OCR Text |
Show AUTOMATION TAKE YOUR JOB? CAN 4& v m 1 The Secretary of Labor answers a question asked answers it not with vague promises but in terms. of what you must do to keep pace with progress l I if t 7v IS IT S. Sftrrptarv nf Lahnr L- Lf - As - 7 . . .1 1 il .il 1 1 1 . ; 1 1 It t ui . win uu iuc wuiA which i cijuiicu jcu.hu eu.c employees Jwo or more decades agov The other news' item told of the abandonment of an entire steel mill, employing 1,500 persons, in Pennsylvania. The company announced that "technological developments" had made continued use of this plant "impractical and uneconomic." Naturally, such stories prompt questions. Will ah tnm at ion and npw tprhnimips rpnlarp workers? Will they takeTaway my job? , To find Tthe I6rigrange answer, we must look ahead say, to 1970. We find first that the 'expectation is for an increase of about 25 millions in the population of the United States over the next nine yearsequivalent to adding a city the size of Chicago to the country about every 18 months. This expansion is expected to generate advanced demands for additional consumer goods, housing, highways, and considerable capital investment. increase Second, we project about a in the amount of goods and services we produce by 1970. This assumes, of course, that output per hour worked will continue to increase at the rate it has y s '11 50-perc- ent , up to now. These developments call for an additional represented by the professional worker. If previous trends continue, our projections show .that professional personnel may reach close to eight million by 1965, accounting for a little more than one of every 10 workers. hisis more than clouble the; labor are making efforts to train and retrain workers in ihese fields to Meet the new job de- 'Ai- t t ; i i tj is odvious rnanus. ix woncer wan mat xlme SKiuea better education and training will be prepared best for the job opportunities-adTian- ges thai are inevitably coming. million iobs bv 1970. An important question is: what changes in our occupational structure will these 13 million additional jobs bring?. And the question for you is am I prepared for such changes? One of ' the- - most impressive- areas of - growth Jis- -- 1910 figure. Taken together, thwhite-cplla- r occupations actually have reached aJhistoric position they represent the single biggest group in the labor iheyilLbeLwell Jihead by 1965 and 1975. Another important group which we expect will expand are the industrial workers at the craftsmen (skilled) and operative (semiskilled) levels. So you see, the job outlook for the trained man bFwo ' ice industries is also encouraging. The crux of the question, then, is not whether automation will take away, jobs, but whether the individual worker, white- - or r, will be able to withstand the forces of change in the techniques or operations of his job. his Every working person should qualifications for the future job market. He must ask himself if he has enough education and training to meet future demands. tresident Kennedy and his administration also JL are trying to find ways to help. In the past few months an Office of Automation and Manpower has been organized in the Department of Labor to find some of the answers. Through the Office of Automation and Manpower, we are using three strategic approaches to the challenges of automation. First, the development of an "early warning system," so that employees, union, and management can be alerted as far as possible, in advance of iJrand " v blue-colla- technological changes. Second, softening the impact of automation for hundreds of thousands of long-ter- m unemployed workers through legislation based on the findings of our new office. Third, the retraining of. those workers who still and capable of moving into other are fields, where their skills may be in demand. In the meantime, the President has proposed several legislative programs to help train the American worker for the new types of jobs which are, or will be, available. At this juncture we are sure of one thing: the skilled worker must have flexibility, maneuverability, and adaptability. To have these three qualities he must improve his skills constantly. All I have said amounts to this: automation will not take your job away if you are properly prepared educationally, constantly alert "to changes that are taking place in your field of work, and ready and willing to study and retrain for the new re-exam- ine able-bodi- ed command of arithmeticfor example, is essential for the office worker, who may be called upon to master a new bookkeeping machine, or for the skilled worker, who may be put to work on a machine utilizing numerical controls. . High-scho- ol students have a special need to prepare themselves well. A diploma today "is an elementary requirement for entry into most jobs. Employers are seeking workers who have the potential to learn the new skills and techniques that are appearing every day in their businesses and factories. No one is sure today where these swift techno logical changes aretaking-us- r A -- -- Both-industry-a- nd -o- pportunlties-andiobs-tmingupT-- COVER: Photographer Paul Himmel captures lovely actress Dina Merrill in a fetching example sweaters for fait of the new Dina models more new sweaters on page 14. all-Ameri- ' 1 high-scho- ol 13 September 3, 1961 "LEONARD S. DAVIDOW WALTER C. DREYFUS PATRICK E. O'ROURKE MORTON FRANK can President and Publisher Vice President S Board of Editors Advertising Director Direct or of Publisher Relations Send oll advertising communications to Family Weekly, 153 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago 1, III. Address all communications about editorial features to Family Weekly, 60 E. 56th St., New York 22, N. Y. 71 " as told o Larsion Farrar a nation, we are iona oi caicn pnrases easier to remember than the facts underlying them. - Automafiort is such a cially significant this Lttbor Day. Two recentmews itemsshovrwhyihisihraseiias become so important. One told of the opening of a new, fully automated mill, employing only three .1. ;11 mi. a jnass oi niacxun- sKiuea men.nesemreerwiin. L ERNEST V. HEYN Editor-in-ChiBEN KARTMAN Executive Editor ROBERT FITZGIBBONAfanaowf; Editor MARGARET BELL Feature Editor PHILLIP DYKSTRA Art Director .MELANIE DE PROFT Food Editor ef - Rosalyn Abrevaya, John Hochmami, Jerry Klein, Hal London, Murray Miller, Jack Ryan; Peer J. Oppenheimer, Hollywood. 1961rFAMILY WEEKLY MAGAZINE, INC., 153 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago 1, III. All rights reserved. |