Enacted appropriation.. Summary of changes Fr posed for later transmission: For increased pay costs under Public Law 85-462 For new program legislation: Federal administration of ExServicemen's Unemployment Compensation Act of 1958 authorized by Public Law 85 848__ Total estimated funds available in 1959 Emate for 1960.. Total change.. Yandatory items: Increase in postal rates (Public Law 85-426) For 75 position authorized by the 2d sess., 85th Cong. for For 10 new positions to finance Federal administration of ExServicemen's Unemployment Compensation Act of 1958 authorized by Public Law 85 848 Extra day of pay (261 days in 1959 and 262 days in 1960) ---- Vaditional personal services cost in 1959 due to within-grade Net change.. $6,519,000 577,000 53, 500 7.149, 500 7, 262, 000 +112.500 9,000 62,000 20,500 21.000 61,344 -61,344 +112.500 TEMENT OF ROBERT C. GOODWIN, DIRECTOR, BUREAU OF EMPLOYMENT SE URU Y ON THE 1960 APPROPRIATION REQUEST FOR SALARIES AND EXPENSES Mr Clairman, the 1960 request for salaries and expenses of the Bureau des for the same number of positions as is now available to the Bureau in However, we are requesting an increase of $112,500 for several items Starp crisis Will be greater in 1960. The Congress authorized new positions for the Bureau in the regular appro iston bail which was approved August 1, 1958, and in a supplemental kuttomastion approved August 27, 1958. Since these positions were not availtom for all of 1950, more money will be required in 1960. Therefore, $62,000 (the $112700 increase requested for 1560 is to enable us to finance these ties for a full year. As the committee knows, the legislation authorizing the new program of unment insurance for ex-servicement was approved August 28, 1958. The zes adjourned without making an appropriation for Bureau expenses for **rvising and administering the program. In addition to the six positions are being transferred from work on the unemployment compensation * veterans program it has been necessary to establish 10 new positions in GA supplemental appropriation request for $53,500 to finance these new s for this year has been approved by the House and has been favorably ed out by the Senate Committee on Appropriations. However, we will ted $74000 for these positions for 1960. Also included in the increase of £27-700 is $20,500 to annualize the cost of the 10 new positions for the unemPrent compensation for ex-servicemen's program. We will also need $9,000 ** for postage because pestal rates have been increased, and $21,000 more salaries because there is one more day of work in 1990. The workload of the Bureau continues to be extremely heavy. Although the atter of the tasks being done is shifting somewhat The experience with hat unemployment in the last year has stirred up tremendous interest in ployment insurance. We have received a very large number of inquiries the the State agencies with regard to legislative proposals, We are also .Eg an unusually large number of requests for data on unemployment rance from outside groups such as universities, employer groups, and labor The number of congressional inquiries has increased. The unprecedented claims load experienced during 1958 and the continuation of a relatively high level of unemployment during this fiscal year has placed unusual stress on reserve funds established to pay benefit costs. The total reserves of all States for benefit payments was $8.7 billion at the beginning of calendar year 1958. By the end of the year the balance had dropped to $6.9 billion. The trust fund reserves of most States are actuarially sound. In a few a major adjustment of tax rates and income will be needed. However, most States are interested in reviewing the actuarial soundness of their system. To achieve actuarial soundness in benefit reserves is by its nature a long-term project, and we will have to intensify our work with the States for a number of years on this problem. As a result of the enactment of the Temporary Unemployment Compensation Act of 1958, a great deal of information is available about the people who use all of their regular unemployment insurance benefits and continue to be unemployed. Both the Bureau and the State agencies are making studies to determine such things as the characteristics of these workers, their occupations, the industries in which they work and the extent of their participation in the labor force. We are also doing further research on the adequacy of the weekly benefit amount paid under the State unemployment insurance laws to defray nondeferrable expenses of the claimant. A new research method is currently being developed which will enable larger claimant groups to be studied without increasing the cost of the analysis. As I indicated earlier, in the past year there has been some shortcutting of the basic claimant interviewing procedures which are necessary to protect the system against abuse. Both Bureau and State technical and operating staff are working to get these safeguards restored. We have also planned operational analyses to improve and make more efficient the mass handling of benefit forms through the use of electronic data processing equipment. This kind of equipment offers opportunities for rapid handling of benefit payments and wage records, but its adoption must be carefully studied to insure that the advantages received offset the increased cost of the equipment. Another important area of work is the perfecting of the administration of the new ex-servicemen's unemployment compensation program. There are many complications in this program that were not present in the unemployment compensation for veterans program. These arise from the relating of earnings in the Armed Forces to the provisions of the State unemployment insurance laws. We are working with the State agencies and the Defense Department to resolve the problems which have arisen. Keeping abreast of the rapidly moving technological developments as they affect job requirements is a major problem affecting the