The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1925-06-16
UNEMPLOYMENT
BREAKS myth
OF PROSPERITY
Business SIumps; Jobs
Are ScGrcer
BY LELAND oLDS,
(RY The Federated Pressl

The downward course of employ
ment in Illinois continues, according
to the report of the state department
of labor for May. It has fallen I per
cent in each of the last three months
to level z per cent below May, 1924,
and IA per cent below May, 1928. One
sixth of all Illinois factory workers
who had jobs in 1928 are out Of work
today.
Mining has continued to grow worse
with more mines closed than year
ago.
Clothing Trades Discharge Men.
Declining employment, says the re-
port, was particularly severe in some
metal industries. Steel mills laid of
$50 per cent of their workers, tools
and cutlery manufacturers per cent,
and agricultural implements 2.5 per
cent. Furniture and musical instru-
ment factories, which usually main
tain high employment thru May, laid
Off 81 per cent and AS per cent Of
their workers. In mems clothing en-
ployment fell II per cent, women's
clothing factories laid off 11.4 per
cent and millinery concerns 20 per
cent. For the entire clothing group
the drop was 12.4 per cent. Employ
ment gains were reported from the
automobile, food and building mate
rial industries.
Placements of men thru the free
employment offices were IL per cent
less than in May, 1924, and less than
half the number in 1928. There were
las applicants for each 100 jobs. Hir-
ing of unskilled labor at the Canal
Street, Chicago, labor market was re-
ported the lightest in years.
Less Jobs In NJ. Y.
Factory employment in New York
state fell 1 per cent in May follow
ing decline Of 2 per cent in April.
Steel mills and railroad equipment
shops again led the decline while
clothing factories showed a heavy sea-
sonal drop. Commenting on the ad-
vanced depression the industrial COM
missioner says: s1ii'
Metals again determined the
course of factory employment. But
decreases in industries such as furni-
ture and pianos were equally import
ant in indicating the widespread ma
ture of the retraction of recent
months. Both these industries were
a little below May, 1924, when the de-
preston was already well advanced"
Steel Orders Fall Off.
Unified orders on the books of the
u. S. Steel corporation. fell S96,76S
tons in May tho operations had been
reduced to about 20 per cent Of cap
acity. This was a much larger re-
duction in orders than predicted. 1t
brings the orders on hand on May 81,
down to 4,049, 800 tons compared with
5,284,771 tons on Feb. 2S. In 1928,
the orders on hand averaged about
100000 tons and in 1920, 100000
tons. In 1918, when the capacity Of
the mills was much smaller the aver
age was 100000.
Agriculture Has Not Revived.
The purchasing power of farm prod
ucts has declined in the last two
months to a point about 10 per cent
below the average of the years 1903
to 1914, taken by the department Of
agriculture as normal. Farm wages
are also far behind industrial wages,
the advance compared with pre-war
being only SO per cent compared with
11S per cent in industry. According
to the Journal of Commerce "This is
part of the story of the unequal de-
gree in which agriculture and bust
ness have recovered from the postwar
slump. A more prosperous agricul-
ture would have been. a stronger bid
der for labor and farm wages would
accordingly have been higher"