At Issue; 22; The Unemployed

These twin towers, this street, reflect the people who are riding the surge of prosperity living a good life. There are others, people whose plight reflect the sickness that is eating at the heart of prosperity, the unemployed. National Educational Television presents, at Issue, a commentary on events and people in the news. At Issue this week, the unemployed, an examination of jobless Americans and one city's efforts to cope with the problem. Commentator is Harry Homewood, editorial writer for the Chicago Sun Times.

Last year, over 4 million people looked for work and couldn't find it. They are the unemployed, one of the main problems of our times. There are many definitions of unemployment. Economists, labor leaders, management, professors all have a definition. The man who is unemployed has a definition. Unemployment is fright. Unemployment is walking and looking for work, being turned down and walking and looking some more, and being turned down. Unemployment is the feeling of hopelessness you get when the days without work stretch into weeks, when the certainty that work can be found begins to fade. Unemployment is, too often, a road to the welfare rolls. It is an increasing burden on every local government in this country to illustrate the manifold problems of unemployment. This program is set in Chicago, crossroads of the nation. A city with a wide variety of industry. A city that needs every skill and craft from the strong backed dock worker to the depth finger December in an electronic

plant. Chicago attracts people as all big cities attract people. The skilled and the unskilled, the professionally educated and the illiterate. They come to work, some do, some do not. They become the unemployed and a problem to society. We ask Secretary of Labor, W. Willard Wurtz, how serious is the unemployment problem in the United States? You can answer that question in one statistic, which is that we have unemployment of about 5.5 percent, which is over 4 million people, and it is bad. The real problem, though, emerges only if we break that answer down. Unemployment among younger workers in this country, 14 to 19 years old, is now over 15 percent. As far as the minority groups are concerned, it's around 15 percent. As far as older workers are concerned, we have another problem,

which is that smaller numbers are unemployed, but when unemployment hits, it hits very hard. The unemployed fall into different groups. There are those who have been disenfranchised by advanced production techniques, the victims of automation. There are those just mentioned by Secretary Wurtz, those in the age brackets from 14 to 19, who invariably are either dropouts from the public school system or who have a very poor record in school. The minority groups who suffer the indignities of prejudice and who too often do not have the opportunity to get a decent education in the public schools. There are those adults who simply lack the basic educational skills necessary to work, the functional illiterates. Chicago, like all big cities, has functional illiterates. In most cases, they cannot read well enough to use a newspaper-help-wanted section. They cannot take a bus to a strange neighborhood to look for work because they cannot read street signs and numbers. They cannot fill out a job questionnaire. Inferiorably, they find their way to the welfare roles, and they are

present an increasing challenge as their numbers swell. Chicago has made a very successful start in solving this one small problem of unemployment, that of the functional illiterate. Damon W. Hillier, Director of Cook County Department of Public Aid, supervises the spending of some $250 million in public welfare programs each year. Among his projects, he has organized with the cooperation of the Chicago Public School system, is a crash program to teach functional illiterates how to read, write, and do simple arithmetic. It is not easy. Teachers had to work out techniques and curriculums suited to the adults who had not seen the inside of a school in a score or more of years. They found a way, and Chicago has seen functional illiterates complete primary school in eight months and begged to go on to high school. Ray Hillier lives with this problem, and he has some interesting thoughts. At the present time, we have some 8,000 people enrolled. We have well over 200

who have received their elementary school certificates, and most of them framed them very proudly and hanged them on the wall. We have seen with our own eyes, people go off our own relief roles and into jobs, who have come from the literacy training classes, into such programs as the yellow cab program, which has now graduated 754 men. We have seen them go into jobs with the Shell Oil Company. After periods of training to become what are now called driveway sales, they used to be attendants. We are placing large numbers in domestic service, and we are finding out as we proceed with this effort that preliminary two, any training or any possibility of training, there must be an assurance of an upgrading of education to enable the person to at least reach a plateau or a level of comprehension that will enable them to use the manual or to read the instructions or to follow any

directions that may be on a can, even a janitor in these days of more sophisticated cleaning methods, has to read the instructions on the can or on the bottle. I think that the Chicago program offers promise of success. I think it is succeeding with some of the people that are now on our roles, but automation and technological change continue at an accelerated rate, and we feel sometimes as if we're on a treadmill. Certainly, we place in a year probably 14,000 people in jobs, and we probably can do even better than that, and to that extent we're successful. But for these 14,000 jobs that we secure, there are probably another at least 14,000. Heads of families who are coming to us almost continuously to replace those that we remove from our roles by returning them to independent living.

