12 UNEMPLOYMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 
Mr. MicaeENER. Of course, my purpose was to show the number of 
people out of employment by choice and not of necessity. You see, 1 
referred to normal times—the times when we were all satisfied. Now 
in those times we have, you state, about 9 per cent of our working 
people out of employment; so we have between two and three million 
men in this country out of employment at all times, then, in the most 
prosperous times? 
Mr. Green. I am not sure. Those figures would be debatable, of 
course; they are highly controversial, and then you must take into 
consideration the fact there is a shifting going on; men are moving 
from one place to the other, seeking employment and most of the 
time it is temporary. This is 3,700,000 out of work, willing to work 
and who can not find work. That is the report. You must differ- 
entlate between a group of men classified as unemployed, under that 
head, and perhaps a million men out of work part of the time, due to 
seasonal causes, or other causes, under normal conditions. There is 
a vast difference. 
Mr. Montague. I did not catch your answer to Mr. Michener’s 
question. I do not think he put it exactly as I thought. I repeat 
this phase of it: You speak of 9 per cent of men unemployed. Now 
there is an involuntary unemployment. 
Mr. GreEN. Yes. I did not understand what he meant. 
Mr. MonTaGUE. And there is a percentage of people who are 
voluntarily out of employment, also. 
Mr. Green. I do not understand what he means by voluntary 
unemployment. 
Mr. Mo~Tacue. I will use another word. There are 9 per cent of 
the people unemployed. 
Mr. GreEEN. Yes, sir. 
Mr. MonTaGUE. There is a percentage of people who do not. wish 
employment; you can not make them work. 
Mr. GREEN. Perhaps so, yes. I think you are right on that. 
Mr. Montague. Do not you come upon that in your experience? 
Mr. Green, Yes; that is excluded. 
Mr. Montague. This is voluntary unemployment, vou might 
call it. 
Mr. GrEEN. Yes. 
Mr. Montague. The man who won’t work and can work, he is a 
voluntarily unemployed man. 
Mr. Green. Idle out of choice. 
Mr. MicueNer. I mean, by involuntarily, when times are pros- 
perous, when we are all satisfied, when there is a job for every man 
who wants one, in those times there are 9 per cent of the total 
Yorking population of the country unemploved. That ought to be 
clear. 
Mr. MonTacuE. Would you call that involuntarily unemployed? 
Mr. MicaexNer. I do not want to quibble over words. 
Mr. MonTAGUE. I am not quibbling over words. 
Mr. MicrENER. I just want to find out how many won't work and 
how many will work. 
Mr. Green. We can easily get confused on that, because I am 
talking about wage earners, men and women, willing to work, seeking 
work, but who can not find the work. Those are the people I am 
talking about now. I realize you may become confused by men 
and women who may be classified as idle. who are taking vacation