in job content which require higher skills. Further demands have been imposed upon local office staffs by the need to provide more intensive services to older workers, minority and other disadvantaged groups, as well as by other Federal programs, including those established under the Economic Opportunity Act. These activities have been both time consuming and demanding in terms of the required level of professional competence. The cumulative consequence of these demands has been a serious dilution of staff effort in two respects: (1) trained and qualified staff have been assigned to new programs without sufficient relief from their present duties, and (2) administrative and management personnel in increasing numbers have been forced to leave gaps in the service provided. The dilution of staff efforts in local offices has had an adverse effect on basic employment service operations which has reached serious proportions. The major decline in this area has been in employer visits and other promotional contacts made for the purpose of determining employer needs and developing job orders. Activities of this nature have shown a steady decrease since 1962. Specifically, the number of employer visits declined 18 percent in 1964 as compared to 1963 and there was a further decline of 12 percent in 1965. These contacts with employers are essential to develop and maintain sound and productive working relationships. The decrease in placements of nearly 3 percent in 1964 as compared to 1963 and a decrease of an equal amount in 1965 is directly related to the decline in employer visits. Adverse effects also have been felt in the level of services which could be provided to new applicants placing their applications for work as a result of the accelerated pace of training programs under the Manpower Development and Training Act and the work training programs carried on under the Economic Opportunity Act. In particular, the increase in such applications has created additional heavy demands for counseling services. The inadequate staff time available for filling employer requests for workers also has been reflected in increasing cancellation of job openings received by local offices. In 1962 and 1963, the rate of cancellation was 19 percent and has been increasing since that time. It rose to 21 percent in 1964 and to 23 percent in 1965. These statistics reflect only the measurable effects on local office operations. They give no indication of the number of jobseekers who receive little or no service beyond the acceptance of an application nor do they give any indication of the number of employers who did not receive assistance in finding workers. An additional 254 positions and $2,145,000 is required in a continuous effort to achieve these objectives in 1967. 2. Services to smaller communities An increasingly important phase of employment service activities is concerned with people in the smaller and rural communities which cannot be served adequately by existing local offices and where it is not economically feasible to establish additional offices. These people have a pressing need for service, in part because of the steady decline in job opportunities in agriculture, forestry, and mining, and in part because of the training programs and greater job opportunities available in larger areas. The program of services to smaller communities was established to meet this need. It operates through the use of mobile teams which provide the full range of employment services to such communities, including testing, counseling, referral to training courses, and referral to suitable jobs. In addition, community leaders are provided with comprehensive data on manpower needs and resources for use in developing local job opportunities and strengthening local economies. At present, mobile teams have been approved for 16 States. It is planned to extend the program to seven additional States in fiscal year 1967. To carry out this plan, an additional 48 positions and $411,000 will be required in fiscal year 1967 over the base staff of 120 positions and $948,000. 3. Test research The U.S. Employment Service test research program conducted in cooperation with State agencies, is concerned with (1) the development and validation of aptitude test batteries for specific occupations for use in the selection of workers, (2) the improvement and further validation of the general aptitude test battery for use in counseling activities, (3) the development of proficiency tests for placement purposes, and (4) the development and validation of related measuring devices for use in counseling and selection. Present tests, in a large number of instances, cannot be used for many of the hard-core unemployed. Because of their educational deficiencies these individuals have the greatest need for referral to training services and for placement assistance. Lacking essential skills in reading and arithmetic, they have been unable to meet minimum requirements for entry into many of the vocational courses offered. Their lack of basic education is also an impediment to determination of their latent talents and their potential for acquiring reading and arithmetic skills through prevocational literacy training. Hence, a nonreading edition of the general aptitude test battery is needed for evaluation of the aptitudes of individuals with little education. Experimental tests have been constructed and it is now necessary to collect information on the relationship of the test scores to successful job performance so that valid norms can be developed and the tests used nationally in counseling educationally deficient individuals. Research is also needed for the development of achievement tests for basic skills in reading and arithmetic to be used in the determination of the needs of educationally deficient individuals for various levels of literacy training. Increased emphasis also will be placed on the development of aptitude test batteries for specific occupations. To carry out the expanded test research program planned for fiscal year 1967 will require an additional 10 positions and $91,000 over the base staff of 89 positions and $712,000. 