Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-09-21
BUILDING JOBS DROP
is PCT. IN AUGUST
Labor Bureau Report From
4,199 Firms Shows De.
crease Over July.

Building trade employment was re-
ported today by the Labor Department
Bureau Of Statistics to have dropped
I.6 per cent during August, as COM
pared with activities during July,
The bureaus statement was based on
reports from 4,l99 identical Arms in a
cities during July and August, showing
56,187 employees on the pay roll during
the week nearest July Is and 55,3o6
for the similar period during August
The District of Columbia's extern
sive Government building program gave
this city top position, with 440 firms
having 10, $40 employees in July and 10,
. 713 in August.
The only other cities showing in
crease in employment of building trades
men we're Birmingham. Hartford. Salt
Lake City, Minneapolis, New Orleans,
Memphis. Portland, Me-: Wheeling,
w, Va, and Wilmington, Del.
q. S. Spending Billion.
simultaneously with the announce
nent of the building trades activities
by the Labor Departments bureau, the
White House. in a statement, said Fed
eral expenditures in aid to unemploy-
ment since the depression began are
expected to total more than $500 900,
600 by the end Of June. 1882.
Using tabulations Of the Commerce
Departments public construction di-
vision, the White House placed drought
and unemployment relief OUTLAWS at
452,30l 900 in 1880, and s7s7,587, 900
in 1891.
Estimating expenditures at &37S, $685.
900 for the first half Of 1884, the state
ment said this rate, III continued over
the whole year. would mean . contin-
for the calendar year"
Expenditures Classified.
Prospective expenditures for the first
half of 1882 were divided as follows:
Public buildings and lands, $l26.e60,-
600; construction other than buildings
and construction work by the En-
gineer Corps, sos, 737, 600; work under
the direction of the Engineer Corps,
S40,000,000; repairs and maintenance,
$3T, 1888 900; roads, $73,5o3, 900.
Meantime, the Labor Department re-
leased a report on the survey made by
John j. Leary, jr., of the employment
exchange systems in Europe, which he
made for Secretary Doak in England,
ireland, France, Germany, Austria,
Italy. Switzerland and Belgium.
Leary, veteran newspaper CORE
spondent on labor affairs and for many
years on the stan OF the old New York
World, declared that any employment
system to be successful must be based
on recognition of the fact that unem-
ployInent is not local matter and can
best be limited by making labor as mo-
bile as possible.
Problem Is National.
''This being So he asserted, at nat
urally follows, as experience abroad has
shown, that any employment system
must be operated on national or Fed
ersl basis"
Included among Leary's recommends
tons we're the placement Of at least 80
per cent Of persons employed on public
works designed to relieve unemployment
through the national public employment
exchange system and strict neutrality in
all labor disputes.
He further recommended that II
placing the unemployed the test, In 81
far as possible, be ability to work anc
not age, thereby wiping out In a meas.
ure at least "the deadline at. 40"
The report also stressed the need O
protecting the unemployed against ex'
ploitation by various agencies. The
Strictest observance Of minimum wage
laws and Of cooperation at all time:
with employer and enploye groups.
At the same time, the Commerce De-
partment, In the current issue Of Com
merce Reports, said it was generally
anticipated that European unemploy-
ment this Winter would surpass that OF
last Winter.