Accordingly, the measures to be taken by a education, by a training, and by a made-work program, must be massive in nature and must be undertaken promptly. Otherwise, this nation is in danger of wrecking itself. Mr. Hillier's views on education and training are shared by the administration in Washington, Secretary of Labor Warts. Oh, we're getting to the point where unemployment is simply the price of not having an education. Only boy or girl who drops out of school simply cuts off his or her economic future today. The reason for this is, principally, that the machines now are taking up the unskilled jobs. It used to be that if a person didn't do well in school or dropped out of school, he could get an unskilled job. Now a machine has it. The machines have, in general, the equivalent of a high school education and they work for less than a living wage. I can only say in

the broadest terms that today, an education, not necessarily a college education, perhaps an advanced vocational education, is absolutely essential to being a constructive member of the society in this country. Last week, Secretary Warts addressing a meeting of the American Bankers Association suggested that perhaps part of the answer to that challenge is to advance the age of compulsory education to 18, and at the same time increase considerably the number of junior colleges, technical and vocational training schools. That sort of education presents a two-fold problem. Not only is it essential that a youngster entering the work market have a sound education, he must also have the ability to continue learning once he obtains a job. This is Mr. Bruce Cole, director of job opportunities through better skills in Chicago. Mr. Cole, what does your organization do? Job opportunities through better skills or the jobs project, as we call it, is a combined effort of three private agencies, the boys' clubs,

the youth centers, and the YMCA. The government has given us the money and has charged us with the responsibility of recruiting, motivating, training, and then finding employment for 1,000 young people from the deprived neighborhoods of Chicago. What motivates these children to commend your program? Well, most of the youngsters are dropouts, high school dropouts. Many of them are functionally illiterate. So their initial motivation isn't school. It's the training allowance which they receive from the government. How much does that amount? It amounts to $19 a week in most cases. But that's only the beginning. The stronger motivation for many, the program is substantially negro in enrollment. The major motivation is they're feeling that for the first time in their lives, perhaps because of the civil rights movement of the moment, there is a chance for a real job if they learn a skill. And then that motivation

is constantly being reinforced by a very dedicated staff of experienced teachers and a group of counselors who are the most interesting part of the program. These young people are a preview of the Domestic Service Corps. They're not professionally trained to be counselors. They have a deep motivation to do the job and they have the ability to make it with these young people. Now, are you getting anywhere with this program? Well, we're only 20 weeks down the way. But we feel that we are substantially succeeding. We have over a thousand enrolled. About 72 have gotten jobs on their own. We have placed another 120 and we've only had seven who were fired out of that group. And we have, at the moment, about 80 more who are ready for employment and who are going out to see employers.

Now, you say you train these people for jobs and undoubtedly you're having a considerable amount of success. The question arises, are there jobs available and where? Our feeling is that every one of these young people who really gets prepared will find a job. We'll have a job waiting for him. Most of the employers have been very cooperative. Now and then you find one that wants a Ralph bunch that dropped out of high school. But most of them merely want a dedicated workman and they've gone along, tried our people and have found that they're producing. What job areas are they going into? All kinds of legitimate entry jobs where there's a chance both of permanent employment and a chance to advance. But we're stressing in our training the kind of self-confidence that makes a man willing to accept the sort of retraining every one of these young people will face at least three times in their work career. Now, this is one thing that interests me. How do you get them to accept the discipline of going to work every day and obeying orders?

We do it primarily through small group discussion where we evaluate various kinds of behavior and decide what kind is really effective. We try to give them a real understanding of what it means to hold a job, what the responsibilities are, what the opportunities are, and we find a real willingness to work at this. You don't have any difficulties with them rebelling against an employer once they get out. We haven't to date. Although this is one of the factors that we have to work on because from the street a lot of these young fellows have learned only one way to react to authority. They're learning a more functional kind of behavior. Now, do any of them events any interest to go on beyond your training? Oh yes, we've had a number go back to school. All of them show an interest in going back to school. They found that going to school is fun. One group, a third of the youngsters are staying an extra hour, a seventh hour every day to take extra work. There's a real interest in more schooling.

Can we use this anywhere else in the country? If there's enough staff and if somebody puts up the money, this can't work anywhere. Thank you very much, Mr. Cole. Mr. Cole's program deals with young men and women who have dropped out of school. One of the larger problems is that of automation. Hans J. Morgan-Thaw of the University of Chicago puts it this way. Technological innovations have affected the structure of our economic system in three different respects. First, automation is replacing human labor with machines. Second, machines are making unskilled labor permanently unemployable. And our assigned to skill labor, an ever more limited scope, and third, machines are increasing productivity far beyond the ability of a market economy to consume. In other words, this country's expanding production is employing fewer and fewer people. We asked Walter Rooster, president of the United Out of Workers, how automation has affected his industry.

