The situation is different for the 17 million 18- to 24-year-olds than for the younger groups. In October 1961 over half of the 18- and 19-year-olds and almost 60 percent of those 20 to 24 were in the civilian labor force, a total of 10 million. Over 8 million of these were no longer in school. In addition there

were 1.3 million young men in these age groups in the Armed Forces.

SPECIAL PROBLEMS OF YOUTH EMPLOYMENT

Changing nature of jobs

Programs for improving the employability of young workers must take account of the rapidly changing nature of jobs in the 1960's. Demand will be greatest in jobs requiring more education and higher degrees of skill. By contrast, unskilled jobs are declining, relatively, and will continue to do so, as new technical and scientific advances occur.

Automation-which covers a variety of changes now going on in the industrial world-accounts, in part, for this change. Jobs which could once be performed adequately by the semieducated, or which were dependent upon brawn rather than skill, will continue their relative decline. These were often the "entry" jobs on which young people depended to get a start. In the future, the undereducated and untrained boys and girls will be competing with older workers whose experience or family responsibilities will enter into hiring considerations Training

The changing nature of jobs emphasizes the importance of training. Today, even with high unemployment, jobs go unfilled for want of properly trained people: It is estimated that over the next 10 years, 5 million newly trained skilled craftsmen will be needed. Young people must be better equipped to meet these needs, Counseling and placement

Young people need help in choosing a suitable career and finding a satisfying job, in order to make an orderly transition from school to work.

Today in many schools there are no vocational counselors; in others they have not had specialized training. Only 9,000 full-time counselors are now employed in junior and senior high schools combined. Shortages exist in all States. Merely to keep pace with growth in enrollment, the number of school counselors must increase by 10 percent each year in this decade.

The State employment services provide special counseling and placement services for youth in most local offices and these services have been increasing recently. Records for the past 3 years indicate that persons under 20 account for one out of every five job applications, but for only one out of every eight nonfarm placements.

THE PROSPECT FOR THE FUTURE

The magnitude of the youth employment problem in this decade is dramatized by the tremendous increase in the youth population.

By 1970 the 14 to 24 age group will number 40 million. About half of the 40 million are expected to be in the labor force in 1970, including those in the Armed Forces. This age group will account for about half the expected net increase in the entire labor force.

The changing age distribution of the work force means that the number of persons 25-44, usually the prime source of skilled workers, will increase only. slightly during the decade, and the numbers between 35 and 44 will actually decline. Employers will therefore have to look to younger workers as a principal source of their future labor supply.

Thus our economy will be increasingly dependent on the training, skill, and productivity of young people. Those who have the training and skill will be. able to assume this responsibility. Those who have not been prepared, or who, have been denied adequate preparation, for useful work will find it increasingly difficult to meet the challenge, and reap the rewards, of maturity.

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RATE OF DROPOUTS

Senator COTTON. I realize that the high school population is increasing, but percentagewise are the dropouts on the increase, would you say, or not?

Secretary GOLDBERG. I cannot give you the percentage figure. I will check it for you, but they are alarming. We estimate if the present rate of dropouts continues that there will be 7.5 million children dropping out in the next decade before they finish high school, and this is an enormous number in our country.

It also points out the necessity in our educational programs of providing various types of education because not every child can respond to the same type of education, and we must do a better job in providing various types of education.

It is my firm conviction that any child can be given an education. The notion that some children cannot be educated is not sound.

We have found that education can be extended to everyone. The mentally retarded children can be educated and enter into the life of the community. Physically handicapped people can be educated and enter into fruitful life. We need various types of vocational education as well as general education. Every child can receive the benefit of some type of education, and they can respond to it. It is amazing to see what education and training can do for people.

TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES AT MISSILE SITES

I completed a trip not so long ago to the missile sites of our country. Today we were watching on television a brave American, Mr. Glenn, shot into space. In the operational missile sites the basic work is done by young American GI's. When a missile site is turned over to the Air Force, then operations in that complicated site are handled by young men. These young men are trained and educated by the Air Force-in other words, that is part of our educational systemand I was amazed to find 18- and 19-year-olds with great competence handling the most elaborate electronic devices that man has conceived with far more understanding of them than I possess. They know far more about this equipment than I could ever hope to possess. This indicates what training can do to upgrade skills.

When these young men leave the Air Force, they certainly will be guaranteed a fruitful life in the future with many employment opportunities.

Senator PASTORE. I quite agree with that. That was my impression when I visited Eniwetok where we were conducting our atmospheric tests at that time. One of the things that amazed meand I have said it 100 times since I returned-is the youth of the individuals who are in charge of some of these very intricate projects. I think in one instance one young man who had complete control and responsibility whether the operation was a complete success of failure was only 30 years old.

