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Show National News Summary Industrial Employment Employment in manufacturing industries has been declining since the September post-war peak of 16,700,000, according to the Labor Department. The number num-ber of workers in manufacturing plants at the end of December was down to 16,240,000. about 100,000 below the level of December, De-cember, 1947. Earnings Gross average weekly earnings earn-ings of workers in the nation s factories rose from $54.47 in mid-November to a new high of $55.01 in mid-December. 1948, and the average factory work week was 39.9 hours, according to an estimate made by the Bureau Bu-reau of Labor Statistics of the Department of Labor. Berlin Airlift The first seven months of the Berlin airlift cost the United States a total of $106,750,000, excluding ex-cluding the contribution v of- the Army, according to an announcement announce-ment by the Air force. Since its inauguration on June 26 1948 the Air Forces and Military Transport planes have flown 651,953 tons of food, fuel and other life-sustaining supplies into in-to Berlin on 70,297 flights. Unit- cd States aircraft have flown 39,480,000 miles on the lift and the crews have logged 245,450 hours of flying time. Planes of the Royal Air Force, which joined the air lift on June 28, have carried 220,204 tons of supplies sup-plies on 40.674 flights in the period which ended January 25. 1 Overseas Cemeteries American war dead from 400 overseas cemeteries - will be brought together in fourteen permanent military cemeteries in Europe, Africa, and the Philippines. Phil-ippines. Of the 257,890 identified identi-fied casualties overseas, about 64 per cent will be brought back to this country for burial. Approximately Ap-proximately 100,000 will be finally interred in these permanent per-manent cemeteries which are markers along the lines of fighting fight-ing in Europe, Africa and the Pacific area. , Vocational Rehabilitation Michael J. Shortley, director of the U. S. Office of Vocational Rehabilitation, reports that 127,-000 127,-000 disabled men and women are being helped by the office to learn how to make their own livelihoods. This is the largest number ever enrolled in the Federal Fed-eral program. |