E.S.C. quarterly

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Worth Carolina State Library
Raleigh
N. C
Doc.
Lost
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ARMED FORCES VETERANS
FIND HARD TIMES
IN CIVILIAN JOB MARKET.
WITH UNEMPLOYMENT
HIGH AMONG EX-SERVICEMEN,
STATE AND FEDERAL
GOVERNMENTS ACT TO
GIVE VETERANS NATION'S
HIGHEST JOB PLACEMENT
PRIORITY.
ESC QUARTERLY
VOLUME 29 NO. 1-4
CHAIRMAN'S
COMMENTS
Henry E. Kendall
Chairman
N. C. Employment
Security Commission
KENDALL
During Governor Bob Scott's administration, the North
Carolina General Assembly legislated the reorganization
of State government, ostensibly to reduce the number of
department heads reporting directly to the Governor,
and with an eye to increased efficiency and lower cost of
State Government operations.
When the changes were made the Employment
Security Commission became aligned with nine other
State agencies in a department called Commerce under a
Secretary appointed by the Governor. Scott's
appointment was Irvin Aldridge.
Governor Jim Holshouser has appointed a 36-year-old
Charlotte insurance executive, Tenney I. Deane, Jr., as
the first Republican Commerce Secretary.
Deane's Deputy Secretary is Laney Funderburk, Jr., a
tall personable young man who was Alumni Secretary at
Duke University at the time of his appointment, and we
asked the Duke graduate to let us have an article on the
Commerce Department so we could publish it in the ESC
Quarterly. He did and we did, and we hope you enjoy
reading the article which is the opening story.
In this issue we have departed from our usual practice
of featuring a specific Tarheel industry or specific
Employment Security Commission department. Instead
we have published a scattering of articles illustrating the
activities of several programs within the Commission-technical
services, testing, occupational analysis,
employer relations and others.
We have a story on Job Bank, prepared by the
supervisor of this program, Rhett Chamberlain. A system
to provide quick, timely job referral service to applicants
by computerizing employers' job orders, Job Bank is
innovative, envisionary, experimental, national, and
according to Chamberlain, sometimes exasperating. It's
the public employment program's newest employment
service device and great things are expected from it.
Computers are also being used now by the
Employment Security Commission in employment
service and unemployment insurance data processing,
and our acclimatized basement has some rather
sophisticated and impressive hardware. Our mustachioed
systems analysis supervisor, Joe Elliott, gives us a sharp
piece on page 31 about the ESC computer operation.
National and state governments continue to give
special emphasis to employment of veterans.
Unemployment among Vietnam era veterans has been as
high as double the national adult average rate and
joblessness among 20-25 year old veterans has reached a
rate four times higher than national averages.
Concerned, of course, with this high level, the federal
government has enacted laws pertaining to compulsory
job listings by employers for veterans and here in North
Carolina our Veterans Employment Service is working
hard to place veterans in civilian employment. You're
informed about this in an article on page 11 and you will
also learn about the Department of Veterans and Military
Affairs participation with veterans employment in an
article on page 9.
THE
ESC QUARTERLY
Volume 29, No. 1-4, 1973
Issued at Raleigh, N. C, by the
EMPLOYMENT SECURITY COMMISSION
OF NORTH CAROLINA
Commissioners
P. R. Latta, Raleigh; Charles L. Hunley, Monroe;
Henry E. Kendall, Raleigh; Samuel F. Teague,
Raleigh; R. Archie Parker, Murfreesboro; Walter A.
Orrell, Lir.wood; Harvey D. Heartley, Raleigh.
State Advisory Council
Public representatives: Hoyle T. Efird, Chairman,
Gastonia; Way S. Abel, Canton; Sherwood Rober-son,
Robersonville; Mrs. W. Arthur Tripp, Green-ville;
Mrs. M. Edmund Aycock, Raleigh. Employer
representatives: Joseph D. Ross, Jr., Asheboro;
G. Maurice Hill, Drexel. Employee representa-tives:
Melvin Ward, Spencer, AFL.
HENRY E. KENDALL Chairman
R. FULLER MARTIN Director
Unemployment Insurance Division
JOHN B. FLEMING Director
State Employment Service Division
JOHN L ALLEN Director
Administrative Services Division
H. E. (Ted) DAVIS Editor
Public Information Officer
Sent free upon request to respons; ble individuals,
agencies, organizations and libraries
Address: E.S.C. Information Service,
P. O. Box 25903, Raleigh, N. C.
The Employment
Security Commis-sion
administers
two major State
programs — Un-employment
In-surance
and the
State Employ-ment
Service. The
Employment Ser-vice
provides ex-pense
free job
placement to ap-plicants
through 60 local offices of the Commission.
Unemployment insurance covers approximately
1,738, 000workers in North Carolina, providing them
with benefit payments in case of involuntary unem-ployment.
The Unemployment Insurance program is
supported by payroll taxes contributed by approxi-mately
91,000 Tarheel employing companies, firms
and corporations. The Commission has operated since
the mid '30's when it was established by the General
Assembly as the Unemployment Compensation Com-mission.
COMMERCE DEPARTMENT COMBINES
ASSORTED STATE AGENCIES
By LANEY FUNDERBURK, JR.
Deputy Director, Department of Commerce
The North Carolina Department of
Commerce is one of the most
interesting and probably the most
diverse of the 17 executive
departments of State Government.
Virtually all citizens of the State are
influenced by the actions of most if not
all of the ten agencies which make up
the Department.
Broadly stated, the mission of the
Department of Commerce is to protect
the interests of the public and of
businesses serving the public through
fair regulations, to promote a high level
of employment, and to administer
payment of unemployment insurance
and workmen's compensation pay-ments.
The Department of Commerce, along
with 16 other new umbrella
departments, was formed when the
General Assembly passed the Execu-tive
Organization Act of 1971. Some
300 existing agencies, commissions,
and boards were transferred into these
new departments.
Eight of the ten new Department of
Commerce agencies had previously
been independent and two, The
Savings and Loan Division and The
Credit Union Division, had been
divisions of other State departments.
Each of the agencies has at its head a
commission or board appointed by the
Governor, and all exercise broad
policy-making authority and make
judicial or quasi-judicial determina-tions.
The Department of Commerce
began to function in March, 1972.
Following the election of Governor Jim
Holshouser in November, 1972, he
appointed Tenney I. Deane, Jr., a
Charlotte businessman, to serve as
Secretary.
Many of the readers of the ESC
Quarterly are aware of the mission and
goals of the Employment Security
Commission. It is important, however,
that all become more familiar with the
other nine sister agencies, even though
their duties and responsibilities are
quite diverse and seemingly unrelated.
The Employment Security Commis-sion
served more than 200,000 citizens
through its Employment Services
Division during the past year, and
supervised payments of Unemploy-ment
Insurance to 83,000 of 1,500,000
covered workers. The network of sixty
local offices throughout the State is a
vital link with citizens who need
assistance. Employees of the Commis-sion
are engaged in a variety of
activities, which include recruitment,
counseling, testing, placement, pay-ment
of benefits, and analyzing labor
market information. Special programs
such as CEP (Concentrated Employ-ment
Program) and WIN (Work
Incentive Program) and working with
veterans have been quite successful
this year in reaching particular groups
of people with particular employment
problems. Federal funds support
entirely the operation of the
Employment Security Commission.
Following are sections about the nine
other Department of Commerce
agencies:
The State Board of Alcoholic Control
is responsible for controlling all aspects
of the sale and distribution of alcoholic
beverages in North Carolina. The
State's ABC system is unique among
the 50 states, although it is officially
one of eighteen "control" states in
which all phases of the alcoholic
beverage industry are regulated by the
State. North Carolina's uniqueness is
centered in the fact that there are 118
separate county and municipal ABC
Boards which are responsible for the
sale of alcoholic beverages in their
county, city, or town. In each case a
vote of the people was required to
establish the system. The State Board,
however, controls the shipment of
liquor into the State and has a state-run
warehouse from which shipments
go to the stores. The State Board
controls the issuing of more than 23,000
permits annually. Taxes from the sale
of alcoholic beverages represents the
fourth largest source of revenue to the
State. In fiscal 1971-72 the net
collection from alcoholic beverage
taxes resulted in $60.5 million for the
state and $8.3 million for local
governmental units. In addition, local
governments received $7.5 million
from beer and unfortified wine excise
taxes. In 1970-71 (the last year for
which figures are available) local
governments received $19.5 million in
net profits from sales of $178.2 million
in 325 local ABC stores.
