-69 Those previously employed by the Program Agent occupied 21 percent of the Section 5 jobs in the study sample, 13 percent of the sample's Section 6 jobs and only 11 percent of all PEP jobs nationally. Most of the rehires were concentrated in a few major cities which had had to fire staff. The major cities dismissed a higher proportion of civil service staff than did other jurisdictions. Most of the other cities had "a freeze" on new positions. Where cities did not rehire, it was not because of any special commitment but because they had no staff to rehire. The budget squeeze in most cities had not forced them to fire staff but rather had prevented them from budgeting for support staff that the departments and personnel offices believed were needed. under PEP. These are many of the positions created *Source of job classifications: "Illustrative List of Expanding Public Service Occupations," Guidelines EEA Section 5 -72 IX CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Although the EEA created and funded jobs with great speed, on the whole it must be termed too little and too late. The "emergency" the EEA was intended to meet did not begin with the passage of the Act in July 1971. The many seriously disadvantaged in our society had been plagued throughout the 1950s and 1960s by the problem of access to jobs, high unemployment rates, inappropriate experience and barriers to employment in the public and private sectors. The recession that raised the unemployment rate in 1970 and 1971, leading to the "emergency" of 1971, was predictable in 1969 and before. Thus, there was little excuse for the unclear goals, inadequate funds and unrealistic time frames that hampered the implementation of the EEA from its inception. Sensible planning in the operation of a public service employment program as part of a total economic policy designed to reduce inflationary pressures and stimulate employment of the structurally unemployed, rather than to remove the frictionally unemployed from the labor market, should be the goal of all future expansions in EEA or other public service employment programs. -73 The importance of expanding the program cannot be overemphasi But it is essential that any expansion be preceded by the kind of careful planning that did not precede implementation of the EEA program. If it is to achieve its purpose, an expanded public service employment program must meet two criteria: it must employ, train and upgrade those who cannot be employed elsewhere, and it must fill public service needs that are not now being filled. General Conclusions At best, the PEP will provide employment for only 3 percent of the unemployed. Persons placed in jobs have been, to a large extent, those who had the most potential for placement in the private sector or in regular civil service positions. Characteristically, they were adult males, with a high school education or more, who had been unemployed for only a short period of time. They apparently had significant skills; little or no money was spent in training them to perform their jobs. Placed in PEP positions, they were not available for private sector jobs. Frictional unemployment based on normal turnover is a natural--in fact healthy--aspect of our economy. Our data shows that 60 percent of those hired under the PEP were unemployed for fewer than 15 weeks. The Labor Department's AIS system lists EEA participants under three categories: unemployed between 5 and 14 weeks; and those unemployed four those |