Evening star., 1938-10-12
JOB-F|ND|NC WEEK
PROCLAIMED HERE
Business Men Are Urged to
Cooperate in Effort to
Provide Work.

Urging local employers to cooperate
with the District Of Columbia Employ
ment Center to find work for the citys
unemployed, the District Commits
sioners today proclaimed the week of
October 1922 Is Employment Week
in Washington.
The Center strives to fit job-hunters
into their proper occupational inches
and put employers in touch with the
persons best qualified to meet their
particular needs.
More than As 900 men and women,
representing practically every person
living in Washington who is seeking
job, are registered at the Center, ac-
cording to c. E. Lamson, director
Maintained by both the Federal and
. District governments, the Employment
Center provides its services free to
both employer and employe. Dividing
its activities into three branches, the
Center operates a commercial and pro-
fessional division at 808 E street NV.
Applicants seeking industrial or con-
struction trades are handled at the
Center's Offices at 928 Fifth street
NV. A third of11ce, at sos K street
NV, known as the service division,
receives applications from those who
wish hotel. restaurant, domestic and
personal service positions.
How Center Functions.
The mechanics of the Center's oper-
alton are simple. For example, John
Doe, an unemployed civil engineer, ap-
plies to the commercial and profess
sional division. Giving his name to
a secretary, he is registered and di-
rected to a trained interviewer who
obtains his personal background and
his work experience. This data is
placed on a card and filed in partic-
ular occupational classification. When
a construction company calls the Gen.
ter requesting it to supply them with
an engineer, a staff member goes
through the file and runs through the
various applicants cards. After the
three or four most suitable candidates,
which may include Doe, are selected
they are reintervieWed and sent to the
employer for a personal interview
Should Doe not be chosen for the job,
his card is returned to the file for an
other employers approval.
Aside from its function of occupa-
tional placement, the Employment
Center carries on extensive advisory
activities, counseling the applicants
with regard to their individual qualifi-
cations. If they are found to need
additional training, the Center may
direct them to the United States Vo-
cational Rehabilitation Service Ap-
plicants under 81 receive aptitude and
interest tests to advise them in de-
termining the work for which they are
best suited. Prospective clerks and
others who must use their fingers with
speed and accuracy are given finger
dexterity tests to determine their abil-
ity to use various types of accounting
and adding machines.
Aid for Handicapped.
Physically handicapped people who
might otherwise encounter difficulty
in obtaining employment are placed
by the Center in positions where their
physical disabilities are not vocational
handicaps.
Organized under the terms of the
Wagner-Peyser Act, the Employment
Center was established as part of the
United States Employment Service.
Placement records show monthly in
creases from 1898 until the present
time. During 1885 records show that
jobs were obtained for 1892 appli-
cants. In 1886 total of 1880 per-
sons received work through the En-
ployment Center and in 1897 the Cen
ter placed 25,973 applicants Records
for the first nine months of 1880 show
that 1902 applicants have been
.placed with Washington employers.