and other interested groups to plan the steps which should be taken to ease the changeover for everyone concerned.

To keep track of the effects of technological changes on occupational requirements, it is also necessary to have, at regular intervals, information on the numbers of workers of different types employed in each major industry. The Department has made a beginning in developing a system of statistics on employment by occupation: The Bureau of Labor Statistics now collects and publishes annually data for scientific, engineering, and technician occupations in industry. We need w extend this program to other important occupations.

Another highly significant kind of factfinding is actual case studies of automation or other major technological changes, directed to such questions as: How an labor and management work together when a changeover is in prospect? That can be done to set up on-the-job retraining before automation takes place? How do management practices such as reassignments and using turnover to carry cat reductions in force work out?

An example of such a study is the one now being made by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the changeover to electronic data processing in the Internal Revenue Service. With the cooperation of IRS we are making an intensive study of measures taken to avoid displacement and hardship to the thousands of employees sflected. We believe that the IRS experience in planning the personnel changes recessary to avoid layoffs and help employees adjust to new jobs should be of wide interest in industry as well as Government agencies. The experience on this study also illustrates the relationships we are working out between the Office of Automation and Manpower and the various Bureaus of the Department. The beed for this study was determined, and the initial discussions with IRS conducted, by the new Office. Then arrangements were made with BLS to conduct the study.

The Department's automation and manpower program needs to include a carefully planned series of additional automation case studies, covering a variety cf industrial, technological, and employment situations. We also need to expand or continue many other kinds of research and factfinding activities, and to provide for careful planning and coordination and frequent reevaluation of all our studies, to insure that they make the needed contribution to understanding of the automation and manpower situation.

(2) Communication is the second of our major pathways. If information is to be of help in solving our technological and employment problem, it must be communicated in an understandable and imaginative way to the places and people where it will count.

To accomplish this, we must have a carefully planned and varied series of publications, covering different aspects of the problem and aimed at different sudiences. But we must also go much farther than this. It is essential to take advantage of the many modern tools and channels of communication, and to prepare materials designed to impart the results of our factfinding activities through these means.

In addition, the Department should set up a clearinghouse of facts, plans, suggested action programs which bear on the problems of automation and technological development and their varied effects on workers. This will be a source from which all who are interested may find out what developments are on the horizon and what constructive steps have been and can be taken in this field. The Department also plans to sponsor actual demonstration projects in local areas, showing, for example, what Employment Service activities can do for employers as well as workers in helping reduce the shock of technological displacement. The U.S. Employment Service has already initiated such demonstration projects in a few areas. We need to go much farther along this line to provide the needed stimulus to cooperative community action-to encourage employers and unions to work together, and with employment service offices and other community agencies, in planning for retraining, reassignment of workers, and other adjustments.

(3) With respect to the third pathway, prevention, let me say first, and emphatically, that this does not mean prevention of automation but rather prevention or at least, the minimization of the future displacement impact of automation and other phases of technology.

Much progress can be made toward such prevention, provided the country takes full advantage of the fact that nearly one-third of the people who will be in the labor force in 1970 are now in school. It is essential that boys and girls be as well informed as possible about the changing outlook and rising educational and training requirements in many fields of work. The country's basic source of such information is the occupational outlook program of the Bureau of Labor

Statistics. The "Occupational Outlook Handbook" and related publications, designed specifically for use in vocational guidance, are used in thousands of high schools, colleges, public employment offices, and other counseling centers and reach vast numbers of young people and adults. We need to strengthen this program and make possible the preparation, in connection with it, of estimates of future manpower requirements in important occupations (building also on the planned extension of the occupational statistics program to which I have already referred). Such information would aid in informing young people as to which occupations are expanding and contracting. It would also enable educational institutions and training organizations to plan expansions in their programs in the light of expected employment needs and opportunities.

Another way in which the Department will help to prevent dislocation of workers is through the promotion of broad training programs in industry. The Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training works with management and labor to organize training and retraining programs. We encourage industry to establish programs that emphasize broad preparation, rather than narrow specialization, since the worker who has mastered every aspect of his trade finds it much easier to adjust to technological change than the narrow specialist.

