Unemployment in the United States

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 1828236179

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-226169

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Unemployment in the United States

Place of publication:: Washington

Publisher:: United States, Government Printing Office

Year of publication:: 1930

Scope:: II, 193 Seiten

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Statement of Mr. William Green, president of American Federation of Labor

Collection:: Economics Books

UNEMPLOYMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 53 Te D4 cy wd al al mn is S ly ob er 10 iy is is e we a ie qd d 1- 1. 1- a} 3, iT g y it v e 0 0 1e e e a 9 1 8 2 8 .C n N ™ b= a 3 ’y = of wage earners employed by our factories increased 40 per cent from 1899 to 1909; ‘that is, 1,903,000 more wage earners were taken on to bring about this 59 per cent increase in production.* Similarly in the decade from 1909 to 1919, production increased 85 per cent and employment increased 38 per cent. Increased production was made possible by employing 2,481,000 more wage earners. This meant jobs for nearly two and a half million more men and women. Now in the decade from 1919 to 1929 developments took an entirely different turn. Production increased as before, so that our plants were turning out 42 per cent more in 1929 than in 1919. But this increase was made possible without any increase in the number of wage earners employed. Employment actually decreased 7 per cent from 1919 to 1929. Forty-two per cent more goods were produced with 585,000 fewer workers. This general increase was made possible by the introduction of new machinery and modern methods of manufacture. Increasing production instead of creating more work, actually took away 585,000 jobs. The producing power of the average wage earner increased 11 per cent in the 20 years from 1899 to 1919; but in the short space of 10 years from 1919 to 1929 (half as long) it increased 53 per cent.’ These great changes have so lithited the number of wage earners needed in our manufacturing industries that men and women are forced to walk the streets, looking for work. To be sure some jobs are created in the service industries, where employment has been increasing in the last decade, but these are not nearly enough to make up for the change in manufacturing. Although technological unemployment is no new story, the rate at which technical progress has come in the past 25 years makes displacement of workers a very different problem. The rapidity and the scope of scientific progress has made technical procedure practically fluid. The period of recent economic pros- perity made it possible for industries to install the newest machinery and the Newest processes without hesitation. Abundance of capital facilitated the development of new industries. These new industries have helped to absorb workers released by older indus- tries. But some of the new industries, particularly automobiles, are most un~ stable and have by far the highest fluctuation in pay rolls of all industries. During June of 1929 industrial production in the United States reached a new record peak. Even this stupendous output failed to supply employment to all seeking work. The records of the American Federation of Labor showed 9 per tent unemployment among trade-union workers during that period of record breaking production. In the summer of 1927 the Federation had been sensitive to recurring reports of unemployment from all parts of the country and instituted a system of monthly reports from the local unions in 24 industrial centers. The summary of these records is an interesting document. We are satisfied that the sustained high rate reflects among other forces unemployment due to mechaniza- tion of industry. Nearly one-third of the wage earners in the United States depend on manufac- turing industries for their jobs. Our wage earner population is increasing, while jobs in manufacturing industry decrease. Since 1919, the normal increase in population has brought over five and a half million more persons who want work as wage earners, while jobs in manufacturing have decreased by 585.000. Thus we need more than six million new jobs. . . The “newer” industries, such as gasoline stations and automobile repair shops, barber shops and beauty parlors, hotels and restaurants, have given work to some of this army of job seekers, for employment has been increasing in these lines: Professional work has also been increasing; there are more teachers, doctors, dentists, oculists. But all these new industries put together have not been nearly enough to take care of the six million who want work. A recent study of 754 persons laid off from manufacturing plants show that only 15 per cent were able to find work in these ‘‘newer’ industries. . . Also there is the problem of job adjustment. For a man laid off in a steel mill where new machinery has just been installed, can not go tomorrow and take up work as a barber, and he certainly is not prepared for the professions. Even in hotel and restaurant work and in gasoline stations, where less training is required, there are new skills to be learned, and men with experience are likely to have preference. The problem facing these workers who are laid off from their job is well illus- trated by the above mentioned study, covering 754 wage earners laid off from + Figures from census Monograph, ‘“ The Growth of Manufactures, United States Bureau of Census.” 5 Figures from Federal Reserve Board, United States Census of Manufactures.

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