THE NEW INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

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INCREASES IN NUMBERS EMPLOYED,
JULY 1, 1923, to JULY 1, 1927

Building (exclusive of roads, subways, etc.) .........
Automobile, truck and bus operation and maintenance. .
Road and subway construction......
Trade (chain stores and miscellaneous) ........... .
Public service, including school teachers (assumed to
increase at same rate as population) ................
Operation and maintenance of apartments, hotels and
restaurants ....
Telephone operation .. or Ss
Operation and maintenance of office buildings.
Electric light and power. .
Sports, moving picture production and exhibition. et...
Dil production

Total .

1,000,000
500,000
710,000
“7'000

100.000

100,000
50,000
50,000
30,000
50,000
50,000
2.150 000

As a result of these and similar calculations, it was concluded
 that there had been no real unemployment problem
ap to the last half of 1927. What had occurred from
1923 to 1927 were shifts from some industries which,
because of improved machinery and processes, required
fewer workers to turn out an even larger product, to other
industries or classes of services which had been developed
or had undergone an unusually large expansion during
these years. This absorption of displaced workers was
also assisted by the decline in the number gainfully employed
 as compared with the total population. The tendencies
 in this direction which had been observable since
1910, such as less employment and longer school training
for children and a decline in the number of wage-earning
wives and mothers, was further stimulated by the better
standards of living or, in other words, by the advance in
earnings of husbands and fathers after the 1921 depression.
Beginning with the second half of 1927 and continuing
through the first quarter of 1928, there was an entire
change in conditions. Decreased manufacturing activity
and a general decline in industrial output produced, as has