The North Carolina Banking
Commission and the Commissioner of
Banks are responsible for the safe
conduct of business; the maintenance
of public confidence; and the protection
of the interests of depositors, creditors,
shareholders of more than 1500 finan-cial
institutions and licensees. The
Commission oversees, through joint
field examinations with the FDIC and
the Federal Reserve Bank of Rich-mond,
the conduct of business of 69
state chartered banks and their 623
branches and 24 trust departments.
North Carolina has both state
chartered and federally chartered
banks. The Commission has super-visory
authority over state chartered
institutions only. First Citizens Bank
and Trust Company is the largest state
chartered bank while Wachovia and
NCNB vie for the title among the
federally chartered banks. The
Commission is also responsible for
licensing 690 consumer finance
companies, 119 funeral homes which
offer pre-need burial contracts, and
seven Sale of Checks Act Companies.
During the past year more than 150
applications for new banks and banking
offices were heard by the Banking
Commission. Assessments and fees
from the regulated institutions defray
all costs of operating the agency.
Perhaps one of the lesser known
agencies of State Government and the
Department of Commerce is the Office
of the Burial Commissioner, which is
responsible for auditing records and
accounts of more than 375 Mutual
Burial Associations with 1.5 million
members and 146 publicly-owned
perpetual care cemeteries. This is a
special fund agency which received no
appropriation from the State, but is
financed entirely by contributions from
the associations and businesses it
regulates.
Just as there are State chartered
and federally chartered banks in North
Carolina, there are also state and
federally chartered credit unions. The
Credit Union Division administers the
laws and regulations governing the
operations of 219 state chartered credit
unions, which serve more than 225,000
citizens. Credit Unions are cooperative
nonprofit corporations organized to
promote thrift and to create a source of
ESC QUARTERLY
credit for loans to members. Assets of
these credit unions grew to more than
$200 million in 1972. The Credit Union
Division was transferred to the
Department of Commerce from the
Agriculture Department in 1971. This
is a special fund agency which operates
on assessments from the credit unions
it regulates.
The North Carolina Industrial Com-mission
administers the Workmen's
Compensation Act and also serves as
the court which hears and processes
tort claims (negligency actions) filed
against State departments and
agencies, and has jurisdiction over
death claims filed by such workers as
firemen, rescue squads, and law
enforcement officers who die in the line
of duty. In 1972 the Industrial
Commission processed approximately
180,000 workmen's compensation
claims, of which some 2,500 individual
cases were heard by members of the
Commission and Deputy Commis-sioners.
The Industrial Commission
also administers a safety program and
received funding by the 1973 General
Assembly to begin a medical
rehabilitation section. The 1973
General Assembly also raised the
workmen's compensation maximum
weekly benefit from $56 to $80 and the
total maximum benefit from $20,000 to
$32,500.
The North Carolina Milk Commission
was formed in 1953 to assure a uniform
and adequate supply of wholesome
milk for the citizens of the State. The
Commission has the authority to
regulate the production, marketing,
and distribution of milk and to
suppress unfair, unjust, or destructive
trade practices. The Commission has
adopted marketing regulations which
affect processors in their dealings with
dairy farmers, including the establish-ment
of minimum prices which dairy
farmers receive for different classes of
milk. The actions of the Milk Commis-sion
directly affect about 2,000 grade A
dairy farmers, 42 processors, 93 branch
plants, and 113 sub-distributors. The
Milk Commission is a special-fund
agency which is funded entirely from
assessments paid by both producers
and processors.
The Rural Electrification Authority's
objective is to secure electric and
telephone service for rural citizens of
the State. The Authority investigates
requests for service and where
necessary assists in the formation and
operation of membership corporations,
including securing loan funds from
federal sources. In 1973 the Authority
reported that 290,000 electric members
and 52,000 telephone members
received service from organizations
TENNEY I. DEANE, JR., Secre-tary
of Commerce, is a graduate of
Davidson College where he met
Governor Holshouser. He is the son
of a Presbyterian minister and grew
up in northern Florida. Deane is a
businessman with a background in
industrial insurance and is a
Chartered Property and Casualty
Underwriter. He spent the last 9
years in Charlotte. Hobbies include
photography, camping, and flying.
He is a Rotarian.
M. LANEY FUNDERBURK, JR.,
Deputy Secretary of Commerce, is a
native of Mt. Holly, North Carolina,
who has lived in Durham since
entering Duke University in 1957.
Upon graduation from Duke, he
joined the Duke University Depart-ment
of Alumni Affairs where he
served in a variety of capacities
before being named Alumni Secre-tary
in 1968. He is a Methodist and a
Kiwanian. He is married to the
former Lois Copeland of Charlotte,
and they have two children.
WILLIAM L. COLE, Assistant
Secretary of Commerce, spent 20
years in the U.S. Army and retired
as a Lt. Col. He entered State
Government in March, 1972, when
he moved to Raleigh, his wife's
hometown. The Coles have two
teenage sons. Hobbies are "gentle-man
farming" and telling war
stories.
Administrators of the new Department of Commerce are [L to R] M. Laney
Funderburk, Jr., Deputy Secretary, Tenney I. Deane, Jr., Secretary, and
William L. Cole, Assistant Secretary. The Department combines 10 State
agencies.
under their jurisdiction. There are 28
electric membership corporations and
9 telephone membership corporations
in the State.
The Savings and Loan Division of the
Department of Commerce was
transferred from the Insurance
Department in 1971. It administers,
through field examinations, the affairs
of 140 state chartered savings and loan
associations which serve 700,000
savings customers and 220,000 borrow-ing
customers. Assets of these associa-tions
total $3,034 billion and are
growing at the rate of about $500
million annually.
The Utilities Commission is the
second largest Commerce agency. The
Commission acts as a court and
administers such functions as auditing,
reviewing, and regulating activities
and services of the various public
utility firms in the State. During 1971
the Commission and its staff conducted
244 separate hearings, including 41
general rate cases. During this same
(See COMMERCE, Page 29)
ESC QUARTERLY
VARIED TECHNICAL SERVICES AVAILARLE TO EMPLOYERS
By TOM J. BUMGARNER
ESC Occupational Analyst
What does an employer do when his
operations are threatened by high
rates of absenteeism or quitting? When
he can't find the workers needed for
expansion? When training costs are
excessive? When new workers can't
learn their jobs quickly? When morale
drops? When complaints mount? When
he needs to redesign jobs—to simplify
them, or perhaps combine or "enrich"
jobs to make them more interesting?
How does an employer, particularly
if he does not have a large personnel
department, cope with such acute
manpower problems?
For most, it is still "do-it-yourself."
Some may try to locate an outside
consultant claiming expertise in
solving particular problems. Others
obtain assistance from a department in
the Employment Security Commission
in Raleigh, known as the Employer
Technical Services Section.
Through this department the
employer may obtain the services of a
team of skilled personnel technicians,
all trained as occupational analysts.
Formerly known as "Industrial
Services," this department has exper-tise
in a variety of manpower fields. It
can send an analyst to the employer's
place of business to assist him in
analyzing the causes of his difficulties
and in applying proven techniques in
solving them.
Often the problem is not what the
employer believes it to be. To make an
accurate diagnosis, the Occupational
Analyst studies the causes of absen-teeism,
turnover, recruitment or reten-tion
difficulties, low morale, or exces-sive
training costs. In some instances
an employee attitude survey is
conducted. Better personnel records
may be designed. Aptitude test valida-tion
may be arranged. Job content may
be analyzed—or someone on the
employer's staff may be given training
in job analysis.
All of the techniques applied are
those either developed or approved by
the U.S. Employment Service.
Technical assistance is confidential;
only the employer has access to study
findings and reports.
And there is no charge for technical
services provided by E.S.C.
The technical services program has
been in existence almost as long as the
public employment service which was
established in 1933. In the early days a
small staff worked out of the ESC
central office to provide occupational
analysis services to employers. Many
times there was a backlog of several
months' work waiting to be done. It
was not until 1966 that technical
services was given renewed emphasis
with the addition of staff to be
stationed around the State, readily
•available to local offices and employers.
The highly industrialized Piedmont and
the western part of the State were
divided into areas with three occupa-tional
analysts stationed at strategic
locations. The mainly rural eastern
part of the State continued to be
served by State office staff.
What does the Technical Services
Department do? It helps employers,
educational and training institutions,
labor organizations, other government
agencies, and community groups to
resolve manpower problems connected
with the selection, recruitment,
development, utilization, and stabiliza-tion
of their work forces.
We provide maximum assistance to
employers who are experiencing
multiple manpower problems that are
likely to affect the work force. Where
possible we train a representative of
the company rather than perform the
service, except in cases of firms with
multiple manpower problems or in
connection with problems related to
new, hard-to-fill or "entry" jobs.