The Department will also continue and intensify its efforts to encourage young people to stay in school and to awaken nationwide realization that we cannot afford to go on permitting 30 percent of our youngsters to drop out of high school before graduation. With a nation of well-educated workers, displacements resulting from automation-as well as changing markets, international competition, and other factors cause only temporary difficulties; workers with a good basic education can be readily retrained for jobs in other fields. We will use all our channels of communication to get these facts across. We will also go on working with all interested agencies and groups of citizens in improving the Nation's schools and keeping children in school-as the best way to insure, over the long run, that automation continues to be a benefactor of people.

(4) Our fourth pathway, amelioration, means immediate assistance for the hundreds of thousands of workers who already are or soon will be affected by technological change. These workers, many of whom are among the long-term jobless, have to be helped in at least two ways to maintain themselves during their period of joblessness and to begin to endow themselves with new skills to meet the changing job needs of the new technology. We have already made a beginning in retraining of workers in depressed areas under the Area Redevelopment Act (as I will describe in my testimony on this program). However, there is need for further expansion and improvement in training facilities and programs. We must also reassess parts of our system which make it difficult for unemployed workers to receive training (for example, the ineligibility of those in training to receive unemployment compensation under some State laws).

Strengthening of State employment service activities in the fields of placement, counseling, and testing of displaced workers has also been achieved during the past year, as a result of increased funds made available to the Bureau of Employment Security. But continued progress is needed in these activities, which make a major contribution to the vocational readjustment of technologically displaced people.

We will also continue the series of special cooperative efforts to assist employers and workers affected by automation, conducted by the Bureau of Employment Security on a pilot basis in a number of localities during the past 6 months. Illustrative of these pilot projects is one in St. Paul, Minn., where a large brewery is automating its bottling and shipping operations and expects to release over 200 workers. The company, the St. Paul employment office, and the union involved are working together on the problem, with the local office making job analyses and staffing patterns to establish the performance requirements of the new jobs and the transfer possibilities and training needs that may exist; interviewing, testing, and counseling the laid-off workers to discover their best occupational potentials and the training they may need; and also conducting an intensive job-finding program.

This is one example of the kinds of demonstration projects the Department plans to promote, not only to meet immediate local needs but also to inform other communities about possible ways of dealing with their own problems.

ROLE OF THE NEW OFFICE

As these examples illustrate, the Department has taken some steps down each of the four pathways in our automation and manpower program, and we have done much thinking about what the scope and content of that program should

be. We are still very far, however, from having the comprehensive, vigorous, imaginative, and well-coordinated program which is needed. To develop such a program and marshal and coordinate the resources necessary to carry it out will require greatly intensified leadership from the Office of the Secretary of Labor This will be exercised through the new Office of Automation and Manpower. This Office will take the lead in designing a comprehensive research program for the Nation in the field of automation and manpower. It will also undertake a continuous evaluation of the progress achieved.

In carrying out the program, the Office will make full use of the expert and experienced staff and other resources of the various Bureaus of the Department. In a number of instances an increase in funds is being requested for the bureaus, which will enable them to enlarge their contributions to the Department's total effort in the automation and manpower field. The chief of each bureau will testify in detail as to the nature of and reasons for these requsts. The role of. the new Office in relation to Bureau activities will be one of leadership in determining, in consultation with the bureaus, how they can and should contribute to the Department's total research program, of keeping track of progress made, and of suggesting needed changes in or additions to programs. Our experience on the Internal Revenue survey, which I have already briefly described, illustrates the kind of relationship we anticipate. The Office's own limited research activity will be directed toward better ways to fit together the innumerable factors of policy and prictice which determine the Nation's manpower situation and which involve considerations not in the purview of any one bureau. The total effect will be to give the Department, for the first time, a coordinated and carefully planned program of research and action in the automation and manpower field. In addition, we plan to utilize the special skills of research workers and organizations outside the Department, since we believe-and the advice of our consultants confirms this that this will be the way to get the best results in some areas. For this reason, our budget request for the coming fiscal year includes a provision for contract funds. In addition, we hope and expect to enlist the voluntary participation of research and other groups throughout the country, so that the total result may be in a very real sense a great national effort of manpower research directed toward preventive and ameliorative action.

