OPERATIONS OF PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT (FFICES, JULY, 1916, AND JULY, 1917-Concluded. UNITED STATES-Continued.

OPERATIONS OF PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT OFFICES, JULY, 1916, AND JULY, 1917-Concluded.

FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING OF AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT OFFICES.

The proceedings of the fourth annual meeting of the American Association of Public Employment Offices, held in Buffalo, July 20 and 21, 1916, have just appeared as Bulletin 220 of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. The purpose of this association is to study the administrative details of the employment business, and seek to improve methods and secure uniformity and cooperation among the employment offices of the country.

The association is composed of men actively engaged in managing or administering employment business. Through its efforts systems of records and methods of management have been improved and made more uniform, and in some cases the officers of the association have assisted in drafting public employment office laws.

Two important developments of the fourth annual meeting were (1) the adoption of two resolutions, one placing the association on record in favor of the establishment of a national employment bureau, and the other requesting the United States Commissioner of Labor Statistics to edit and publish as a bulletin the proceedings of the meeting; and (2) the selection of a committee on standardization, with the United States Commissioner of Labor Statistics as chairman, for the purpose of drawing up a system of uniform records and formulating standard definitions of terms and methods of work which can be used in all the offices throughout the country, to the end that there shall be uniformity in the figures and reports from all the States. It is the duty of this committee to select from all the systems and methods now in use the best and most efficient, and its report at the next annual meeting at Milwaukee on September 20 and 21, 1917, will be the most important matter on which the association will have to act.

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An address was made by Hon. Royal Meeker, United States Commissioner of Labor Statistics, on "What records should be kept by public employment offices and how they should be used." He emphasized the necessitiy of keeping such records as, when published, will give the public accurate and complete information as to the work done by the public employment offices throughout the country and the cost of conducting these offices. At present this is difficult, owing to lack of standardization of methods of keeping records. The desirability of uniform definitions, standards, and forms was strongly urged.

The Secretary of Labor, Hon. W. B. Wilson, in an address on a national system of employment offices, discussed the urgent need for public employment offices and showed the advantage which could be secured by a national employment bureau cooperating with State and municipal bureaus, and helping to coordinate the work between the different States and cities of the country.

Other addresses at the conference dwelt upon the importance of business efficiency in public employment offices; the desirability of cooperation among Federal, State, and city employment bureaus; the advantages to be gained by creating a national labor reserve board to organize all the employment offices in the country into one system of labor exchanges and put into effect the remedies that may be found for unemployment; the needs of the women's department of public employment offices and the special problems to be met therein; and the relation between labor organizations and public employment offices and how they may be mutually helpful. Vocational education and its bearing upon employment problems were given consideration in addresses covering such subjects as vocational education and juvenile placement departments, vocational guidance as a public school function, vocational guidance and the juvenile placement work of a public labor exchange, and cooperation between employers and the schools in vocational guidance.

WORK OF FREE LABOR EXCHANGES IN OHIO, 1915-16.

The work of the seven free labor exchanges of Ohio for the year ending June 30, 1916, is recorded in the report No. 27 of the department of statistics and information of the Ohio Industrial Commission, issued at Columbus under date of December 15, 1916. This report states that the fiscal year covered by the data presented has been one of unusual industrial activity, that the number employed by the industries of the State has been increased by many thousands, that wages, particularly for the unskilled and transient workers, have

advanced, and that unemployment, as a serious problem, has been reduced to a minimum.

The daily average number of persons seeking employment through the free labor exchanges during the year ending June 30, 1916, was 1,141, as compared with a daily average of 1,101 for the year ending June 30, 1915. Of the 1,141. applicants, approximately one-third (an average of 363) were new registrations. Employers requested through the free labor exchanges an average of 674 persons per day, as compared with a daily average of 248 applications for help for the year ending June 30, 1915. During the period covered by this report an average of 566 per day were referred to positions and 463 were placed at work, as compared with an average of 240 referred and 203 placed during the fiscal year 1914-15.

The total figures showing the work of the seven offices and the per cent of increase during 1915-1916 as compared with the figures for the preceding year are as follows:

WORK OF THE SEVEN FREE LABOR EXCHANGES IN OHIO FOR THE YEARS ENDING JUNE 30, 1915 AND 1916, SHOWING PER CENT OF INCREASE IN THE LATTER PERIOD.

In this connection attention is directed to the fact that there was a large increase during the year 1915-16 in the number requested by employers, but no corresponding increase in the number of applicants. The 141,253 reported placed is 40.6 per cent of the total number of applicants for work and 68.7 per cent of the number requested by employers, while in the preceding year only 18.6 per cent of the total number of applicants were placed, this number equaling 82.1 per cent of the number requested by employers.

Approximately 74 per cent of the applicants were males and 26 per cent were females, but of those reported placed, 66.2 per cent were males and 33.8 per cent were females. The report notes a slight increase as compared with the preceding year in the per cent of skilled workers and factory employees and a decrease in the per cent of laborers and day workers reported placed in positions. Thus in 1914-15, 15.1 per cent of the males reported placed were skilled workers and factory employees and 73.4 per cent were laborers and day workers, while during the year following the per cents were 16.8 and 69.6, respectively.

Among females the per cent of those placed in general housework decreased from 12.3 in 1914-15 to 7.7 in 1915-16, while the per cent of those placed as factory workers and in sewing trades decreased from 8.8 per cent to 6.4 in the same period. There was a slight increase in the number placed as hotel and restaurant workers and as day workers, including laundresses-from 66.7 to 70.4 per cent.

Beginning in March, 1916, a record of the better grade permanent placements was kept in each office, and during the four months ending June 30, 1916, a total of 681 males were reported as having been placed in positions paying 35 cents or more per hour, $18 or more per week, or $75 or more per month; and 175 females were reported as having been placed in positions paying 173 cents or more per hour, $9 or more per week, or $40 or more per month. Of the men the largest number, 284, or 41.7 per cent, were placed in building trades, and of the women, 56, or 32 per cent, were given employment as bookkeepers, stenographers, and office clerks. The salaries of the men so placed ranged up to $2,400 per year; those of the women up to $960

per year.

The following summary statement shows for the full year the number and per cent of the total placed in each occupation as taken from the regular daily reports:

Of the 93,537 males placed

51,385, or 54.9 per cent, were laborers.

12,517, or 13.4 per cent, were day workers (men employed on-odd jobs lasting only a few days, a day, or part of a day).

4,280, or 4.6 per cent, were employed in skilled building trades. 2,953, or 3.2 per cent, were farm and dairy hands and gardeners. 2,351, or 2.5 per cent, were employed in skilled metal trades.

Of the 47,716 females placed—

33,607, or 70.4 per cent, were day workers and laundresses.

4,239, or 8.9 per cent, were engaged in hotel and restaurant work.

3,690, or 7.7 per cent, were engaged in general housework.

3,072, or 6.4 per cent, were engaged in factory work, including the sewing trades.

The report notes 38 private employment agencies in operation on June 30, 1916, and states that 20 prosecutions were brought for abuses in connection with employment. Ten of these cases were for operating offices without licenses and the other 10 were for job selling, that is, a practice by which an applicant is required to pay a foreman a fee for employment and in many instances to continue such payments during employment so that the job may be retained and desirable work secured. A report on job selling in industrial establishments in Ohio has been issued by the Industrial Commission (Rept. No. 24) and was reviewed in the MONTHLY REVIEW for October, 1916 (pp. 411-415).