Here's a more detailed explanation of
the tools and techniques most fre-quently
used in assisting employers:
Job Information
This can range from a simple one-sentence
job description to a detailed
job analysis schedule, depending on
need. By actually observing and inter-viewing
the worker, we determine
what the worker does, how he does it,
and why he does it, and the skills
involved. Properly written job descrip-tions
are prerequisites for most
personnel functions such as recruit-ments,
screening, placement, training,
and up-grading of workers.
A job study can yield a vast amount
of information useful in resolving man-power
problems, as illustrated in the
following case histories:
—In a printing firm, assistance was
provided by using job analysis informa-tion
and the Dictionary of Occupational
Titles [DOT] to classify jobs and assign
standard titles and codes, enabling the
employer to establish more realistic
hiring requirements, identify entry
level jobs, and be more objective in
establishing wage rates. Job specifi-cations
were prepared for use by the
local ESC office in referring job appli-cants.
BUMGARNER
—In a machine shop, we studied jobs
at the request of the employer to
provide a basis for a job evaluation
study to be conducted by the employer.
Job analysis information also provided
information on other areas of concern
to the employer, e.g., review of the
physical demands and environmental
conditions revealed possible health
hazards and serious housekeeping
deficiencies.
Assistance is available to employers
in the form of training or actual prepa-ration
of selected job descriptions
where multiple manpower problems
exist. Training is also offered in the use
of a position classification format. If a
personnel manager prefers training in
job analysis, it can be arranged
through ESC's Occupational Analysis
Field Center.
ESC QUARTERLY
Opinion Or Attitude Survey
This popular technique is used by the
Technical Services Department to
assist employers in resolving man-power
problems related to recruit-ment,
morale, absenteeism, and reten-tion
of workers. The surveys also help
employers plan policies and programs
to prevent these problems from
developing.
Since the current labor shortage in
North Carolina has made it hard to
recruit additional or replacement
employees, opinion surveys are
proving to be one of the most effective
tools available to management for
determining workers' dissatisfactions
and implementing policies and
programs to retain present employees.
Prior to conducting an opinion
survey we visit company officials to
discuss procedures for conducting the
survey and to determine their sincerity
in regard to implementing changes and
programs that would reduce or
eliminate employee dissatisfaction. If
the employer is unwilling to change,
the attitude survey is pointless.
The next step is to assist company
officials to select approximately 40
questions appropriate to their
particular situation. The questions are
selected from 10 basic questions
covering such categories as: super-vision;
training and instruction; em-ployee
relations; wage-hours-shifts;
working conditions, safety and house-keeping;
production; and job and
equipment. Open-ended questions are
also used to permit employees to write
comments. A cover sheet explains the
purpose and gives instructions for com-pleting
the questionnaire.
Employees are assured their
responses will be confidential. A brief
talk is given to each group prior to
answering the questionnaire. No signa-ture
appears on the questionnaire, and
upon completion the employee places it
in a sealed box which is in the custody
of the ESC.
We tally responses to each question
by shift and department and prepare a
chart showing the trend of responses
and pointing out areas of dissatis-factions
by departments, shifts, and
categories. Write-in comments are
analyzed, summaries and recorded.
Based on analysis of the chart,
comments, and oral responses heard
while conducting the survey, we
prepare our recommendations. These
are discussed in a conference with
company officials.
During the past two years, we have
conducted opinion surveys in plants
varying in size from 45 to 1300
employees. Each survey has produced
information useful to management in
resolving morale problems and
planning goals in the future.
Turnover And Absenteeism Surveys
Unexplained employee resignations
at a high rate over a long period can be
an industry's most costly problem. We
help employers develop a system for
pinpointing the areas of greatest turn-over
and the causes of this turnover.
For such a study, existing interview
records are the best documents.
Absenteeism, like turnover, is costly
and often results in eventual loss of
workers. During recent years we have
helped employers reduce absenteeism
in some plants by as much as 80
percent. Several plants in the Pied-mont
area, with absentee rates of 15
percent or higher, have reduced absen-teeism
to a low of three percent—and
this was accomplished without a
significant loss of workers.
Our Technical Services Representa-tives
have instituted effective absentee
programs by establishing consistent
company policies that offer a rational
approach to dealing with work
absences. These policies govern
management and supervisory responsi-bilities,
keeping accurate and detailed
work records, and a system for con-trolling
actions to be taken by the
company. Rules must be simple and
reasonable, and must be known to
employees. They must be enforced
uniformly and fairly; violations must be
documented.
Before absentee policies are installed
we explain them to all company super-visors.
Each supervisor must be given
authority and responsibility for con-trolling
the attendance of his subordi-nates,
using the methods we suggest.
This approach has cut absenteeism
among employees with chronic
absentee records, and has improved
the morale of the majority of workers
who are always on the job.
To be sure, not all companies can
expect to achieve a two or three
percent absentee rate. Plant managers
are pleased if absenteeism is reduced
by one or two percentage points. If the
average rate is five percent, most
employers are satisfied.
Test Selection of Trainees
To aid employers in assessing an
inexperienced applicant's potential,
nothing is more useful than a validated
aptitude test. ESC has validated its
General Aptitude Test Battery for
more than 500 occupations. We
measure acquired skills and know-ledges
through our clerical skills
testing program. All ESC tests have
been standardized and validated to
predict success on the job, and are
highly regarded by employers and
authorities on vocational testing.
The Technical Services Represen-tative
may recommend occupational
testing to solve the following problems:
1. To improve the selection process
by measuring an inexperienced
applicant's potential ability to perform
a particular job;
2. To assist in evaluating the skills of
workers who have had experience of
training;
3. To assist in reducing turnover and
in resolving other manpower problems
that are being created or aggravated
by poor selection;
4. To assist in selecting trainees for
on-the-job training programs or
apprenticeable occupations.
When the need for testing is estab-lished,
an Occupational Analyst Repre-sentative
observes the job and
prepares a job specification. The job
specification is compared with the
appropriate technical report for the
Specific Aptitude Test Battery (SATB)
under consideration to determine
whether the duties are similar. If the
SATB is found to be appropriate, the
employer and local ESC office are noti-fied.
All ESC offices are equipped to
use tests in screening applicants.
Design Of Personnel Forms
Well-designed forms are essential to
the effective functioning of any
personnel system. Sample forms are
available to employers. Assistance is
also provided in adapting the forms to
the employer's individual needs.
Identifying Physical Demands Of Jobs
An example of this service is
provided by a project recently
undertaken at the request of the Social
Security Administration.
In 1969 the Social Security Adminis-tration
asked the Employment
Security Commission to conduct a pilot
study to identify light and sedentary
jobs in selected metropolitan areas in
North Carolina. Social Security's Board
of Appeals needed to know the types
and numbers of relatively unskilled
jobs in order to estimate the changes
for reemployment of handicapped
workers filing claims for "total disa-bility."
Occupational Analysts are now
engaged in locating jobs meeting U.S.
Labor Department definitions of "light
and sedentary" and with low levels of
(See TECHNICAL, Page 29)
ESC QUARTERLY
ERRORS COSTING
EMPLOYERS MORE
MONEY THAN DUE
"Many employers in North Carolina
are overpaying their unemployment
insurance taxes," according to R.
Fuller Martin, Director of the Unem-ployment
Insurance Division of the
Employment Security Commission.
"Our agency refunded nearly
$500,000 to companies and firms last
year because they simply sent more
money to the State than was required
under the unemployment insurance
law," he explained.
The Employment Security Law
requires liable employers to pay taxes
on the first $4,200 earned by each
covered employee on their payrolls.
During the first three years of liability,
new employers are required to pay 2.7
percent of their taxable payrolls. The
rate may subsequently drop if the
company has a history of low
unemployment.
Last year, according to the
Employment Security Commission, the
average UI tax rate in the State was
less than one percent. These tax
collections are deposited in the
employer's unemployment insurance
account.
In August employers are notified by
the Employment Security Commission
in Raleigh of their tax rates and the
balance in their accounts for the forth-coming
year.
"Some employers are getting these
notices confused and send a check to
the Commission in Raleigh for the
amount that is in their unemployment
insurance account," said Martin.
Currently about 87,000 employers
are paying unemployment insurance
taxes on almost 2.3 million workers.
Errors and overpayments will be
made by 3,000 employers each year,
reports the U.I. Director. "Employers
are happy to get refunds," he said, "but
time and money to audit these
payments are costly for the State. Of
course, the employer also loses the use
of his money about three months, too,
so watch those decimals."
TAX CREDIT
ENCOURAGES
ESC QUERIES 5.000 EMPLOYERS
SEEKING WORKER SKILL INFORMATION
The Employment Security Commis-sion
begins surveying worker skills and
job locations in almost 5,000 North
Carolina non-manufacturing business
firms, Chairman Henry E. Kendall has
announced.