This idea that a scientist has to have a long, white beard is no longer true. These boys come into their scientific maturity at a very early age; and in the way we can do it, of course, the Russians can do it, too. That is one of the big contests of our day, and we have to be alert to that. If we don't meet this challenge, they will excel and outbalance us, and I think that is the peril of our time.

Secretary GOLDBERG. Senator Pastore, you are right. I stopped over at Ascension Island on the way back from a Presidential mission, and I don't think anyone was over 35. These men are all experts in this very complicated base which means so much and which is working today to track Glenn's space capsule as it goes around the world; so what you say is absolutely correct.

PROBLEM OF RESTRICTIVENESS

Senator PASTORE. This may be a delicate or sensitive question, but what is your reaction to this problem of restrictive policies when we get into the vocations and apprenticeship programs? I think there it is the fault of industry as much as it is the fault of the unions and the fault of the public generally. It is a fault in which we all share. When I was the Governor of the State of Rhode Island I had a number of people visit me. They wanted to become apprentice carpenters or apprentice plumbers or apprentice linotype operators, but unless they were a family relation they could not get into that field. Is any study being made on that subject?

Secretary GOLDBERG. Yes, sir.

Our studies demonstrate that there are job vacancies in existence for skilled craftsmen. As we look ahead toward the future, toward the next decade there will be many, many more such vacancies. We are not recruiting, and we are not training in apprenticeship programs nearly enough young people to fill those vacancies.

You are quite correct. That problem is not confined to either unions or employers-both are responsible-nor is it geographical in character. Restrictions apply north and south, east and west. So it is a national problem.

APPRENTICESHIP TRAINING PROGRAM

I think that one of the things that we must do as we go along is open up these job opportunities so that young people can be trained in these skills. We are working on that problem through the Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training, for which you gave us additional funds in the last appropriation, and we are conducting extensive programs throughout the country to stimulate apprenticeship training. It is very necessary. As a matter of fact, it will create more jobs in the construction trades. Presently many jobs cannot proceed forward because of lack of skilled people to carry on the job.

RESTRICTIONS AGAINST ENTERING THE PROFESSIONS

Senator PASTORE. I quite agree with you and this does not apply to the trades alone. This applies to the professions as well. In the past, at least in the last decade or score of years, there has been a trend that people feel in order to promote their economic security they have to limit the applicants for that profession. Sometimes they have gone out of their way to make it so restrictive that it is pretty hard for an individual to get in. This has become a common malady and it has become almost epidemic. I think if you consider the legal profession, the engineering profession, the medical profession, you will find they all want to set up these restrictive conditions and commissions to make sure that new people and new applicants don't get.

in as easily as they may have entered. I think that that is a very dangerous thing if it permeates throughout the governmental structure of our Nation.

Secretary GOLDBERG. We have to do two things. First of all, I am sure we all agree the skilled crafts and professions standards should be preserved. We want competent people, but on the other hand I feel that artificial barriers stretching beyond, sometimes operating under the false illusion that you promote job security, are not sound, because, if we opened up these areas, we would enjoy more prosperity and more security. I am in entire agreement with the Senator.

REASONS FOR SCHOOL DROPOUTS

Senator HILL. Mr. Secretary, this may be a little off, but of those 1 million children who left school, why had they left school? Did they lack interest in their work? Were they not stimulated, or were conditions in the family such that mitigated against remaining in school?

Secretary GOLDBERG. We found there are several reasons why youngsters leave school before they should. The first reason generally is an economic condition or reason. Families are generally in financial distress and they need the earnings of this youngster in order to carry on the family circle. That is a great reason. It is an unasnwerable reason, but our figures are beginning to show that the short gain that a family may have in this area is offset by the long loss to the family, because the youngster may find a job temporarily. Then, however, if there is a period of recession such as we have been going through, since he is the last in a plant or a shop or a mine or a factory, he is the first out, and he becomes unemployed, and then he does not have the education or skill to find himself a new job that has opened.

Secondly, sometimes youngsters get discouraged. They do not find that the particular type of schooling that they are getting is the type to which they can respond. This illustrates the strong necessity for good schooling of various types-the thing we missed.

Thirdly, we have found that there is not, particularly in the poorer neighborhoods and the poorer school districts, for lack of funds, good counseling service.

It is not only the youngster who cannot measure up to academic standards who drops out of school. Ten percent of the highest in any graduating class do not go up. That is a great loss to the country because there we know there is the aptitude to become an engineer, a scientist, a doctor, a lawyer, a government official, or whatever you may need in the country.

Now, why do those youngsters drop out? They drop out very often for economic reasons, because their family needs their work. They drop out often because there isn't a community educational facility close at hand where they could commute to school, a junior college.

I speak feelingly on the subject because I would not have finished my education if I did not have access in the city of Chicago to a junior college which gave me the means for going on to a professional education. This is a great thing and it can be a great part of our educational system.