Well, in the last ten years, we've lost approximately 200,000 jobs in the automotive industry. I think a good example of the impact of automation and the tremendous increase in productivity because of automation is if you compare 1947 with 1962, in 1962 with 67,000 fewer workers in the basic automotive industry, we turned out 3,395,000 more vehicles. Now, employment in companies like the General Motors Corporation has been relatively stable, but their stability was paid for by the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs in the parts industry and stood a baker, impacted, and Hudson, these companies that went out of business. Do you see countering forces working now or coming up shortly that might change or less in the seriousness of this situation? I do not. Less, less, there is a conscious effort made by government and labor and management in cooperation to begin to create positive, dynamic forces to offset the negative forces that

are displacing workers. I think we're in very serious trouble. We asked Mr. Rooster how America compared with Western Europe and coping with the unemployed. Well, they have done much better than we have. Now, they are wrestling with the same basic technological problems that we have. Automation is not something that just limited to the United States, but they have done better, I think, because on the overall they have had a greater sense of social responsibility, and they have understood that when you're dealing with the complex problems of this technological revolution, which we are in the midst of, you cannot rely exclusively upon the blind forces of the marketplace and the necessity society must plan some of its work, and they have understood that you can have public planning for people compatible with private planning for profit, and we haven't learned that at all yet.

The auto industry is not the only industry affected by increasing technological changes. Steel is another. We have brought together two ranking representatives of labor and management in the steel industry. On my left, Mr. Joseph S. Germano, District Director, United Steel Workers of America, District 31, and a member of the Executive Board of the United Steel Workers of America. On my right, Mr. Frank H. Kassel, Assistant to the Vice President of Administration, Inland Steel Company. Gentlemen, we know that we have a high level of unemployment. We know that it may become worse, and we know that we have training programs. Some training programs going on all over the country. Mr. Germano, are the jobs emerging fast enough from these training programs? No, they are not. There isn't jobs sufficient for the people that we're expecting to train. This training program, certainly the United Steel Workers of America, is very concerned about this training program. We feel that training in itself is not going to solve this

unemployment problem. What do you think should be done? I think that the federal government should embark on one of the largest housing development programs that they've ever developed so that we can have people living homes now that are not fit to live, living good homes. In that manner, you'll create jobs, necessary jobs, and then we can go into our training program and put these people where they're best fit and fly. Harry, I look at it in a different way, not in complete disagreement with Joe, but it seems to me that the most important thing is to create a rate of economic growth that will absorb the unemployed. Last year, we created a million new jobs and still ended up with a 5.5 percent unemployment rate. This suggests to me that we need a faster rate of growth in our gross national product. It suggests to me that we need a climate in which investment is encouraged. It suggests

to me the need for expanding our world trade as a matter of fact in the state of Illinois alone. We have some 250,000 jobs, dependent on foreign trade, and an increase in trade would an increase jobs. Furthermore, it seems to me that it is not just the national government that's responsible for solving this problem, but every state, every state and every local community must take actions both at the training level and at the level of developing their economic potential in order to increase jobs through better expanding business. Frank, you talk about increasing growth and economic growth. After all, we've got to think about people. We've got to think about people. You're talking, we're seeing a little bit in Chicago now. We're talking about hungry marches in the year of 1964 where there's supposed to be all these jobs developing. We have hungry marches all on call for. Now, these people in this country of ours are entitled to a decent home to live in. No one disagrees with you. It is the federal government's

responsibility. You just can't turn your back to these things. If the federal government responsibility, it's a union responsibility, management, labor's responsibility for all of these things, and we just cannot put our head in the sand like an ostrich and say, this is not our responsibility. It is. I know. I'm sure you agree with me. Nobody's suggesting that you have. We have five million unemployed now. All right. If they unemployed, increase in the same proportion in the next ten years, the last ten years, the population increase. Why are we going to? Why are we headed for them? Joe, I think if that were to happen, it would be tragic. On an earlier, in an earlier time, Willard Ward's spoke about the unemployment in Western Europe being about 2%. The fact is that the economic growth rate of Europe is consistently. Over the last seven years it's grown much faster than ours, and it seems to me that we can learn a lesson from that, that the economic growth rate has a very, very much to do with absorbing the

