Unemployment in U.S.

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26078, 3 April 1950, Page 6

Unemployment in U.S.

Although President Truman’s economic advisers have called unemployment the most serious of present American domestic problems, ipost economists jn the United States have so far not been greatjy perturbed by the steady increase in the numbers out of work. For the simple fact is that while the number of unemployed is increasing steadily, but not alarmingly, the number in employment is also increasing. The ranks of the unemployed are swollen not so much by men and women put off work as by the normal additions to the labour force of the country. Planning for post-war American industry has been based on the assumption that about 60,000,000 workers could usefully be employed. In February the total in employment hgd risen to 61,637,000. That the figure is still rising is reassuring evidence of continued American prosperity and industrial expansion. It is true, however, that employment opportunities are not keeping pace with the growth of the available labour force, which is expected to be 70,000,000 by 1960. Here, of course, are (he elements of a long-term problem. Far-sighted Americans see the solution in a steady expansion of world commerce, which will permit all countries, not only the United States, to maintain a high level of employment and effective use of their resources. The restoration of war-shattered economies in Europe and Asia &nd the development of backward countries are both vital to this long-term plan; and there will bemo lack of authoritative American voices to answer those Congressmen who, bent on making economies in a Budget which runs to the truly formidable deficit total of 5,000,000,000 dollars, are attempting to slash the appropriations for foreign aid. A total of nearly 5.000,000 unemployed is a serious problem in any country, even where the population and the labour force are proportionately big. as they are in the United States. Nevertheless, the Federal Government is now well equipped to deal with its social and economic effects. Most workers are insured against hardship from unemployment; and a reservoir of labour readily available for new enterprises, private and public, is regarded by many American economists as a healthy influence on the general economy. It is agreed sjpce the unemployment figures began to rise in the United States, the output of the individual worker has improved, there has been less absenteeism, and a smaller tendency for men to drift from job to job. The regrettable waste of human capacity to work and to produce has not been without its compensations.