One of a series of federal-state job
surveys, it will reach an estimated
100,000 employers across the nation
and North Carolina is one of 21 states
participating in the U.S. Labor
Department project.
Information gained will:
—provide accurate profiles on
worker-skill resources by industry and
trends in the numbers of workers
employed by occupation;
—identify geographic areas in which
worker skills are located;
—permit local, state, and ultimately
national projections of future worker-skill
requirements by industry, and
—identify emerging occupations and
occupations in which employment
opportunities are declining.
"This information will help govern-ment
officials at all levels plan
occupational and training programs,"
reports Don Brande, chief of
Employment Security Commission
research. "It will also help public and
private educators evaluate their
vocational guidance programs and
make certain these programs are
relevant."
The job' study is also expected to
help businesses and employee groups
keep abreast of occupational changes
within their industries, helping them
compare company patterns with those
of industry in general. Geographic
location of jobs will also be helpful to
management and labor.
Kendall urged all employers
receiving the. job study questionnaires
to cooperate with the State by
furnishing the requested information.
Reports from individual companies will
be kept confidential and data will be
published only in summary form.
Similar studies of jobs in wholesale
and retail trade, state and local
government and other sectors of the
economy are planned.
Employers hiring welfare recipients
under the federal-state Work Incentive
Program (WIN) can now claim 20
percent tax credit on wages paid these
workers during their first year of
employment, the Employment Security
commission has announced.
The tax credit encourages employers
to hire or place in on-the-job training
persons receiving Aid to Families with
Dependent Children (AFDC) grants
after they have been registered for
participation in WIN.
Called the "Job development" tax
credit, the new regulations are related
to the Talmadge Amendments of the
Social Security Act which requires all
adults over 16 receiving AFDC
payments to register for WIN to be
eligible to continue to receive benefits.
The Employment Security Commis-sion
explained that there are
exemptions. If the welfare recipient is
not in an exempt category, however,
the individual must accept work or
training when offered or lose part of his
welfare grant.
In North Carolina, the Department
of Social Services determines which
AFDC recipients are exempt from the
program, then registers all non-exempt
persons and any volunteers with local
offices of the Employment Security
Commission.
We'll try to find jobs for them or
on-the-job training opportunities to
equip them with the necessary skills to
retain permanent employment. Nearly
all registrants will be women, reports
the ESC.
County Social Services officers are
completing WIN registrations. After
interviewing individuals, and providing
day-care, and other services if needed,
the county office certifies that the
Welfare recipient is available for
referral to work or training.
Businessmen interested in hiring
WIN participants should contact their
local State Employment Office. The
office will refer available WIN
participants and will provide the
employer with a Labor Department
certification that the individuals were
enrolled in the Work Incentive
Program. This statement is required
by the Internal Revenue Service to
substantiate employers' claims for tax
credit on their IRS returns.
ESC QUARTERLY
N.C. PARTICIPATING IN
NATIONWIDE STUDY TO
EXAMINE U.I. COSTS
The nation's unemployment insur-ance
program is undergoing a cost
examination by the federal govern-ment.
Started last year, a state-by-state
analysis of UI costs is being conducted
by the Management Services Com-pany,
a Sacramento, California, based
consulting firm under contract to the
U.S. Labor Department.
In North Carolina the study began
June 11 and will be completed Nov. 8,
1973.
Purpose of the cost analysis project
is "to strengthen the planning, budget-ing,
and financial management capa-bilities
of the Unemployment Insur-ance
system."
According to the Management
Services' team guide manual, the
"Division of Budget Development and
Review" has begun a major project to
improve the ability of the Federal
Unemployment Insurance Service to
budget and allocate resources. The
effort requires analysis of costs to
accomplish Unemployment Insurance
activities in each state.
"The entire Unemployment Insur-ance
program is undergoing a series of
critical tests," the manual continues.
"Burdens on the system continue to
grow. New legislation has greatly
increased the number of persons
served. Court decisions have increased
the pressures for more timely service.
State UI Division Director R. Fuller
Martin says, "We hope that when the
project is completed it will act as an
instrument we can use to justify the
funds necessary for a more proper and
efficient administration of unemploy-ment
insurance than we're unable to
get now."
"In addition, competition throughout
government for an adequate share of
financial resources continues to put
greater demands upon financial
managers to accurately determine and
effectively display dollar require-ments."
Currently, employment security
agencies gather large amounts of data
on cost and achievements. Data is
collected to provide a basis for manage-ment
decisions to direct and control the
internal operations of each agency.
However, says the Management
Services Company, several difficulties
impair the effectiveness of the financial
management and budget processes:
—The accuracy of time expenditures
reported against various functional
codes by state agencies is unknown;
—Many budgeted workload values
are believed to be incorrect because of
system changes, varying workload
volume, and variations among state
laws;
—Agency administrators, regional
administrators, and national office per-sonnel
frequently have different con-ceptions
of what true costs really are
for different UI activities; and
—Relationships between budgeted
and actual expenditures and programs
objectives frequently are unclear.
Perhaps processes established by
the study will relieve these obscurities.
Requiring 5V2 months to complete,
results of the UI study will be used as a
basis of fiscal 75 budget requests,
officials hope.
The study will be divided into three
phases:
—Flow chart all unemployment
insurance activities, document the
quality standards of the agency and
design the study;
—Train monitors, test the design and
record actual time expenditures and
production counts; and,
—Analyze and summarize the time
expenditures and production counts
and construct a cost model (budget pro-cedures).
Hoping to determine the actual time
for each UI activity in greater detail
and to design a cost model that can be
used to budget time and staff, the
study also will determine the amount of
time to accomplish UI activities under
the North Carolina law in relationship
to the time required for activities
under other states' laws.
All Employment Security Commis-sion
unemployment insurance activi-ties
in the central office in Raleigh will
be studied as well as those in seven
selected local offices: Raleigh, Reids-ville,
Winston-Salem, Mount Airy,
Sanford, Lumberton, and Jacksonville.
In selecting the offices, Commission
officials sought diversity of size,
services, and location.
The 22-week project will provide two
study teams—a "nucleus team" and a
"monitor team." Monitors will use
eight weeks to measure time expendi-tures
and summarize findings immedi-ately.
The nucleus team, which will work
with the project for the entire 22
weeks, includes a representative of the
Management Services Company, sev-eral
systems analysts, and Systems
and Procedures Supervisor William
Foster as team leader.
Monitors will be analysts and other
persons from the ESC knowledgeable
in day-to-day UI operations. Joining
the study team about three weeks
before the measurement period, they
will remain about eight weeks and will
be primarily involved in collecting time
expenditure and production data.
Subsequent to the project, a compre-hensive
report will be prepared docu-menting
the study.
Members of the team assigned to study unemployment insurance costs are [L
to R] Bill Foster, Judy Wilson, Clement Mathews, John Ellis, Alvis Jordan,
Sue Stanko and Reuben Edwards. Foster is in charge of the team and Mrs.
Stanko is a consultant with the Management Services Company.
ESC QUARTERLY
Military And Veterans Affairs Dept.
Active In Efforts To Find Jobs
For Returning Vietnam Era Veterans
By COL. C. S. MANOOCH, JR.
Public Affair/Special Projects Officer
More for the Veteran—a new role for
the National Guard and a new name
and image for Civil Defense—all
received immediate attention when
John J. Tolson, III took the reins as
Secretary of the Department of
Military and Veterans Affairs in March
1973.
Tolson, a retired three star Army
General, brings a "get the job done"
attitude to the Department of Military
and Veterans Affairs, where he was
sworn in as Secretary on March 5,
1973.
The choice of Secretary Tolson to
head the new Department was a
popular one from statewide military
and civilian circles alike, and friends of
Tolson were quick to respond with
favorable comments.
A long-time friend at Fort Bragg said
Tolson is unlikely to accept things "just
like they are." "He is a hard worker, an
innovator, a man who likes to try new
things, even in the Army, and North
Carolina is likely to get the benefit of a
lot of his new ideas," he said. A
long-time associate at the Pentagon
said that Tolson is "one of those rare
individuals of the old Army who helped
the new Army bridge the generation
gap with young people."
Both opinions were correct, as
Secretary Tolson has already intro-duced
many new ideas, and his respect
and devotion to the young Vietnam
War era veteran has been apparent
during the first three months of his
tenure.
A North Carolina native, he attended
the University of North Carolina and
graduated from the U.S. Military
Academy at West Point. He served in
three wars during his 35 years of
distinguished military service, of which
more than nine years were spent over-seas.