unemployment. We're in a slightly esoteric area of finance now. I'd like to know, Mr. Germano, what do you think? How much do you think union and management can work together on this? Well, I think to think and work together very much, Harry. I know that would you do. Well, I'm in the first place now in the last negotiation with the Gosea extension of our vacation program. Maybe in the year 1965, we'll think about some more ways that the union can go ahead and bring more jobs into the industry. You haven't figured the package out yet. Well, I mean, we can do that. Now, you see, but the farest figure in a package out, Frank, I think it'll work itself out. But what the union and management have to do something about, I don't think that people in this country of ours are serious about this thing as they should be. Many people are. I think they would disagree with Joe that the people aren't serious about. I think the people are very serious about it, and furthermore, I think American industry is very serious about this problem of unemployment and is concerned about it. I think the difference is, is that American industry thinks that

the economic growth rate will have a great deal to do with it. And I can cite the Chicago Commerce and Industry Association, has developed its full employment committee, developing full-time working and getting jobs for people. Well, let me say this. Again, let me point out that when you pick up a paper here, here is an industry, you know, a industry, a steel industry, which I am very much concerned about. There's one captain of one company who makes one statement, and then this very same day, a head of another company, makes just the opposite statement. And so you pick up a paper in the morning, and that's what one statement says. You have to know, the paper says, another head of industry, disagrees all together. So somewhere along the line, somewhere along the line, we've all got to get together. Whether it's in this, yes, yes, there's no question about it, we're going to be forced to do it. Whereas good American citizens, we're going to be forced to do it. We're going to have to forget to understand that we're head to labor unions, we're going

to have to forget that we're heads of industry, we've got to forget that we're politicians, we've got to get together, and we've got to work together to solve this problem. Well, I certainly agree with the need for everybody getting together, and as a matter of fact, it's been demonstrated in a lot of ways. As a matter of fact, you know, Joe, I've had on the full employment committee of the state, members of your union and other unions working with managers to provide concrete proposals for the development of industry and the finding of jobs in the state. But again, every time we get back to the basic, you say, we can't train unless we know what jobs we've got. Therefore, our problem is to create the jobs so that we know what to train for. And I say we've got to increase our growth rate and create the jobs, and then we will know what to train for. We're not going to create jobs by having automated industries every day more and more, and then not think about what we're going to do about these people. Yes, I'm going to let me interrupt for one thing. One of the most cheering things that could possibly happen is that we could generate this much interest in just a few minutes about the problems of unemployment. And I certainly hope you carry this emotion away

with you, both of you, so that you can get together in the very near future. This is Mr. Albert Reese, the Department of Economics of the University of Chicago. Mr. Reese, as an economist, how do you assess the unemployment problem today? Well, I'm very optimistic about the short run outlook. I think for the next year, we're going to get a tremendous amount of help from the tax reduction bill, which has just been enacted. It's going to increase demand. It's going to mean that when people complete education and training programs, there are going to be jobs waiting for them. I would be quite a bit more pessimistic about the longer term outlook. I don't think we can expect the beneficial results of the tax cut to last indefinitely. One of the possibilities is that by increasing demand, we will create some danger of inflation, rising prices, and that if this begins to happen, the monetary authorities will tighten up on the money supply,

and the effect of this on demand would be to reduce it and to reduce employment opportunities. Well, that's not a very bright picture for the long range. What would you suggest that we do to brighten it up, son? Well, I have two suggestions. The first would be that to me, it is more important to get people back to work than to avoid any increase at all in the price level. I think we should be perhaps more willing than we've been in the past to tolerate certain amount of price increase in order to keep the economy moving along. The second major force that has been restraining us from keeping full demand is the balance of payment situation, and I think that it will very likely be necessary in the longer run to make some change in our rather rigid international monetary arrangements in order to get flexibility at home. Don't you think that will have some

damage, however, to our position in the world market? Well, I don't think it will do anything adverse to our foreign trade position. It will, however, require some changes in our international financial position. We could no longer be the world's reserve currency. I don't know that it's beneficial for us to be, but we might be better off if instead we had an international reserve currency. Thank you, Mr. Reese. The administration's measures to combat poverty will no doubt help the struggle with unemployment, so will the tax cut. While better education, vocational retraining and welfare programs are of help, the long-term picture is still not encouraging. Our economy is not creating enough new jobs, and as the babies of World War II continue to enter the labor market, the job situation becomes even tighter. Government in cooperation with business and labor groups must pour enough new money into the economy

to create jobs. Walter Heller, the president's top economic advisor, says that the cost of creating a single new job is between $12,000 and $18,000. Whether this money comes from government or from the private sector is not a crucial factor. What is crucial is that it come. This year, one and one half million new jobs must be created just to maintain present levels. To accomplish just this minimal goal will require great effort, bringing the unemployment level down will require even more, a total commitment of all of our resources, notably our wealth and our imagination. Here was Harry Homewood, editorial writer for the Chicago Sun Times. This is NET, National Educational Television.