4. Labor inventory communications systems During fiscal year 1966, the phase of the LINCS program involving the use of computer equipment to match worker qualifications with employer job orders has been operational in the Sacramento, San Francisco, and Los Angeles metropolitan areas. An average of 14,000 applications representing workers qualified to hold professional occupations are included in this system. Presently, three file searches are required to identify referral candidates registered in all offices served. Prior to the end of fiscal year 1966, a computer program for the use of randomaccess memory equipment will have been completed. This will provide the capability for conducting: (1) a simple file search to identify qualified applicants in any or all offices served; and (2) file searches according to individual characteristics, broad occupational classifications or a combination of both. Based on studies begun in fiscal year 1966, work will be initiated to include selected nonprofessional occupations in the computer system. These steps will not only represent a significant improvement in the computerization of recruitment, selection and referral activities but will also provide the foundation for an accelerated installation of this system in other areas in subsequent years. An additional two positions and $50,000, which includes $32,800 for special nonpersonal services, will be required to carry out this program in fiscal year 1967 over the current base of 29 positions and $232,000. ADMISSION AND EMPLOYMENT OF IMMIGRANT ALIENS The 1965 amendments to the Immigration and Nationality Act assigned new and significant responsibilities to the Department of Labor for the admission of alien additions to the country's work force. These responsibilities will be carried out by the Bureau of Employment Security and are primarily derived from section 212 (a) (14) which requires, prior to issuance of an immigrant visa to "aliens seeking to enter the United States for the purpose of performing skilled or unskilled labor," a certification from the Secretary of Labor that (1) "there are not sufficient workers in the United States who are able, willing, qualified, and available***," and (2) "the employment of such aliens will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of the U.S. workers similarly employed." In order to implement the responsibilities assigned, the State agencies will be responsible for: 1. Receiving alien employment offers to support visa applications and screening them against the certification and noncertification schedules, and forwarding results to the regional office. The State agencies will make no final determinations for visas. 2. Providing contact points for employers, receiving job offers, and furnishing information on Department of Labor responsibilities and procedures to all interested parties. 3. Conducting factfinding and intensive recruitment in nonscheduled cases and forwarding all results to the regional office. 4. Assessing employer recruitment and training efforts. 5. Stimulating the training of legal-resident workers to minimize the need for foreign workers. To carry out the program, the States will require 170 positions and $1,292,000. SKILL SHORTAGE INFORMATION More comprehensive information on available job opportunities in the major employment centers throughout the country is needed to help develop appropriate manpower programs to pinpoint industry manpower shortages, initiate programs for insuring adequate referrals to essential defense production and high-priority nondefense industries, to stimulate employment growth and reduce unemployment, to find jobs for poverty-type workers, and in general to improve the functioning of the job market in matching workers and unfilled jobs. An experimental program to provide such information by means of employer job opportunity surveys was initiated on a pilot basis in 16 metropolitan areas during fiscal year 1965. These surveys were undertaken as a joint Bureau of Employment Security-Bureau of Labor Statistics venture. During fiscal year 1965, $295,000 was allocated to the States to initiate the program and this level is being continued in fiscal year 1966. The following developments underline the need for a job opportunities program : 1. The Nation is rapidly passing into a period of manpower stringency. If the trend continues, emphasis will shortly be on determining which industries, defense and nondefense, are experiencing manpower shortages, and what manpower programs are necessary to insure the Nation's most effective use of its human resources. 2. At the same time, pockets of unemployed exist because of lack of skills, geographic isolation, cultural disadvantages, and other imperfections which impede the matching of men and jobs. 3. Manpower legislation enacted during the 1960's requires knowledge of job opportunities in specific areas across the country for training or retraining portions of our work force. The job opportunity (vacancy) information program, in conjunction with other occupational information tools, will help fulfill this requirement. By providing a better insight into the nature of available opportunities and imbalances between the kinds of workers needed and the kinds of skill they actually possess, the program will assist in designing improved programs for the retraining of workers with obsolescent skills who have been adversely affected by automation and technological change or those who have no skills at all. 4. There are many desirable jobs at the semiskilled and even the unskilled levels which are hard to fill for a number of reasons. These employment opportunities would be suitable for the "poverty" groups. Considerable interest in those job opportunities has arisen from those Federal and State agencies assigned the task of fitting disadvantaged workers into the "Great Society." 