 1918; and the "readjustment period," from December. 191S, to the end of last month. The first period was primarily one of "man finding"; the second one of "job finding." War Industry Aid. During the war period 3,432.997 persons per-sons were registered for employment and 3.444.093 referred to jobs, the great majority ma-jority of them in war industry. Returns from the workers and employers show that 2,698,887 were placed. The heaviest month of placements occurred in November Novem-ber last, when war labor recruiting and the war industries were hitting their top stride. The large amount of continued war manufacturing and the demand for workers discounted during December the stoppage of other war work and the demobilizing de-mobilizing of military forces. The placements place-ments during November were 558,409 and, as the following table shows, they had been climbing steadily since the previous January. During the readjustment period the figures show that 3.432,997 persons were registered for employment, 3,002,201 referred re-ferred to jobs and 2.256,272 were reported placed. Included in the registrations were 513,604 soldiers and sailors, of whom 314.-137. 314.-137. were reported placed, but the returns on soldiers' placements are incomplete. The beginning of industrial and military mili-tary demobilization caused little change in the number of persons registering Jor employment, but it did result in a tremendous tre-mendous drop in the requisitions from employers for workers, as the table shows. The extent of the great labor shortage that existed during the war and was emphasized em-phasized during the late summer and fall of 1919, when war production so greatly increased, is indicated in the figures of employers' requisitions. These figures also indicate the extent to which employers throughout the country have used the United States employment service serv-ice not only during the war, when labor was so sorely needed, but from the signing sign-ing of the armistice and the reversal of the situation to one of labor surplus. neer or executive. The recruiting and placing of farm labor has been one of the special features of the work of the federal employment service during the last year and a half. Women constituted 20 per cent of the total workers placed, and many a woman has found in the federal employment service a gateway to the industrial, commercial com-mercial or professional life she has desired de-sired to enter. Iarge numbers of cqI- Labor Shortage Felt. During the entire eighteen months' period pe-riod employers applied for a total of 12,-079,514 12,-079,514 workers of all kinds, requisitions for 7,904,675 of the total being made during dur-ing the war period. The months of August, Au-gust, September, October and November were heaviest in employers' calls for labor. la-bor. Against requisitions for a total of 6.017. SS5 workers made in these four months, somewhat more than a third of that number, or 2,426,180 workers, were registered by the employment service. In November, for instance, there were employers' em-ployers' requisitions for 1,724,943 workers, work-ers, as against 744,712 .registrations by workers, a difference of nearly one million. mil-lion. In December employers' requisitions requisi-tions exceeded the million mark, due to the same causes that kept up the labor calls during the latter half of November, but in January they fell to 730, S31 and in February to 487,575. The fact that during the readjustment period requisitions from employers were slightly in excess of registrations by workers was not because there were more jobs than men, but because in many instances workers of particular qualifications qualifica-tions were sought. The peak of the situation situa-tion of labor surplus appears to have been reached about the middle of May and the labor market is now becoming equalized, with indications of shortage within the next year. In arriving at its figures of $1.34 as the average cost per placement, the United States employrnent service has ini'luded all the cost of building up and equipping the service. In private cor- porate financing these items would be I considered as permanent investments and would not be chargeable to operation. ' After the first few months of office j opening and organization and until last March" the federal employment service consisted of approximately 900 public employment em-ployment offices, including state and municipal mu-nicipal offices. It had in addition to general offices, special offices for placing women, marinp and dock workers, farm labor, etc. When failure of funds last March compelled the curtailment of the placement organization of the service the field offices were reduced to a bare fifty-six, fifty-six, but outside funds immediately contributed con-tributed to maintain for the federal employment em-ployment service more than 425 offices which would have been closed. On July 1 limited appropriation required further reduction of federal financed employment employ-ment offices, but outside support is again being given until congress can act on the Nolan -Keny on bills for a permanent national employment service, and indications indica-tions are that several hundred offices will be kept open until that time. In addition to the regular employment offices, the United States employment service, with the assistance of the welfare wel-fare organizations, chambers of commerce com-merce and other voluntary agencies, has been operating 2000 temporary bureaus for returning soldiers and sailors. Through these bureaus all local efforts to help soldiers to jobs are concentrated and cleared. Through central federal clearing houses in each state the bureaus and the regular employment offices are connected with the demobilization camps in this country, where the federal employment service, by arrangement with the war de- , partment." maintains representatives who i card the men who must find new jobs. |