During World War II he served
with the 503d Parachute Infantry
Regiment in the Pacific Theater, where
he participated in all jumps, to include
the recapture of Corregidor Island in
February 1945. He served as a Regi-mental
Commander and Division G-3
with the 82nd Airborn Division at Fort
Bragg, and later served as Command-ing
General, XVIII Airborne Corps and
Post Commander there. He also com-manded
the First Air Cavalry Division
in Vietnam for 15 x
li months. Other
principal assignments included Chief,
U.S. Military Assistance Advisory
Group to Ethiopia; Commanding
General, U.S. Army Aviation Center,
and Commandant, U.S. Army Aviation
School, Fort Rucker, Alabama.
While serving as Commanding
General, Fort Bragg, in 1969, he
started the development of "Opera-tion
Awareness," the first drug
rehabilitation program in the Army.
When the Department of the Army
inaugurated its first authorized and
directed Drug and Alcohol Abuse
Control Program in 1971, "Operation
Awareness" served as the model. Also
during this same period General Tolson
initiated a community service program
which was called "National Building,"
whereby troops at Fort Bragg helped
to improve the welfare of the less
fortunate in civilian communities
nearby. The Department of Defense
now endorses a similar nationwide
program called "Domestic Actions."
The Department of Military and
Veterans Affairs, springing from
government reorganization, was acti-vated
in March 1972, and is the arm of
State Government most directly
involved in military affairs and
veterans affairs in North Carolina.
Divisions within the Department
include the National Guard, Veterans
Affairs, Civil Preparedness, and the
Civil Air Patrol.
In the area of veterans affairs the
Department is deeply conscious of the
need to recognize the veteran, particu-larly
those from the Vietnam War era,
and to assist these veterans in finding
jobs. At the same time the role of
DMVA in obtaining jobs for veterans
has been a supporting one rather than
GEN. JOHN J. TOLSON
a directing one as jobs per se are the
responsibility of the Employment
Security Commission, assisted to a
large degree by the Veterans Employ-ment
Representatives.
From the beginning when the first
Job Fair was held last year at Camp
Lejeune, DMVA has supported efforts
to bring national, regional and local
employers and jobless veterans, or
soon-to-be veterans, to a common
meeting ground. The objective, of
course, is to provide employment to
our Vietnam War era veterans who
have found job hunting unlike and a
little more difficult than experienced
by veterans of previous wars.
The larger Job Fairs for veterans
were held last year at Camp Lejeune,
Seymour Johnson, and Fort Bragg. Job
Fairs are planned again this year at the
same military sites, and in addition at
Greensboro, Lumberton, Winston-
Salem, Asheville, Charlotte, High
Point, Rocky Mount, Salisbury and
Wilmington. Close coordination be-tween
the DMVA and the Employ-ment
Security Commission is being
maintained to affect mutual input into
the Job Fair effort. It is anticipated
that National Guard facilities and some
personnel will be used to assist the
local community effort.
ESC QUARTERLY
The Department of Military and
Veterans Affairs, through the National
Guard, is making a concentrated effort
to encourage employer support to the
National Guard. Governor Holshouser
took the initial step by signing a State-ment
of Support for the Guard and
Reserve and affirmed his State policy
to encourage Guard membership for
employees in State Government.
Of primary importance is the need to
keep the employer well informed of any
special awards or accomplishments
that his employee/Guardsman receives
from the National Guard. The
employer must be assured that his
employee/Guardsman will become a
better employee by virtue of his Guard
training, where he receives, among
other things, extensive leadership and
management experience which can be
applied profitably in his civilian job.
A major effort is being made to
change the image of Civil Defense from
one that deals primarily with atom
bombs, fallout shelters and response to
enemy attacks to one that coordinates
preparedness to and relief from all
hazards, natural and man-made.
Secretary Tolson recently announced
that emphasis should be placed on civil
preparedness rather than civil defense,
as it reflects the agency's functions
more accurately. He said, "I feel that
too many people associate the title
Civil Defense only with bomb shelters
and war. While shelters are still an
important part of our overall program,
there are other equally important
features of the organization.
COL. MANOOCH
The current restructuring of the
armed forces in the U.S. calls for a
small regular military establishment
and has placed the heaviest reliance in
history upon the National Guard as an
immediate ready force in the event of
future national emergencies. More
reliance on the Guard means that a
high state of training must be main-tained.
A higher state of training
means that Guardsmen will probably
have to spend more time away from
their civilian jobs, a situation already
"touchy" among Guard employers.
"The thrust of the activities from the
Office of Civil Defense today is
preparedness for assistance and
recovery in times of natural disasters
such as storms and floods. The title
Civil Preparedness more accurately
describes the functions of the agency."
The Department of Military and
Veterans Affairs is exercising close
coordination with the various counties
in North Carolina in affecting its Civil
Preparedness Program through an on-site
assistance effort. This provides a
real "grass roots" situation and a
chance for close work, research and
harmony between the members of the
State staff, local Civil Preparedness
personnel, as well as leaders of the
local communities. This commonality of
effort will assure a higher percentage
of community preparedness.
TO AID VETS, FEDERAL CONTRACTS
REQUIRE EMPLOYERS TO LIST JOR
0PENIN6S WITH EMPLOYMENT OFFICES
By MALCOLM ANSPACH
State Veterans Employment Representative
Public Law 92-540, known as the
"Vietnam-Era Veterans' Readjustment
Assistance Act of 1972," was signed on
October 24, 1972. The intent of
Congress in Title V of the act is to add
the authority of public law to the
President's Veterans' Program.
Because the basic apparatus already
existed in large parts in other laws and
mandates, this act made certain that
the veterans' services would receive
highest priority as ordered by the
President and the Congress of the
United States.
The benefits of the act are not
restrictive to veterans alone as the
program expands to include private
industry in even a larger role than it
has had in developing closer working
relationships with the Employment
Security Commission.
The mandatory listing of job
openings with the Employment Service
in cases where the employer has
contracts with the federal government
affects all public employment systems
by placing in their hands orders for
individual job openings up to $18,000
per year.
The Secretary of Labor's new regula-tion
requires all contractors and sub-contractors,
subject to Public Law
92-540 with contracts of $2,500 or more,
to list all suitable job openings with the
state employment system.
Although the Employment Service is
not an enforcing agency, it is
responsible to coordinate and develop
productive efforts in contacts.
referrals, and in an information
exchange.
The Secretary stated that "it cannot
be over-emphasized that the manda-tory
listing program under the new law
must be implemented by state agencies
in order to insure that the program
receives maximum emphasis and
renders the essential priorities
afforded by law to our veterans."
In light of the new laws and the
President's renewed mandate for
action, the Secretary of Labor has
instructed the Employment Service to
assist in the program expansion and
implementation. The responsibility
delegated by the Secretary of Labor
plans to:
1. Further reduce the number of
unemployed veterans.
2. Substantially reduce the unem-ployment
rate for the age 20 to 29
veteran to a level at or, if possible,
below that of non-veterans in the same
age group.
3. Focus special attention on serving
the disabled veterans, the Vietnam-Era
veterans, and minority veterans.
The Veterans Employment Service
of North Carolina has fully accepted the
challenge of fulfilling these goals and
will continue to implement its mandate
to make certain that greater and more
meaningful employment opportunities
are made available to every veteran.
As in the past, the local Veterans
Employment Representative in North
Carolina has made the program in our
State a notable success, and the
10 ESC QUARTERLY
two-year trend of growing unemploy-ment
among Vietnam-era veterans was
reversed. The number of unemployed
veterans was substantially reduced
until the rate for veterans now exceeds
non-veterans by less than one percent.
Finally, an accomplishment of signifi-cant
long-term value was the creation
of a new image for the Employment
Security Commission which affects
veterans and non-veterans alike. The
public communications, the involve-ment
in the community, and the
employer relations emphasis combined
with the higher degree of local office
awareness provided the formula for
success.
The effectiveness of the program
operations, with a multifaced promo-tional
effort and a high degree of
cooperation and coordination between
private and public sectors, highlight
the program during its developmental
phase and provided a stimulant in
serving the veterans of North Carolina.
However, this is not the time to
slacken our efforts and rest on our
laurels during a phase of high employ-ment
and low unemployment. Our
fluctuating economy will surely display
a time of desperate need to the public
for our services and we should be ready
with all efforts and resources to
provide the specific activities of the
Employment Services when this need
occurs.
Balance Of Efforts
Through an outreach program to
bring the applicant to our door and the
continued flow of the employers'
orders, we serve in placing the "right
man in the right job." It is our duty to
maintain a balance of efforts to provide
continuity of operations and service to
the public.
Programs such as the Mandatory
Listing of Jobs, Revenue Sharing, and
Employer Relations are but a few of
the tools with which we strengthen and
expand our efforts in serving the
people of North Carolina in their man-power
needs. The other face of our
work involves the professional attitude
that shows the public, including the
worker, that we are a service organiza-tion
devoted to their needs in obtaining
career information and assistance.
