Evening star., 1936-07-30
SKILLED WORKERS
HESITATE AT CALL
into INDUSTRIES
Questions of PermanenCe of
Work and Wages Are
Barrier in Problem.
RISING EMPLOYMENT
CREATES SHORTAGES
Need of Apprenticeship Training
Held Acute as Craftsmen Keep
"Adjustment" Jobs
RY JOHN C.. HENRY.

wages and uncertainty about per-
manence of employment.
It Is a condition that has developed
during recent months of business stim-
ulation, but one that does not by any
means indicate capacity operation in
the industries involved nor the en-
ployment of all craftsmen available
in certain lines. 1t does. however,
reflect increasing employment and in
dicates a need for establishment of a
permanent and adequate system of
apprenticeship training, maintenance
of high standards of wages and work.
ing conditions for skilled labor.
First industry to notice the lack Of
skilled workmen at its immediate call
was the construction industry as home
and business building moved into high
speed during the past spring.
Others Feel Effects.
Claiming to feel the same pinch at
the present time are the machine
industries, among them the makers
Of machine tools, electrical machinery
and agricultural machinery. This
need. real or alleged, may be analyzed
in general terms although no compila-
tion is available to show that so many
skilled jobs are available as compared
with so many skilled workmen to fill
them.
In making their claim, spokesmen
for the machine industry point first
to the fact that employment in all
their groups in the month of June
had reached the 100 figure where 100
represents an index based on employ
ment in 1925. One year ago last
June that index figure was only 66.9
while last December it was 807.
Lest this 100 level be considered a
saturation point. however, it should
be remembered that machine employ
mert in 1929 was at 126 on the same
basis. In numbers of employees, the
100 normal represents about $4,000
craftsmen, the 1875 Of 1929 represented
nearly 100000. -...
Apprenticeship Virtually Halts.
With the apprenticeship system at
an almost complete standstill during
the depression while industry hesitated
to spend money training new workers
and labor paSsively resisted any in
crease in the number of skilled work.
men in fields where there already was
unemployment, it is a fact that few
requirements were brought up to sup
plant those workers who have died,
permanently retired or moved to other
occupations during the years.
That there is still some excess of
supply over demand is indicated, how
ever, in trade union figures which
show only 88 per cent of metal trades
membership employed last June. OF
this number, % per cent were on part
time while the remaining IL per cent
were without employment within their
trades.
Although union officials decline to
reveal what percentage of the machine
industries are represented IN their
membership, they do advance the
opinion that the 88 per cent of en-
ployment is fair reflection for all
craftsmen in the industry.
Many factors contribute to any ex-
PLANTATION of the alleged shortage, and
even labor spokesmen will admit that
industry may be in need of artisans in
certain localities.
Enter Other Fields.
First, probably, is the fact that
many skilled workmen found them
selves other employment during the
years when their trades were at
standstill. OF higher type and usu-
ally better educated than the so-called
unskilled, they were better able to
adapt themselves to conditions and to
launch some new endeavor as a means
OF earning livelihood
Now. hearing call to their old
crafts, they hesitate to throw over the
new foundations laid in the past six
years. How much, they ask, will you
pay, and for how long can you guar
antee employment?
Industry, also hesitant after years
Of misfortune, sets the wages at the
lowest level it thinks reasonable and
makes few promises about length of
employment.
The result is that the two stand
apart.
Entering into the picture also Is
the old issue of unionism as labor
officials charge discrimination against
union applicants for jobs and point
out that industry might find itself
craftsmen if it applied to union Offices.
Committee Works on Problem.
Above all the contention remains
the fact that a skilled workman rep
resents many years of training, techni-
cal education, experience and en-
couragement and without some long
term policy of developing this supply
there Is always the likelihood of
periodic shortages in certain localities
If not throughout the country.
And it is to meet this condition
that the Federal Committee on Ap-
prentice Training was established
about one year ago and is now func-
tioning actively in 38 States. Com
posed of representatives of the Labor,
Interior and Commerce Departments
as well as some of the relief agencies,
the committee also contains repre-
sentation from organized labor and
Industry.
Stalking its success on the indenture
system by which individual ap-
sprentices are on a contract basis with
their employers, the program of the
committee has been to place young
men in crafts where a need seems to
exist and to set up for them a pro-
gram of technical training and gen.
leral education. With both industry
and labor active in equal degree in the
program, the training efforts have
been directed at industries where
r,~no%nrf ,,aad n anf,yc l1xy avietr