Evening star., 1942-03-27
Lure Of i. ). Jobs
Dep|etes Staffs
In Business Here
Private Industy's Loss
OF Workers Luid
To Glamour Theory
BY MIRIAM GUTENBERG.

The glamour of Government
jobs is robbing Washington pri-
vate industries of the help they
need to serve war workers, Director
Edwin w. Jones of the District En-
ployment Center declared today.
Not only are women deserting no.
tells. restaurants and department
stores to take Government jobs, he
said. but also the wives of men
brought here for Federal work are
turning down jobs that aren't in
the Government even if they have
no training for Government jobs.
Mr.. Jones attributes it to a sup
posed glamour" that turks in Gov
ernment jobs. The wages paid by
private industry are not far below
what the Government pays for un-
trained workers, as they once were,
he contended.
Wait for L. S. Job.
Women would rather wait as
much as five months on the chance
of a Government job or take none
at all rather than go to work for
the private industries which feed
and house war workers, he de-
clared.
The shortage of restaurant help
which has existed for some four
years, he said, has been aggravated
by the war. Men working in res
taurants are being drafted, and the
restaurant proprietors can't find the
women to replace them.
AS their husbands come to Wash
ington to take jobs at the Navy
Yard. for instance. wives are regis
tering with the District Employment
Center by the hundreds. Women
from the South who worked in tex
tile mills want Government Jobs,
not the jobs where they could con-
tribute to the war effort by going to
work for the service industries.
And many have no qualifications
for Government jobs.
Though the employment center
had hundreds of names on file it
couldn't provide the department
stores with enough workers for them
to open at the usual time on Thurs
days when they decided to remain
open on Thursday night.
Built Up Backlog"
People who have been coming. to
Washington for years on rumors
that the Government was hiring,
when no one else was. went to work
in laundries, restaurants and other
service industries because they
couldn't get Federal places, said Mr.
Jones. Now they're moving into the
Government, leaving holes that en-
ployers are having a hard time
filling.
If women would only realize that
almost every type of job has some
bearing on the war effort. we might
be able to fill those jobs" said Mr..
Jones. But we can't persuade
them"
Selective service officials are ad-
vising employers to find replace
ments for the men some employers
want deferred for occupational
reasons. Employers respond that
they can't find the women for the
jobs.
Skilled Men Sought.
Since Washington is not a manu-
featuring city. the need for skilled
machiniSts here is not as great as
it is in Baltimore or Philadelphia
Mr.. Jones said, but he is looking
for skilled men in the metal trades
machinists, sheet metal workers and
pipe filters among others-to send
out of town to production centers
where the war effort is hampered
by shortages.
The banks, which had made a
practice of taking on promising
young men, we're hard hit by the
draft, but they have successfully
switched to women. And the women
will take those jobs.
But, says Mr.. Jones, ask them to
60 into a hotel, a restaurant or a
department store and the answer is
no To the people back home, work.
ing for Uncle Sam, they think
eoIlpHs more claYnorol1s