The 643,000 veterans of North
Carolina (including the new law defini-tions
of eligible veterans) are in
essence our responsibility in providing
services and special emphasis as
mandated by the President of the
United States and the law.
EMPLOYMENT REPRESENTATIVES SERVE
VETERANS IN ALL N.C. AREAS
The North Carolina Employment
Service and its Veterans Employment
Service celebrate a 40th birthday in
1973. In 1933, the Wagner-Peyser Act
provided for a Federal-State system of
public employment service, including a
mandate "to maintain a veterans
service to be devoted to securing
employment for veterans." It provided
for a distinct Veterans Employment
Service as an integral part of the public
employment service network. In its
history, the public employment service
at state and local levels in North
Carolina reflects a proud level of
accomplishment in service to all
veterans.
In November, 1971, the State was
given specific responsibility for imple-mentation
of the President's veterans
program to close the gap between
veteran and non-veteran unemploy-ment.
North Carolina Employment
Service responded to the task with
enthusiasm and vigor in providing
urgently needed employment assist-ance
to veterans. As a result, the level
of unemployment for veterans dropped
from 3.1 percent above non-veterans to
.5 percent above non-veterans in
January, 1973.
The United States Congress on
October 24, 1972, enacted Public Law
92-540 which amended Title 38, United
States Code, and reinforced the
Servicemen's Readjustment Act of
1944 (GI Bill of Rights) and the
Veterans Readjustment Act of 1952
and 1956. It continued to charge the
State Employment Service with
insuring that all veterans receive the
maximum of priority and job oppor-tunity
through employment, job
training, and supportive service.
The Employment Service has been
instrumental in North Carolina's
becoming one of the most effective and
well known strongholds for veterans
services. We remain in the top 10
states for overall services to veterans
and for excellence in services to
disabled veterans.
Working closely with the Veterans
Administration Regional Office, the
N.C. Department of Military and
Veterans' Affairs, and the N.C.
Veterans' Council, which includes the
major veterans organizations, the
Veterans Employment Service has
taken the lead at "grass root" level in
promoting veteran services. In each of
the 60 local offices, there is at least one
Veterans Employment Representative.
These employment specialists work
closely with other service organiza-tions
and with the local communities in
their area of responsibility. In today's
wide range of educational and employ-ment
specialties, the task of matching
the individual's needs with the occupa-tional
opportunities dictates that the
field staff of VER's become highly
skilled in outreach and occupational
counseling, and they must be totally
aware of the employment and training
impetus of the communities they serve.
With involvement in the developing
community action groups and veteran
task forces, and by virtue of his active
participation with local governments in
labor and training management, the
VER greatly increases his effective-ness
as an ambassador of the Employ-ment
Security Commission.
During the past months of the
economic whirlwind where thousands
of jobs go unfilled and industry grows
with leaps and bounds, the veteran
may find "stop gap" employment on
every corner. However, the program of
fitting the right job with the right
applicant is not an easy task. The
computer operator working in
construction or the school teacher in
the mill is not at all uncommon. Tradi-tional
placement service is fading to
emerge as career development and
individual job development service.
Weary of regimentation and with high
expectations, the young man returning
to civilian life finds his dreams smashed
with realities that the cold world's
interest is the weekly paycheck and not
his accomplishments or his contribu-tion
to the society he so desperately
wishes to join.
No matter how much emphasis the
federal government, state government
and local communities place on helping
the veteran, the veteran must become
fully aware of where and how he may
gain the information and help available
to him in pursuing his ambition and
career. Offering information and
guidance through communication with
the public and job promotion for the
(See VER, Page 38)
ESC QUARTERLY 11
June 6, 1973, marked the 40th anni-versary
of the establishment of the
Employment Service by the Wagner-
Peyser Act. As this milestone is
reached, it is appropriate to consider
the key to a successful placement
program—EMPLOYER RELATIONS.
Employer Relations is emphasized as
a top priority in all Employment
Security Commission office activities.
To understand the emphasis currently
afforded to employer relations, a brief
review of Employment Service history
is needed. Since its establishment in
1933, the Employment Service has
been characterized by continuing adap-tation
to changing economic and social
needs. Prior to the last decade, the
Employment Service was largely
employer oriented, maintaining a basic
labor exchange function in the job
market. It was a major source of
recruitment and placement of workers
during World War II. During the
Sixties, much legislation based largely
on social conscience was enacted. A
large proportion of these laws were
given to the Employment Service for
translation into actual services.
The emphasis shifted to training and
supportive services, largely for those
persons who were socially, educa-tionally,
and economically disadvan-taged.
The Employment Service found
many of these socially-oriented
programs a challenge and channeled its
resources toward providing employa-bility
development for the disadvan-taged.
As the frequent advocate of the
unemployed and underemployed job
seeker, the Employment Service
became less acceptable as a labor
exchange for many employers and fully
qualified job seekers, and placements
had declined dramatically by the end of
the decade.
The diversion of the Sixties helped
the Employment Service mature. It
grew in its capacity to serve the special
employment needs of the disadvan-taged.
Although the disadvantaged
comprise only one of many groups of
applicants served, probably no group
presents a greater challenge because of
inherent characteristics. By learning to
better serve this group, the Employ-ment
Service simultaneously improved
its ability to help those who offer less
challenge.
An equally important learning from
the experience of the sixties was the
realization that as a labor exchange,
the Employment Service must be
equally responsive to the needs of
applicants and employers. It must
reach out to the employer and seek to
EMPLOYER
RELATIONS
ESC SEEKS CLOSER
ALLIANCE TO N. C.
EMPLOYERS THROUGH
ACCURATE APPRAISAL
OF IN-COMPANY NEEDS
AND QUICK PLACEMENT
OF APPLICANTS IN
ALL OCCUPATIONS AND
JOB CATEGORIES
By JOHN BRIDGES
Super., Employer Relations
understand his needs. In response to
the identified needs, the Employment
Service must seek to meet those needs
with comprehensive manpower ser-vices.
It must provide qualified appli-cants
to fill the employer's job
vacancies in all occupational and skill
categories. Through its Industrial
Services program, the Employment
Service must share its technical exper-tise
with employers large and small to
aid them in resolving personnel
problems, such as absenteeism and
turnover. In short, if the Employment
Service is to operate a labor exchange,
it must have ample job orders.
Employers provide the job orders.
Employers will use the Employment
Service only if it provides a service the
employers need and want. The current
emphasis on employer relations is
soundly based. The operation of a
viable placement service requires that
each Employment Security Commis-sion
office develop and maintain effec-tive
relationships with the employer
community—the fountainhead of job
opportunity.
The seventies ushered in an Employ-ment
Service redirected to its funda-mental
purpose—job finding assistance
for all who request assistance. In North
Carolina, an intensive effort to revita-lize
services to employers and reverse
the downward trend of job openings
listed with the Employment Service
was launched in 1971, reinforced by a
U.S. Department of Labor sponsored
conference in Kansas City, Missouri,
May 16-21, 1971. The employment
Service in collaboration with North
Carolina Manpower Development
Corporation, a non-profit research
organization partly funded by the U.S.
Department of Labor, analyzed
employer services activities and needs.
Employers, applicants, and local office
personnel were consulted for recom-commendations
and ideas. The result
was a multi-phased employer services
development model which was adopted
by the Agency in late 1971. This model
included a training curriculum for
employer relations representatives and
plans for an aggressive outreach
program to secure wider acceptance by
employers and applicants.
On an administrative area basis, area
supervisors and local ofice managers
attended one-day orientation meetings
designed to increase their awareness of
the employer relations process and
their responsibilities for its develop-ment.
Orientation stressed the need for
adequate placement back-up to deliver
job applicants promptly on job orders
received during the planned aggressive
outreach to employers. Employers
were invited and attended each session
for direct input into this development
stage.
Following manager orientation in
each area, local employer relations
representatives attended three days of
training. These sessions utilized
awareness training techniques to help
the participants develop an increased
awareness of themselves and others,
and ultimately to build improved skills
in interpersonal relationships. This
experiential approach to training
enhanced the effectiveness of employer
contacts subsequently made by those
who attended. Training in eight
administrative areas was completed
between January 21 and September 8,
1972.
The enhancement of the employer
relations process through awareness
training was a significant advancement
for the Agency. Not only did it provide
relief from the traditional classroom
atmosphere, but it penetrated to the
very core of employer relations,
indeed, any area of human relations-human
needs and motivation in inter-personal
relationships. Successful
employer relations requires an aware-
12 ESC QUARTERLY
BRIDGES
ness of why people act as they
do—what motivates them. In the face-to-
face interview or even a telephone
discussion with an employer, the
Employer Relations Representative
first must be aware of himself, under-standing
and controlling his own
behavior; likewise, he must try to
understand the employer with his
unique needs and motivational
sources—what makes him think, feel,
and act as he does.
