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Show SPECIAL WASHINGTON REPORT mn New Job Hopes For Millions By Arthur J. Goldberg Secretary of Labor The Manpower Development and Training bill, which passed Congress this year, is perhaps the most significant legislation in the area of employment since the 1946 act which set a Government Govern-ment policy of seeking to maintain full employment. The new training program will give a real meaning to the act by making possible the training of hundreds of thousands of workers who are denied employment because they do not possess the skills required by our constantly changing economy. Their training is important both to them as individuals and to the economic health of the entire nation. Unemployed workers eligible under the Administration's Manpower Development and Training Act can obtain: Up to 52 weeks of training train-ing in a skill needed to gain employment; Adequate allowances for heads of families to enable them to support their families fam-ilies and devote full attention atten-tion to the task of acquiring acquir-ing news skills; Thorough guidance and assistance as-sistance from the United States Employment Service in helping them to choose the kind of work for which they are best suited and a concerted effort to help assure that a suitable j job rewards their initiative. There should be no great difficulty dif-ficulty for adults acquiring new skills under the provisions Also, included under the provisions pro-visions of this act is a special program for testing, counseling, and selection of youths, sixteen years of age or older, for occupational occu-pational training and further schooling. Workers in farm families with less than $1,200 annually net family income shall be considered unemployed for the purpose of this act. This far-reaching act not only addresses itself to the prob- Secretary of Labor Goldberg has terved as special Counsel for AFL-CIO; AFL-CIO; General Counsel, Industrial Union Department, AFL-CIO; and General Counsel, United Steel-workers Steel-workers of America. He is a Member of the Board of Directors of Carnegie Endowment Endow-ment for International Peace, author of AFL-CIO, Labor United and contributor of various articles to legal publications and journals of opinion. of this act as modern educators have proven conclusively that adults can learn as well as young people and often more quickly once they get over the psychological psycho-logical barrier. Administration leadership was necessary in this phase of dealing deal-ing with unemployment to insure in-sure that the benefits of automation auto-mation do not become burdens of widespread unemployment. This legislation will reduce pockets of unemployment brought about as a result of ! automation by providing new skills to unemployed workers stranded by the change, as well as to assess our manpower requirements re-quirements and so anticipate change. lems of the present, but requires us to anticipate future needs as employment conditions change. As President Kennedy asserted: "This is the first in a series of needed employment programs and I am hopeful that all of the measures necessary for achieving a high and stable level of employment, em-ployment, recommended by this Administration, will be available avail-able to the Federal Government in the near future." Our success in fulfilling our world responsibilities rests upon the success of our efforts to maintain a strong and flexible economy at home. This Manpower Man-power Development and Training Train-ing Act will make a significant contribution to these efforts. |