placement of workers. The placement of workers in available jobs can be facilitated if good information is available on job content and work requirements. Steps have been taken to develop accurate and current information about the more than 30,000 jobs in the economy. This year, we arranged with four State agencies to set up an occupational research center in an important industrial area in each State. Also, we have established such a center here in the District of Columbia. These centers will be devoted entirely to a nationally coordinated program for bringing our occupational data up to date so that it will be more useful to all the State agencies, to Government and private agencies, and to industry. We are continuing to give emphasis to improving the internal operations of local offices with respect to older workers. By last August there were 87 full-time specialists and 225 part-time specialists in services to older workers in the larger local offices. At the same time a total of 5,000 local office personnel, from receptionists to managers, have received training inservice to older workers that the Bureau had previously introduced into each State. The State agencies are still giving this training to their remaining staff. The Bureau is continuing to work closely with the State agencies to improve placement techniques and to help offset the problems posed for older workers by reduced hiring activity. During the first 5 months that we had separate reporting, the July-November 1957 period, the placement of workers over 45 constituted 18.7 percent of all nonagricultural placements made. During the same 5 months in 1958, which covered part of the recession, 19.1 percent of all placements made were in the over-45 group. At this time we are receiving about 145,000 new applications for work every month from workers over 45 and we are making almost 100,000 placements a month for the same group. During the next year the Employment Service will continue to emphasize the placement of handicapped job seekers. Because the more severely disabled require greater effort and the use of special methods of counseling and placement, we are cooperating closely with State rehabilitation agencies to better serve the relatively small numbers of the severely disabled who have particularly difficult employment problems. One of the major problems facing us is the unemployment and underemployment of farmworkers. Because of the economic and technological changes in agricultural production and marketing, many tenant farmers, sharecroppers, and small individual farmers cannot subsist without some kind of outside employment. As farms have become larger and more mechanized and the need for short-term intermittent labor during the planting and harvesting seasons has increased, there have been created a type of farm wage earner who depends on finding a series of successive short term jobs. Many of these workers are not successful in making such arrangements locallly and must migrate to other areas seeking farm work or migrate to cities seeking industrial employment. A large number of these workers are unskilled in industrial employment and add to the already existing unemployment in the large cities. Many of these people take their families with them when they seek farmwork in other areas. It is very difficult and often impossible to obtain necessary health and medical care since many of the areas to which they migrate are not properly equipped. Also, education for their school-age children is not available in many areas. Even where facilities are available, many States have residence requirements which bar migrants from education and other forms of assistance. I wish to call to the attention of the committee the increasing public interest in the situation confronting these migratory workers. There has been widespread editorial comment, numerous documentary stories in newspapers and magazines, and an increasing number of States have established migratory committees to study the problem of migrants and to make recommended reforms. Also, an Advisory Committee headed by former Senator Frank Graham and including many distinguished citizens held public hearings in Washington last February on problems of people engaged in migrant farmwork. This committee has announced plans to continue its work of presenting factual information which will maintain public interest and make easier the work of social action committees and organizations which are equipped to take appropriate action. We are involved in this problem since we are attempting to develop work opportunities for these migrants as well as to meet local seasonal farm labor requirements. We are currently working on some of these problems such as housing, wages, and transportation. We have organized day haul programs which are designed to provide employment within commuting areas for some of the people who have been displaced, and who have moved into small communities and are available for part-time work. Day haul programs for these workers have been very effective in solving some of the intermittent seasonal labor requirements of large farmers. Also in the past several years we have been increasingly succesful in assisting migrants to find a series of jobs in difficult communities as workers are needed to plan and harvest crops. Through our annual worker plan migratory workers have been scheduled to a series of jobs before they leave their homes. One area which we are giving increased emphasis this year and next is the recruitment of high school and college youth for summer employment in agricultural work and food processing. For example, one of our more successful programs has been the recruitment of college youth from small communities in the south for summer work in Wisconsin and Illinois in field and plant jobs. We have been advised by two of the major food processors in the country that they will expand their employment of college youth this coming year. This type of employment program for high school and college