Number of trainees and occupations for which training is provided: State and area-42 approved projects, Feb. 16, 1962

AREA REDEVELOPMENT TRAINING ACTIVITIES

Characteristics of persons selected for training, Feb. 16, 1962

Trainee enrollment, completion, and placement experience for courses completed through Feb. 16, 1962

PEOPLE UNEMPLOYED FOR LONG PERIODS

Mr. WOLFBEIN. Again we are in the beginning-I do not want to exaggerate but I think we are beginning to see that it is possible to take people who have been unemployed for very long periods of time and begin to move them into fields where they can get a job. So far we have approved programs for almost 5,000 people. The program would call for somewhere between 12,000 and 18,000 a year, depending on the nature of the courses. They now cover 44 different positions, as I said, in 18 different States.

We are very heartened so far by the experience in these various

areas.

AREAS OF DISTRESS

Senator HILL. Let me ask you this: We know that the economy is stronger and better today than it was a year ago. What is the situation in reference to these areas of distress? Do you find they are getting better?

Mr. WOLFBEIN. Yes. We report regularly on the number of areas that have substantial and persistent unemployment and they are getting better.

The story, I think, can be put best this way, again briefly: As you know, we have had record levels of employment. In fact, the latest figures for January were the highest for any January in our history. Yet, and this is the important point, and the point of your question, we still had, even though we had a record level of jobs in this country, 1/4 million people who were long-term unemployed.

It indicates to us that you need something a little special to start moving those people into the jobs that are available.

One way, and this is not the magic wand, but one way is the training and retraining for the new jobs that are becoming available.

Senator HILL. You experience in this retraining program is that most of these people can be retrained for a different type of job perhaps from what they have had in the past?

Mr. WOLFBEIN. I think that one thing is emerging I want to be careful since we are at the very beginning but I am beginning believe that we can make the general statement that every one can be trained. For some, of course, it means starting way back at the beginning; for others, it means building on the skills they already have.

Our program is going along different lines.

In a West Virginia community, for example, we were able to build on the skills that people had already. They were auto mechanics. There is a big demand for people who are auto mechanics but who can work on automatic transmissions. We approved a training program on automatic transmissions, built on the skills these people already had as auto mechanics and they will get jobs.

Senator HILL. Of course, you did not get started until well in the past year. What date did you say you started?

Mr. WOLFBEIN. The first program was approved October 10, 1961. Senator HILL. That means you are some several months into this present fiscal year?

Mr. WOLFBEIN. Yes, sir.

COMPARISON OF BUDGET ESTIMATES

Senator HILL. How does your budget now compare with the appropriation you had for this present fiscal year? How does your budget estimate for 1963, the forthcoming fiscal year, compare with what you had for the present fiscal year?

Mr. WOLFBEIN. For this fiscal year, we have $14 million; $10 million goes for the payment of subsistence and training allowances to the workers who are being trained and this the act calls for, $10 million. Four million dollars goes for all the other work that has to be done in connection with the training programs.

We do not approve a training program, Senator, and this is very important, unless there has been a survey which shows that there are training needs in the community, that the chances for getting a job are good, and that there are people who can be trained.

These surveys, the expenses of making payment of the training allowances to people, the guidance and the selection of these people, their placement, as well as the actual training costs, all are part of the $4 million.

Now we are asking for this fiscal year to move from $14 million to $15,041,000. I would like to explain this again briefly.

The $10 million remains the same. No change in that. Really, the big change is $900,000, from $3.6 million to $4.5 million for the work of making these skill surveys, of guiding, testing, counseling, and selecting trainees, of paying the costs of training and then placing the people.