The new Office will be responsible, in addition, for leading a nationwide program of communication. Here again we will seek and expect to obtain a great deal of help and cooperation from both public and private groups, but the staff of the Office of Automation and Manpower will be the focal point in what should be a great communications effort. The goal will be to achieve constantly increasing national understanding extending to industry and labor, educators and students, parents, and other concerned citizens, as well as Government agencies of such matters as the interrelationships between education, training, and employment; the advantages of flexibility and consequences of immobility; the national importance both of rapid technological progress and of successful adjustments to it; and what must be done to achieve such adjustments.

In view of the vastness and complexity of the interlocking problems with which we are dealing, it is obvious that it will take time to achieve major progress toward their solution. But such progress is possible. This is one of the most important findings of the hard look at the problem we have taken this year. We regard it as of highest importance to move ahead as rapidly as possible on the whole complex of problems in the automation and manpower field-so as to insure that our country realizes its full potential in both technology and manpower, and does this with the least possible price in unemployment and other costs to the workers involved and hence to our democracy.

STATEMENT BY SEYMOUR L. WOLFBEIN, DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF LABOR ON THE 1963 REQUEST FOR ÁREA REDEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES Mr. Chairman, the Area Redevelopment Act (Public Law 87-27) enacted by the Congress during its last session and signed by the President on May 1, 1961, provides some new tools for dealing with chronic unemployment in certain areas of the United States. These are areas which have experienced high rates of unemployment for substantial periods of time or in which there is substantial underemployment and hence income levels are considerably below the national average. They have been designated as "redevelopment areas" by the Department of Commerce in accordance with the act and at present include about 800 urban and rural areas.

I am happy to have this opportunity to appear before you and to tell you of Our activities under this act directed toward helping the residents of these areas

become employed and thus improve their economic condition. This is the first opportunity we have had to discuss the redevelopment program with you, since the 1962 appropriation was processed as an amendment to the Department of Labor 1962 budget and hence, not acted on by this committee because the hearings on the regular budget had been concluded.

While the Department of Labor has other responsibilities in this program, I shall be discussing specifically the provisions relating to occupational training and retraining of the unemployed and the underemployed and the payment of retraining subsistence, covered by sections 16 and 17 of the act respectively. These are the sections of the act for which appropriations are made directly to the Department of Labor. Appropriation requests for other responsibilities of the Department, including the State employment security agencies, e.g. factfinding for the designation of areas and participation in the development of overall economic development plans for areas, are submitted through the Department of Commerce, which has overall responsibility for the redevelopment program. Sections 16 and 17 of the act give specific responsibilities to the Department of Labor to provide to residents of redevelopment areas the means of acquiring new or refurbished skills which would lead to their gainful employment. To accomplish this, the Department makes use of its own resources and those of the affiliated public employment service system in the States as well as the facilities of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Office of Education, and the State vocational education agencies. Other agencies are also involved, such as the Department of Agriculture in connection with training programs in rural areas, the Department of the Interior for Indian reservations, the Area Redevelopment Administration, and State and local economic planning groups.

Under this act, we have new responsibilities, new challenges. What is new in this program is not any essential difference in the basic functions of the agencies involved, but in applying them in a closely coordinated package of services that relates worker capabilities in the area to job needs, gets the worker trained and sustains him while in training, and finally assists him to become suitably employed. The Department of Labor must determine the occupational needs of the area; determine through interviewing, counseling, and testing, the job skills and potentials for training of its unemployed and underemployed citizens; establish through HEW the needed training programs and facilities; select and refer the trainees to the proper training courses; pay benefits to them while in training; and finally, find suitable jobs for them after they have been trained. The Department of Health, Education, and Welfare and the State vocational education agencies are responsible for carrying on the instructional program.

As with any new program, much preparatory work had to be done in developing the procedures and working out relationships with other agencies at Federal, State, and local levels. While appropriations for 1962 were not available until the 1st of October, this, in itself, has not been a particular disadvantage in getting the program underway. In addition to the usual problems of toolingup for a new program, there is the additional factor that the act stresses local community initiative and action in obtaining the various benefits provided by the act. A training program cannot actually get underway until there has been compliance with a series of procedural steps prescribed in the act. I should like to outline briefly what these steps are before an unemployed or underemployed worker can actually be selected for and start his training program.