youth sometimes means the difference between uninterrupted schooling and having to drop out of school because of insufficient funds. At the same time the program gives farmers a much neeaded labor supply. In Minnesota and Oregon, college youth have become the backbone of the seasonal labor force for some of the major food processing operations. The Veterans Employment Service is continuing to improve services furnished veterans through the local employment offices. As you know Mr. Omohundro and his staff have been concentrating on improving the competence of both Bureau and State agency employees dealing with the employment problems of veterans. Mr. Omohundro is here today, and I am sure the committee will be interested in hearing from him about some of the things the Veterans Employment Service is doing and plans to do next year. GENERAL STATEMENT Mr. GOODWIN. We actually have five different appropriations to present to the committee at this time. The first one is the one on "Salaries and expenses" for the bureau. The request this year provides for the same number of positions as we have for 1959. We are not asking for an increase in the number of positions. We are, however, asking for an increase of $112,500 for several items where the corresponding costs will be greater in 1960 than they were in 1959. I would like to identify those, Mr. Chairman. Senator HILL. In other words you are not asking for any additional personnel at all? Mr. GOODWIN. That is right, sir. Senator HILL. But you have several items where you have an increase? Mr. GOODWIN. Yes. Senator HILL. Give us those items and the reason for the increase. Mr. GOODWIN. Of the $112,500, $82,500 represents funds that are needed to carry for the full year in 1960 the new positions that the Congress approved during 1959. We also need $9,000 for postage because of the increase in postal rates and $21,000 more for salaries because of the item you were just discussing, the additional day of pay in 1960. Our experience with the high rate of unemployment during the last year has spotlighted the strong points of the employment security program and at the same time it has developed some areas of weakness that we think need corrective action. Our program for 1960 does not contemplate any expansion in total activity, but it does involve some shift in activity. UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE In the field of unemployment insurance, for instance, we are going to do more work to assure that the system is actuarially sound. What happened last year with the heavy drain put on the system has raised questions in a number of States about the actuarial soundness of their systems. We expect to do more work in cooperation with the States on that problem. The larger States are getting more and more into the use of electronic equipment for keeping records and we expect to put more emphasis on working with the States on that. We have a rather large job in administering the ex-servicemen's compensation program, which just started last October. So we will need to put a good deal more emphasis on that. EMPLOYMENT SERVICE In the field of employment service we are going to have to move quickly to keep abreast of some of the rapid technological changes that are taking place in the labor market as they affect job requirements. We are going, of course, to continue to emphasize the placement services, especially those for older workers and handicapped groups. That is a summary touching the high spots of the salaries and expenses appropriation request. As I indicated at the start, it does not involve any additional personnel. Senator HILL. I was interested in what you said about the old people. You and I know that is becoming more of a problem all the time. Mr. GOODWIN. Yes, sir. Senator HILL. What are you thinking there in terms of doing more to help them get located, to lead more useful lives, get jobs? Mr. GOODWIN. We have had a program underway now for several years, Mr. Chairman. It started with some research we did, to learn more about the problem and the attitudes that were prevalent on the part of the employers about this problem. OPERATING PROGRAM IN EFFECT We have had an operating program with the States in effect now for about 2 years. What we are trying to do is to build up some specialized personnel in State agencies to deal with the problem and secondly, to train the interviewing and counseling personnel in the local offices in effective methods of handling the problem. A good part of this, a very important part of the program, as far as the local offices are concerned, is teaching them techniques for selling employers. There are a number of myths as far as employers are concerned about the relative abilities of older workers; just as there were in the handicapped area when we got into that. So we are trying to give the local offices the basic information by which they can sell employers on the fact that the older workers are as good, or better, than other workers so that we eliminate discrimination. There are some misunderstandings widely held on insurance costs. for instance. A great many employers believe that it will cost them more on their retirement insurance if they hire older workers. That is not necessarily so. We work and we have worked with some of the insurance companies and developed information which is being made available to the local offices to deal with this problem. PLACING OLDER WORKERS Now, there is one fact that stands out clearly. That is, if you do an adequate job in placing older workers in a local employment office it takes more time. It takes more time to develop job opportunities and it takes more time to work out the problem with the older worker. Frequently that is because it is necessary for the older worker to make a shift in his occupation. He has been following one line of work for 20 years and he is laid off and for one reason or another he cannot get back; he has to shift to another occupation and that is not done easily, it takes time. |