Migration and business cycles

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 1736236210

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-111544

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Jerome, Harry

Title:: Migration and business cycles

Place of publication:: New York

Publisher:: National Bureau of Economic Research

Year of publication:: 1926

Scope:: 256 S.

Digitisation:: 2020

Collection:: Economics Books

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Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Chapter III. Employment opportunities for immigrants

Collection:: Economics Books

OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMMIGRANTS 7 fluctuations in the numbers of railway trackmen, other than section foremen, on June 30th of each year from 1889 to 1914. Coal Mining. The United States Geological Survey has published statistics of the movement of men employed and of days worked in anthracite and bituminous mining, respectively, for the years 1890 to 1921, and statistics of the production of coal are available from 1870 to date. Based upon a careful study of the returns filed with them, the Survey reaches the conclusion that the figures of the average number employed represent “not the average number of men actually working at any one time, nor the aggregate number of men who have worked at any time during the year, nor the absolute average number on the payrolls, but rather the number of men commonly dependent on the mine for employment.” Hence, by multiplying the average number of men employed in each year by the average number of days worked, we obtain a figure which affords a better index of employment conditions in the mines than the average number of employed. To illustrate, the reported average number of men employed in bituminous mines is even greater in the depression year of 1908 than in 1907, but the number of days worked was but 193 as compared with 223 in 1907. The resulting estimate of employment was compared with the statistics of bituminous coal production, which are available for a longer period, and the two series were found to agree so closely that the longer, or production series, has been used for an indicator of probable conditions of employment in the bituminous coal industry. In like manner, the production of anthracite coal is used as an ap- proximate index of employment in that phase of mining. Construction. Especially valuable for our purposes would be a comprehensive index of the number of men, particularly of common laborers, em- ployed upon new construction—buildings, sewers, railways, and streets and highways—but unfortunately no such index is available. Fragmentary evidence is furnished by statistics of building permits, miles of railroad constructed, and building contracts awarded, but none of these series is both comprehensive enough and available over a sufficiently long period to afford an adequate index of em- ployment conditions over the period in which we wish to study the relations of migration and employment. Statistics of the miles of 5%

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