| OCR Text |
Show MUM foKfXn SSB Finds Workers Want 7: JobsNot Pay to Be IdleL Only One in Six Who Lose Jobs Ever Ask for t hl Unemployment Insurance, and Even They Soon Leave Rolls. J By BAUKHAGE News Analyst mnd Commentator. WNU Service, 1616 Eye Street N. W., Washington, D. C. Two men who have been life-long friends will have occasion to remember re-member the month of August, 1945, for a long time to come. Sgt. Peter Pugh, waiting for Invasion on an aircraft air-craft carrier off the coast of Japan, heard that the war was over. Hank Haines, welder in a medium bomber bomb-er plant,- drew with his pay envelope a notice that his job had come to an end because medium bombers were no longer needed. Of course the sergeant was not discharged immediately. Neither was Hank not immediately. He had two weeks. Then he went downtown to file his unemployment compensation compensa-tion claim and put in an application applica-tion with the United States Employment Em-ployment Service for a new job. Within six weeks he was back at the aircraft factory, but instead of welding parts for medium bombers be was working on the engine of a giant passenger plane. Then Peter came home. Before he went off to the Pacific he had worked at the same plant, did the very same type of work Haines was now doing. Peter needed a Job and since he was a veteran, Haines once more had to give up his position and file another claim with the unemployment unem-ployment compensation office. Fiction? The names are. But the stories contain facts that have been happening thousands of times in all parts of the country since the war ended. Facts like these are telling some important things to an agency in Washington that was set up at the bottom of the depression to try to help people meet the economic crisis that comes to almost everyone every-one some time. This agency is the Social Security board, and I am thinking particularly of that division of it which administers the state unemployment un-employment compensation laws. The sudden end of the war brought manifold problems to this agency. Like many others, it had expected expect-ed reconversion and demobilization to be gradual processes and unemployment unem-ployment aid was ready to meet that situation. But the atomic bomb changed the picture and suddenly millions of men and women were thrown onto the labor market. There was a sudden rise in claims for unemployment un-employment insurance as the country coun-try grappled with the problem of creating jobs for the workers who were no longer needed when war contracts were terminated and for the boys who were doffing uniforms for mufti. Facts on Jobless Pay In this first experience of its kind since the SSB came into being some important facts are being uncovered uncov-ered answers to such questions as: What is the truth about peace-induced peace-induced unemployment in this country? coun-try? When on the average will the unemployment un-employment compensation periods run out and the crisis become acute if there are not enough jobs? What kind of people are asking for jobless pay? Is it true that they are taking this money and not bothering both-ering to look for work? Let us see what answers the Employment Em-ployment Bureau of the Social Security Se-curity Board is finding to these questions ques-tions as experts here in Washington and in the field sift through a great mass of data. First, I might say that unemployment compensation claims at this writing are a good barometer of the unemployment throughout the country brought on by the war. Later this would not be the case. When there is a long period of heavy unemployment, people peo-ple who have been out of work ior four months or more would not appear ap-pear on the claims lists and therefore there-fore would not figure in the statistics. statis-tics. But the situation is different today. The rise in unemployment is fresh and the periods of payment have not yet been used up by many claimants. So the rolls reflect a true picture of the situation. As these lines are written, the second sec-ond wave of nnemployment to hit the country since the war ended Is mounting as the first wave recedes. At the present time workers are being discharged because they are being displaced by servicemen who are being demobilized. The first wave was made np of those persons who fonnd themselves ont of Jobs because war Industries had to convert con-vert to peacetime operation. In the first wave about six million workers found themselves out of work as a result of the ending of war contracts. Of these, three million mil-lion shifted to peacetime Jobs right away without any interruption, two million registered in unemployment compensation offices and about one million are unaccounted for they may have found other Jobs without registering In the unemployment office, of-fice, or they might have gone on vacation or retired. About 1,100,000 former war workers of this number found it necessary to draw unemployment unem-ployment compensation. Right now the claims for jobless pay are dropping drop-ping each week and Social Security officials say that means the full impact im-pact of the first wave of unemployment unemploy-ment the reconversion wave has been felt. The bulk of the war workers work-ers have been laid off. The bulk of those who are going to file for benefits bene-fits have already done so. What's ahead, then, is the second wave the unemployment which will come as an aftermath of demobilization. demobili-zation. It is estimated that from six to nine million servicemen are destined to return to industry in the next 9 to 12 months. In addition, abont twe million workers who have been in government gov-ernment service during the war will be looking for new jobs. That means that abont eight ' million persons will be thrown on the labor market in this second wave which will come as a result of the end of the war. Crisis Looms By 1947 As nearly as can be Judged, Social So-cial Security officials see a crisis by 1947 if there are not enough jobs. That is, they expect that unemployment unemploy-ment compensation payments will carry people over jobless periods until about 1947, by which time payments pay-ments will have been used up. Since the amount of compensation and the length of time for which it is paid are based on previous length of employment em-ployment and wages, it is plain that a period of spotty employment will affect a worker's future benefits. A different type of person is applying ap-plying for jobless compensation these days than when the system was set up in the days when apples were being sold on street corners and unemployment was a major threat to family security. In the early thirties workers collected their benefits for the. entire period of their eligibility and still were without jobs. As of this moment they are collecting col-lecting for an average of four weeks and then getting Jobs. Today To-day more women are applying for unemployment compensation than men. Skilled workers make up more than 50 per cent of the claimants; semi-skilled rank next in number. As unemployment comes into the national picture again and efforts are made to get more complete jobless job-less legislation out of Congress, arguments ar-guments are heard that people who are able to get unemployment compensation com-pensation do not bother to look for jobs. This is answered by the Social So-cial Security Board on the basis of what they have been finding out from the postwar claims. They point out first that little better bet-ter than one in six of the persons who lost their jobs as a result of reconversion is receiving unemployment unem-ployment compensation payments. This shows, they say, that a worker prefers a job any day to being paid for not working. Moreover, they point to the fact that over 750,000 persons, or about 35 per cent of the workers who filed claims initially since V-J Day, have already left the rolls and taken jobs. Then there is the testimony that in two representative represen-tative cities where special studies were made it was found that two-thirds two-thirds of the workers who left the claim rolls took jobs before they drew any benefits at all. They say that other cases can be cited to prove the point. Meantime, as the second wave of jobless workers hits the labor market, mar-ket, the unemployment compensation agencies prepare to handle growing claims for jobless pay unless and until peacetime industry gets its wheels turning to provide the jobs that are needed. I |