First, the Department must get the labor market facts upon which the Department of Commerce can determine that the area is a redevelopment area as defined in the act. In connection with the designation of rural areas and Indian reservations, the Department works closely with the Departments of Agriculture and Interior, respectively.

Second, the ARA Administrator in the Department of Commerce must, on the basis of our recommendation, decide whether he will designate the area and, hence, establish the initial basis for qualifying for any benefits under the

act.

Third, the local community must then prepare an overall economic development plan and have it approved by the ARA Administrator before it can be eligible for any benefits including occupational training. However, this does not imply that such benefits will flow automatically to the area.

Fourth, in the case of occupational training, the local community must take the initiative in determining the occupations in which workers are needed and the number required in identifying the potentials of unemployed and underemployed persons to acquire the skills represented by the shortage occupations, and in establishing training programs to meet the occupational

deficits.

Fifth, the Department of Labor, in cooperation with the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, must make an assessment of the availability of the facilities and services in schools or plants in which the training courses can be conducted. If other than public educational facilities and services are needed, the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare would have to contract for them with private educational institutions through their State vocational education agencies.

This procedure, though time consuming, is essential to insuring that training programs are meaningful and that the individuals to be trained are capable of acquiring the knowledge and skill in the training program and that there is reasonable presumption for employment upon completion of training.

Over and above establishing the procedural steps themselves, there has been a tremendous job of communicating and interpreting to the public the intent and provisions of this new legislation before there could be any practicable application of initiative at the local level.

We want to express our appreciation to the many Members of Congress who have arranged for meetings in the communities which they represent for the purpose of explaining the provisions and benefits of the act and the steps that communities must take to qualify.

As communities have gained a better understanding of the area redevelopment program and as agencies have begun to systematize their procedures for processing training proposals, there has begun a flow of training proposals from communities throughout the Nation. Forty-two training projects in 18 States had been approved as of February 16, 1962.

The approved programs provide for 112 training courses covering over 40 different occupations. More than 4,500 trainees will be receiving training. By the middle of February, 20 redevelopment areas in 9 States had already initiated instruction. More than 1,000 trainees were enrolled in 40 courses. While we have received word of only two or three instances where training has been completed, some placements have already been made and formerly unemployed individuals are at work as a direct result of the occupational training provisions of the Area Redevelopment Act.

We have now in Washington, many of them just received, 50 more training project proposals, and we understand from the State employment services that at least another 50 projects are in some stage of development. Many of them are nearly ready for submittal. We have every reason to believe that as knowledge of the area redevelopment program and the benefits to be derived spreads, the volume of activity will increase sharply, particularly as the loans and grants provisions of the act become operative and result in the creation of new job opportunities.

We in the Department strongly feel that the experience and insight gained in the development of the area training projects already approved have demonstrated forcibly the potential value of occupational training. Even in areas where, by definition, large surpluses of labor exist, there are jobs going unfilled for the want of people with the necessary skills. At the same time there are unemployed workers who already possess some of the attributes necessary to these jobs with the capability of acquiring the balance. These occupational deficiencies can be translated into meaningful training terms and training can be carried out. Finally, the newly trained worker and the job can be brought together with all the resulting benefits to the individual and to the Nation. Beyond doubt, training is one of the manpower tools to be used in achieving a better manpower balance.

Of equal importance, these first few projects give leads to the range of industries and occupations where occupational training has potential and to the wide variability in types and extent of training that is called for. Agricultural workers will receive training as farm equipment operators. In manufacturing industries, electronic technicians, machine-tool operators, woodworking millmen, sheet-metal machine operators, aluminum sash-and-door makers, ship electricians are among the occupations for which training has been approved. Ward attendants and nurse's aides, automobile mechanics, electrical appliance repairmen represent some of the occupations for which there are training programs in the service field; and stenography and typing in the clerical field.

With respect to types of training activities approved, in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., there is a training program for welders of the add-a-skill variety intended to provide already experienced welders with know-how on the latest welding techniques such as helio-arc welding. In a rural county of West Virginia, another program is designed to train workers, having essentially agricultural experience and skills, in aircraft riveting, hence providing them with a new skill and a better