Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1954-02-05
Unemployment.
To. Get Worse,
u. 5. Aide Says
2.6 Million JobIess
Expected This Year,
Capitol Hill Unit Told
By james Y. Newton

Unemployment in the months
Immediately ahead is expected to
increase considerably over the
present level. Government off,
cial told Congress today.
Robert c. Goodwin, director
OF the Federal Bureau Of EN-
ployment Security, told the
Senate-House Economic Com
mittee that unemployment over
the country in the first six,
months of this year was expected
to average about 2.6 million.
The latest Government figures,
based on survey made early in
January. put the number of job
les sat 100000.
Mr.. Goodwin, in charge of the
bureau which administers the
Nationwide unemployment in
surance system. added, however.
that he was cautiously opti-
mistic" that the recent sharp in.
crease in the rate of unemploy-
ment may be. checked by mid
March as the usual seasonal
pickup of employment begins"
May Shift in July.
The figures presented by Mr..
Goodwin indicated that the &C
tual increase in jobless persons
may be checked about the mid
ole OF this year. He said that
unemployment in the year be-
ginning next July / was expected
to average about 2 million.
Indicating the sharp increase
IN the number of jobless in the
last couple of months, Mr.. Good.
win said unemployment aver
aged IA million in the last six
months of 1858. This compares
with the 20 million estimated
average figure for the first half
of this year.
Mr.. Goodwin was one of three
witnesses today as the Economic
Committee began a close study
OF employment trends and the
Governments methods of esti-
mating both employment and
unemployment. The other two
were A. Ross Ecker, deputy d.
rector of the Census Bureau. and
Evan Clague, head of the Bu-
reau Of Labor Statistics.
Factory Hours Decline.
Mr.. Clague released figures
showing that factory employ
ment hours in January showed
a continuance of a downtrend
which started last fall.
He said the number of en-
ployes in manufacturing dropped
by $50, 900 in December. The de-
cline was described as "appreci-
ably larger than usual for this
time of year." and the largest
reduction for the season since
January, 1949.
Mr.. Ecker. whose bureau
gathers the statistics on employ
ment and unemployment, de-
Tended the bureaus method of
arriving at such data.
The SharpeSt critic of Census
Bureau figures was Senator
Douglas. Democrat, of Illinois.
He pointed out that Government
figures for unemployment do
not include persons temporarily
laid off or employees who work
only a few hours weekly.
Sees Larger Total.
If those two groups were
translated into the estimates of
unemployment. Senator Douglas
said that the figures would show
that actually 3.5 million persons
were without jobs in January as
compared to the Census esti-
mate of 2,360,000.
Senator Douglas said that in
October the number of unem-
ployed, those temporarily laid
off and the part-time workers
aggregated only 1.8 million.
Senator Douglas pointed out
that the Census Bureau includes
among the persons now employed
those who may be laid off as
much as 80 days. He criticized
that method of figuring.
This whole thing brings back
a lot of history to me-" Senator
Douglas said. I'm 1880 the same
issue was being debated. At that
(See ECONOMIC, Page ABB