Not the least consideration is the
sometimes subtle non-verbal communi-cation
in the employer's gesture or
glance. An increased awareness of the
dynamics of interpersonal relationships
equips the Employer Relations Repre-sentative
to practice the art of per-suasion,
required to convince the
employer community that the Employ-ment
Service can serve his best
interest. The employer relations
program is sales oriented, but selling is
not manipulative. Part of the purpose
of the awareness training is to increase
ability to sense real needs. It is then
the responsibility of the Employer
Relations Representative to select
appropriate solutions from the numer-ous
resources of the Employment
Service to help fill the employer's
identified need. Of course, the primary
resource is the labor exchange, job
seekers to fill job openings. Simply, the
Employer Relations Representative
pursues the salesman's motto: "Find A
Need and Fill It."
The image of the Employment
Security Commission as a public
agency greatly affects its effectiveness.
If the traditional low profile is main-tained,
public acceptance is left to
chance, and chances are that accep-tance
will be equally low keyed, if not
negative.
Too long the Agency has allowed the
public to think of its offices as the
"Unemployment Office." To visualize
only long lines of unemployed and
unemployable persons is a misconcep-tion
of the Employment Security
Commission. To allow this and negative
feelings about the Agency's association
with the disadvantaged is a disservice
to job seekers and employers who
would use the Employment Service if
they knew the full story. It is true that
the Agency administers the Unemploy-ment
Insurance program; but addi-tionally,
the Employment Service
operates the largest labor exchange in
the State and Nation. It is true that the
Agency provides special assistance to
the disadvantaged, including Welfare
recipients; but it is also true that the
Employment Service helps find jobs for
engineers, computer programmers,
electricians, and secretaries. A low
profile with scanty publicity and under-statement
allows half-truth and myth
to flourish and can virtually destroy
the effectiveness of the Agency as a
labor exchange.
On the other hand, if the Agency
aggressively seeks high visibility,
much can be done to influence public
opinion positively. The Employment
Service Division of the Employment
Security Commission has the necessary
technology, equipment and competent
staff to translate the public laws that
entitle all citizens to free job-finding
assistance into realized services-people
placed in jobs that need them.
As a labor exchange, the Employment
Service can operate effectively only if
employers and job seekers both know
about and use the system. In fact, the
more widely the Employment Service
system is accepted and used, the more
effectively it works.
The Employment Security Commis-sion
of North Carolina seeks high visi-bility.
Far from hat-in-hand and apolo-getic,
the Employment Service is
proud of the services offered and
intends to let the people know. The
recently installed statewide network of
Job Banks for computerized place-ment
assistance attests to the commit-ment
of the Agency to placement
objectives. Over 90,000 letters were
mailed to employers across North
Carolina to announce the installation of
this system and solicit use of the Job
Bank. Local Office personnel made
35,667 visits to employers during 1972,
an increase of 17.6 percent over 1971.
Job openings listed with the Employ-ment
Service totaled 189,349 in 1972,
a substantial gain of 28 percent over
1971. These results are gratifying, but
the real accomplishment was 90,877
placements, an increase of almost 14
percent over 1971.
(See RELATIONS, Page 38)
LAW CHANCED ON
U.I. ENTITLEMENT
DURING PREGNANCY
By HARRY HARRISON
ESC Chief Counsel
On April 11, the 1973 session of the
N.C. General Assembly ratified House
Bill 640, amending the Employment
Security Law of North Carolina so that
women may now qualify for unemploy-ment
insurance benefits during periods
of pregnancy.
Previously, pregnant women were
not entitled to benefits three months
prior to or three months subsequent to
the birth of the child.
Under the old law they were auto-matically
ineligible for six months.
The amended law, however, rules
that pregnant women will be treated
in the same manner as any other
claimant, and that their rights to
benefits will be determined upon the
basis of their physical ability and
availability to employment.
Officials believed the prior law was
discriminatory solely on the basis of
the individual's sex, i.e., that it was in
violation of the equal protection clause
of the 14th amendment of the Constitu-tion
and a similar provision in North
Carolina statutes. Objections to the
prior pregnancy provisions were based
on the principle that non-discrimination
requires that a woman be considered
on her individual capacity and not on
the basis of any characteristic
generally attributed to females.
The trend to abolish the 6-month
ineligibility period for pregnant women
actually began with passage of the Civil
Rights Act in 1964 which prohibited
discrimination because of race, color,
sex, religion and national origin. With-in
the next few years courts began
recognizing federal policy by system-atically
eliminating sex discrimina-tion
as contrary to law and public
policy.
It was believed that the prior law
denied the pregnant woman equal pro-tection
under the laws, failing to
consider her willingness to work, her
ability to perform on the job, or her
personal medical safety.
The amended law provides that
women claimants should be determined
eligible or ineligible for unemployment
insurance benefits on their being
"able" and "available" for work the
same as now applied to male claimants.
ESC QUARTERLY 13
NORTH CAROLINA INITIATES
COMPUTERIZED JOB LISTINGS
JOB BANK
By RHETT CHAMBERLAIN
Systems and Procedures Supervisor
North Carolina has a statewide job
bank network fully compatible with the
national network which allows com-plete
interchange with job banks of
other states.
It started a number of years ago
when the United States Employment
Service recognized the limitations
inherent in the system of a small group
of interviewers working with the appli-cant
group they interviewed and the
employer's job orders they took.
Except when either applicants or
orders were superabundant, both
applicant and employer were indeed
lucky when either the best man for the
job or the best job for the man got to
the same group of interviewers at the
same time. By the 'sixties the man-job
matching techniques of the 'thirties
had been substantially improved.
However, the concept of the system
itself remained unchanged. Change in
basic procedural concepts was essential
because the world had changed. It had
grown smaller as transportation sped
up. The labor market had changed and
mobility of labor had become a common
phrase. To meet the new and rapidly
changing needs of both employers and
applicants, the Employment Service
had to find a way to broaden the effec-tive
range of interviewers beyond the
five mile radius which their order box
and applicant file would cover. Pro-cedures
for referral of applicants of one
group of employment interviewers to
the employer orders of another group
were cumbersome even for referrals to
employers ten to 25 miles away and,
therefore, were used sparingly. The
concept of matching the local order
with the local applicant was strongly
entrenched. It had become clear that
the way to broaden the range of inter-viewers
was not to modify specific
procedures of the time honored
system, but to alter the fundamental
concept of the system itself.
The President of the United States
personally ordered such an alteration
in concept when he called for a nation-wide
job bank. As a national concept,
job bank is a system in which each job
order taken is made available to each
interviewer for screening against every
applicant. In theory this would always
provide for a match between the best
man for the job and the best job for the
man. Our basic reason for existence
would no longer be limited by chance
meeting within narrow geographic
boundaries. Whether the theory of the
new system could be realized
practically was still to be determined.
Implementation of the job bank
system in North Carolina has not been
free from trial and tribulation. We have
frustrated local employment office
personnel whose only crime was a
sincere effort to cope with the job bank
system efficiently. We have bewildered
and irritated employers such as the
lady who called our first computer-assisted,
centralized order-taking unit
and blurted, "Am I talking to a person
or a machine?" We have provided an
incessant supply of problems to the
central office Employment Service
staff and recently transferred
responsibility for all computer
problems to the Unemployment
Insurance Staff.
We hav, indeed, had a busy three
years, but we do not have a final
verdict on the overall effectiveness of
the system as a placement tool. The
statistical evidence available can be
interpreted to suit the whim of the
interpreter because of the wide variety
of factors which affect our placement
results. For example, placements in
one office dropped about 20 per cent
the first month. Is this bad? Should we
consider the fact that the two nearest
offices both dropped over 50 per cent
during the same month with no
assistance from job bank? When
14 ESC QUARTERLY
another large office went on job bank,
the manager reported an increase of 40
per cent over placements the same
month of the previous year. Should we
celebrate? Or would it be prudent to
wonder about the shortcomings of the
previous year? Small offices frequently
benefited substantially, we are sure,
but may this not simply represent a
shift of placements from large offices to
smaller ones rather than a real increase
in placements?