5. Job opportunity information will be useful in counseling younger workers and students and in guiding them to occupational choices which will provide better prospects for employment. 6. For employers, job opportunity information will assist worker recruitment and stimulate them to take an organized approach to their manpower needs. 7. To make possible the use of the data for analysis of operating problems and of the labor situation, statistical series of job opportunities will be developed on a National, State and local area basis as needed and where possible. The job opportunity program is designed to provide on a current basis, by area, industry, and occupation, detailed data on unfilled job stations in individual establishments and industries and the kinds of skills needed to fill them. Two experimental surveys to test the feasibility and usefulness of collecting much information were completed in each of the 16 pilot areas during fiscal year 1965. The reports demonstrated the feasibility of the program, willingness of employers to report the data, and the value of the information obtained. As the result of a comprehensive analysis of the data collected in fiscal year 1965, the experimental program is being continued in fiscal year 1966, with emphasis upon refinement of techniques, including more efficient ways of collecting openings data, exploration of methods to increase the operational uses of the data, and the establishment of valid statistical series. It is proposed in fiscal year 1967 to initiate a comprehensive system to determine, on a quarterly basis, the extent to which job openings exist, and to identify these openings in terms of occupation, wage levels, industry, and geographic area. The system will yield job opportunity information for at least 75 metropolitan areas. It is expected that additional tests of survey procedures, now being conducted, will demonstrate the feasibility of developing estimates of occupational shortages for each State and for the country as a whole, within the budget here proposed. For fiscal year 1967, the program will require an additional 172 positions and $1,500,000 over the base staff of 50 positions and $295,000 in the State agencies as auhorized by Congress for fiscal year 1965. Federal requirements are justified in the "Salaries and expenses, Bureau of Employment Security" appropriation. Fiscal year 1965 program YOUTH SERVICES To mobilize the resources of the public employment service to deal effectively with the mounting employment problems of youth, a nationwide network of youth opportunity centers was initiated in the employment service system during fiscal year 1965. By the end of the year, centers in 39 areas, administered by the State agencies under Federal leadership and in accordance with prescribed standards of staffing and services, were in operation. Each center is organized and staffed to meet the employment problems of youth in the area and with particular emphasis on the needs of the disadvantaged. A special feature of these centers is an "outreach" program to seek out the disadvantaged youth most in need of service but who would not normally avail themselves of the assistance provided by the local offices. The centers are: (a) available to all youth; (b) staffed by trained youth employment specialists who are assisted by volunteer workers and cooperating community groups; (c) in locations which are readily accessible to all youth; (d) providing young people with one clearly designated place to go for higher personalized services relating to job preparation and placement. Fiscal year 1965 expenditures were $31.9 million, including $25.0 million from basic grants to States and $6.9 million from Manpower Development and Training Act funds. Fiscal year 1966 program In fiscal year 1966, the Employment Service is strengthening its program of services to youth through an increase in the number of youth opportunity centers throughout the country and by staff additions in centers already in operation. In this way, specialized services for youth are provided in the major population centers of the Nation and in those areas, both smaller communities and rural, where the number of youth and economic conditions warrant special organization. In fiscal year 1966, the Congress authorized a general fund appropriation to partially finance the expanded youth service program. Total additional funds approved for youth services were $30 million and provided for the establishment of additional centers in 100 areas, expansion of the staff in all centers, and expansion of youth staff in local offices outside youth opportunity centers. By the end of fiscal year 1966 the program will be at an annual rate of $75.7 million. Fiscal year 1967 The fiscal year 1967 estimates for youth services to provide only for placing the total program on a full-year basis. No program expansion is planned. To place the centers and staff which are operational at the end of 1966 on a fullyear basis will require $75.7 million, plus $3.2 million in mandatory salary increases for a total of $78.9 million. Because of the trust fund limitation and the necessity to provide for mandatory and program increases under grants to States, a portion of youth services must be financed under general revenue in 1967. The grants to States limitation provides for $55,944,000 from the trust fund and the advances for employment services provides for $23 million from general revenue. |