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Show Men Will Work if Given the Opportunity Quite often one hears the accusation that many of the men and women receiving unemployment benefits bene-fits and assistance from other relief agencies due to unemployment are "just too lazy to work and therefore there-fore are willing for the other fellow to pay for the food and clothing they need." We do not doubt that there are a few that way for there have always been roving tramps and beggars going about the country content with the few morsels of food they can get from the housewife whose heart goes out to the needy, but thank goodness their numbers are few. Just previous to the war many millions of men and women were unemployed but not because of their fault or choosing. They were victims of shall we say the machine age, mass production, the consolidation of large interests or the over increase of population? Whatever was the cause they were without employment em-ployment and consequently had to ask for. and accept charity. We are happy to print below a story that appeared ap-peared in the "Utah Employment Security Digest" in its issue of January 31st, which proudly announces that less than $100,000.00 was paid from the unemployment unem-ployment funds in the state in 1943 as compared to $1,000,000.00 in 1942 which proves that when there is work to be had most men and women would prefer tc perform it than to accept help from others. "Unemployment insurance followed the pattern an-, an-, ticipated for periods of good work opportunities, and recent reports of the department of Employment Security Se-curity show the following conditions: "Decline in the amount of benefits paid from $996,000 in 1942 to $99,570 in 1903. "Decline in the number of claimants from 16,000 in the benefit year ending July 1, 1942, to 1399 in the benefit year ending July 1, 1943. "Increase in the percentage of claimants who go back to work, after qualifying for benefits, before receiving re-ceiving the first unemployment check. (This back-to-work-before-benefits movement on the part of qualified quali-fied claimants has increased steadily from 11 per cent in 1940 to 34.2 per cent in 1943.) "Decrease in the average duration for those receiving re-ceiving benefits from an average of 11 weeks in the benefit year ending in 1942 to 7.2 weeks for the year ending in 1943. ""Increase in the percentage of ' claimants in the higher brackets because of higher earnings. "Increase in the weekly benefit amount, also because be-cause of higher earnings, from $14.19 in 1942 to $15.15 in 1943. "Decline in the number of claimants filing for benefits at any one time from 5000 in February 1942 to an average of 178 for each month in the benefit year ending in 1943. "The general tendency in 1943 was for workers to remain on unemployment insurance rolls for a short time and then return to someone's pay roll. There were 176 claimants out of the total 2499 who filed for benefits bene-fits and remained unemployed the entire 20 weeks. There were 854 who went to work after qualifying and before receiving any benefits, and another 817 who went back to work by the end of the fourth week of benefits. This leaves approximately 800 individuals who, received benefits for more than four weeks. Of the 854 who wTent back to work before benefits, 360 were entitled to benefits for 20 weeks at $20 a week." |
