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minority or migrant status, or their lack of
skills and educational achievement, the
Emergency Employment Act in X has been
heavily concentrated with those of above
average (for X) educational levels. Over
all, college graduates comprise 13.4 per-
cent; those with 13-15 years comprise
32.9 percent; and high school graduates
comprise 45.7 percent. Those with only
some high school (9 to 11 years) total
4.3 percent, and those with 8 years or
less are only 3.7 percent of the total
EEA participants. The people with 8th
grade or less education were hired as
laborers (10), labor foreman (1), welder
(1) and equipment operator (1). These
jobs are low paying.

No compiled data is available for aerospace and defenserelated unemployed, but reports from Urban Coalitions indicate these fields were given low priority in the cities sampled.

Another problem revealed by some local Urban Coalition samplings is that of military personnel who have served at local Army bases and retired with government pensions. These people also have been included under the "veteran" category-not a direct breach of the Act, perhaps, but not in line with the legislative intent. No current data exists about the number of retired military personnel hired under EEA. An investigation of this situation, particularly in areas close to large military bases, is very much in order.

The survey instruments were designed to yield information about any special efforts made by PEP sponsors to recruit selectively and hire the "significant segments" of the population referred to in both the legislation and Guidelines.

Precise

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descriptions of recruitment, referral and hiring mechanisms were sought from the local Urban Coalitions in an effort to determine exactly what procedures were followed for assuring the involvement of "significant segments" of the unemployed in the local population.

The local Coalitions indicated that the Program Agents generally hired the conventionally desirable participants and accommodated whatever others were necessary to satisfy the Labor Department's minimum Guidelines.

sponded affirmatively to the question:

Only two cities re

"Was a special effort

made to hire residents of poverty areas for EEA jobs?" The others gave a "no" answer, indicated the information was not available or stated that "no special effort" had been made.

The inordinately high unemployment rate across the country meant that, in virtually all cases, recruitment as such was no major problem for a Program Agent or its subagents. One respondent to the Coalition's survey noted that the "program had 10 applications for every job funded"--not an atypical situation.

It appears that the principal mechanism for channeling applicants to the appropriate Program Agent was either the local Employment Service or the Program Agent's own Personnel Department. Some Program Agents advertised positions. Others made commitments in their proposals to use minority media and community organizations, but neglected to do so.

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While

The use of community manpower programs as resources for recruitment and selection appears to have been minimal. "briefings" of new PEP employees took place, no substantial "orientation" or training served as part of the entry system in the sample cities. Since the program provided little money for formal training--the method utilized being basically onthe-job training through the ongoing supervisory process--the provision of manpower services was bypassed in most cases.

To a question aimed specifically at determining the ratio of participants selected from easily identified poverty neighborhoods--such as Community Action Agency target areas or model neighborhood areas--only four respondents provided meaningful answers. During the field interviews, only three of the cities in the sample specifically described who had been hired from CAA target areas of model neighborhoods, or other identifiable poverty areas. In only four cases was the sponsor able to describe the number or percentage of unemployed persons in those areas--indicating that no analysis of the nature and extent of unemployment in the poverty areas had been carried out in preparation for the Public Employment Program.

"Preference" seems to have played a minor role in either the recruitment or the selection process. With few funds available to launch a specialized recruitment effort, preference for the disadvantaged, the unskilled, the young, the elderly,

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or women new to the labor market remained a neglected process.

Veterans were the only group for whom a major effort toward placement was mounted.

The Rhode Island Coalition, in responding to the survey,

made the following observation regarding preference.

The [Program] statistics read:

71 percent

white and 27 percent black. While on the
surface this appears to be non-discriminatory,
artificial barriers to employment (exams and
experience) were very much in evidence.
Most minorities were screened into low- or
non-career ladder type jobs. For example,
there were 20 job openings for firemen.
Recruitment was done through ES, newspaper
ads, and such. The Employment Service held
the initial interviews; the Program Agent
did additional interviewing; and, an exam
was given. Hiring was done by the Program
Agent conditional upon a favorably physical
examination. The Concentrated Employment
Program referred 10, the majority of which
were black; the Opportunities Industrializa-
tion Center referred 16 blacks; and, the
Model Cities Program referred about a half-
dozen blacks. All 20 who were hired for
the firemen's positions were white.

Data on individuals actually employed by the Program Agents utilizing EEA funds point to a pattern of employing relatively skilled, albeit unemployed, middle class persons (the majority male) --both black and white. In general, applicants learned of PEP positions through routine channels and applied for jobs. Those who appeared most capable of performing the required tasks were hired.

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The work performed by the 70,000 employed under PEP was compared to the work of those who were likely--because of age, education or "disadvantaged" status--to have handicaps in the labor market and were also among the groups designated to receive preference by the Act. (See Table VII.)

The four job areas employing the largest number in the total group--Public Works/Transportation, Education, Other, and Law Enforcement--represent 73 percent of all jobs, while the remaining five classifications--Health, Parks and Recreation, Social Services, Environmental Quality, and Fire Protection--represent 27 percent.

The variation from the national distribution of jobs suggests that those individuals with employment handicaps have been concentrated in the jobs demanding the least skills

and offering the least opportunity for upward mobility.