Even horseback opinions, sometimes
quite valid, are clouded in this case by
factors which so strongly influence first
impressions that fair subjective evalua-tion
may be impossible for some time to
come. For example, it is fair to assume
that during the first several months of
implementation any system will be
more difficult for operating personnel
than the system to which they were
accustomed. It should surprise no one
that placements suffer during this
period and, indeed, figures seem to
show that the more abruptly an office
converts to job bank, the greater the
initial loss. The abrupt transition,
however, seems to result in a more
rapid recovery than that of offices
which ease in and spread the initial
shock. To make a bad situation worse,
human error of the central office and
computer operations staff are heavier
during early transition periods for each
local office. Losses in these cases are
temporary, but they do nothing to
mitigate the bad first impression. We
have tried a variety of procedures
within prescribed job bank framework
and made some educated guesses, but
we cannot claim certainty of success at
this point.
Despite frustrations of implementing
an unfamiliar system, we have
established a firm basis on which to
build a viable placement system.
Employers' orders are taken by local
office interviewers trained to describe
fully the sort of applicant needed. With
the exception of domestic service
openings and others usable only in a
limited locality, over two-thirds of our
orders are keyed onto a magnetic tape
in the local office on the day they are
received from the employer. These
orders, along with all transactions and
activity, are transmitted at high speed
via direct distance dial telephone from
magnetic tape of one local office to
another at the computer site. One key-tape
operator, working at the speed of
a good typist, will use less than ten
minutes of telephone transmission time
near the end of the day to submit his
work to the computer site. During the
night the computer will integrate the
new work with that already on file.
Completed work will be removed to
Employment Interviewer Jerry White scans a computer print-out listing
job information and applicant requirements [above] and typist Nancy
Batten displays microfische cards containing thousands of job availabilities.
The print-outs and microfische cards are made available to local State
Employment offices twice a week from the Job Bank operation in the ESC
Central Office.
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ESC QUARTERLY 15
Employment Aide Emma Dickerson [left] and Interviewer Mary Frances Paylor of the Raleigh State Employment Office
take job orders from local employers for placement in the Job Bank. Most of the applicant referrals to employers are varified
by telephone contact, so the telephone is a vital link if Job Bank is to operate quickly and efficiently.
record keeping files and the new orders
added. Fresh, up-to-date lists of
available jobs are produced on micro-fiche
and other information, including
error reports, are printed on paper.
Each morning the newly organized,
current information is available for the
use of the local office interviewers.
The interviewer will have an
average of ten times the number of
"local" orders he had before job bank.
He also has access to openings from all
over the State as well as selected jobs
from other states for applicants who
wish to relocate. In some cases he may
have the complete listings of out-of-state
job banks and in all cases he can
determine the existence of openings
from job banks all over the country by
calling our Central Office. Considerable
organization, self-discipline, and under-standing
of the new system is required
of the interviewer to avoid being
buried under a surplus of information.
"Local" orders now consist, ideally, of
every order in commuting range of
applicants the interviewer serves. The
available method of grouping, unfortu-nately,
puts some offices in fringes of
several areas so that most of the orders
on microfiche grouped for them are not
really within commuting distance and
other sets of microfiche must be
examined to ensure coverage of all jobs
which are in commuting distance.
Even for those interviewers who find
that most of the orders grouped on
microfiche are truly within commuting
distance, substantial differences in
interviewing techniques are required
to cope efficiently with ten times the
number of orders they previously had.
Some time will be saved when appli-cants
understand that they can obtain
referrals to any location instead of
visiting several of our local offices. Use
of long distance telephone for bringing
together applicant and employer, for us
a major innovation of job bank, is an
essential key to providing adequate
service outside of our traditional five
mile radius.
Verification of our referrals has
always been an Employment Service
problem and job bank provides no full
solution. We must determine accur-ately
whom we placed and why others
referred were not hired.
As in the past, most of our referrals
will be verified by telephone contacts
with employers. As in the past appli-cants
may be given postage-paid intro-duction
cards which have our return
address. These help, but applicants
frequently neglect to give them to
employers or even mention our
involvement in the referral.
Job bank provides a computer
generated message to be mailed to the
employer. The contents identify the
applicant and offer a means for the
employer to indicate on a postage-paid
Interviewer Julia Clark of Raleigh explains the viewer to an applicant. The microfische cards are inserted into the device of
magnification on the screen. Key tape operator Margaret Henry keys onto magnetic tape job orders taken during the day.
This information is transmitted on high speed telephone lines to the Job Bank computer in Raleigh.
16 ESC QUARTERLY
card his reaction to the applicant.
Unlike the introduction card, these can
be depended upon to reach the
employer.
The return addresses are preprinted
and therefore limited to a few large
offices who take their own and forward
others to smaller nearby offices. The
employer may feel that he is being
asked to respond to one or two of our
interviewers by telephone and send
two cards to one or two offices. No one
could justify such a procedure. It will
indeed be unfortunate if lack of under-standing
is allowed to nullify the value
of the computer-generated mailer or to
restrict our need to know the
employer's reaction to our referrals
and also that the applicant hired did
not report for work. We cannot claim
credit for the applicant who never
shows up. The speed of telephone
verification is needed to determine
what may be wrong with the applicants
we are referring. Fast feedback of this
information may allow us to change
order requirements and make better
referrals. Speed is also essential in
learning that additional referrals are
not needed, but these two pieces of
information alone are inadequate.
The introduction card, if the
employer gets it, and the mailer are
intended for this purpose rather than
for dun notices. A non-returnable intro-duction
card has been prepared for use
with the mailer to avoid the
appearance of double billing. There are
even advantages in providing one card
for immediate response and another,
which arrives about two days later, for
applicants who were held for consider-ation
or told to report to work at a
future time.
Results of referrals and the number
of openings the employer filled by
other means are reported to the
computer to complete the transaction
and generate the reports by which we
are judged. The entire job, from
recording characteristics of the appli-cants
we serve and orders we receive
to the final disposition of both, is fed
into the computer which returns to us
operational aids and keeps the score.
Someday it may also participate in the
matching process, but today human
judgment is required to go beyond
rudimentary matching of very basic
factors.
Our potential is a literal fulfillment of
our longstanding policy to match the
best man for the job with the best job
for the man. New tools are not unmixed
blessings, but we can and shall become
proficient with this one. We have
(See BANK, Page 29)
ESC NAMES NEW PERSONNEL
TO DIRECT TWO DEPARTMENTS
Since the last issue of the ESC
Quarterly, the Employment Security
Commission has made changes in two
of its top level administrative posts and
has established a new department
within the agency.
The new department is the Division
of Administrative Services and it com-bines
departments which previously
were joint services reporting directly
to the Chairman of the Commission.
Personnel, Evaluation and Training,
the Bureau of Employment Security
Research and the Business Office have
combined into Administrative Services
under the direction of John L. Allen,
Jr., of Raleigh.
Allen, who resigned as ESC Business
Manager in 1961 to take another State
job, returned to the Commission in
September, 1972, and oddly enough he
replaced the man who replaced him 11
years earlier as Business Manager.
When C. L. Wilson retired Septem-ber
30 after 34 years State employ-ment,
Allen was appointed Wilson's
replacement, then subsequently to
director of Administrative Services.
Allen was ESC Business Manager
from 1952 through '61. He resigned to
take an appointment as Assistant
Director of the Department of Conser-vation
and Development.
After two years in that assignment
he became State Budget Officer, then
State Personnel Director. In 1965,
Allen was appointed Controller of the
Highway Commission and three years
later joined the N.C. Manpower
Development Corporation. Subse-quently,
after several years in private
business, Allen again joined the State
with his return to the Employment
Security Commission.
The Department of Administrative
Services is new within the agency,
essentially established to reduce the
number of departments reporting
directly to the chief administrator of
the Commission, and it is one of three
major ESC divisions.
The ESC Legal Department got a
new director in April, 1973, when
Henry D. Harrison was named Chief
Counsel. He replaced David Ball who
had 23 years with the Legal Depart-ment.
He had been senior attorney and
Chief Counsel for four years before he
retired the first of April after 36 years
with the State.
A Wake Forest Law School
graduate, Harrison joined the Employ-ment
Security Commission as an
attorney in 1968. He was previously
engaged in private practice in Raeford.
ALLEN
HARRISON
ESC QUARTERLY 17
ADMINISTRATIVE CHANCES MADE IN EMPLOYMENT OFFICES
Retirements, promotions, and the
death of an area supervisor have all
affected personnel changes among
Employment Security Commission
local office managers in recent months.
James E. Knight, former manager of
the Wilmington local office, was
promoted to area supervisor August
1st, replacing Howard Winstead, who
died July 3. Winstead had worked for
the Commission for over 30 years.
A native of Wilmington, Knight had
been manager of the Wilmington office
since 1967. He joined the ESC in
Wilmington as an employment
interviewer in 1961 and now, in his new
job, he will have administrative
responsibility of employment offices in
Lumberton, Sanford, Kenansville,
Jacksonville, Goldsboro, Wilmington
and Fayetteville.
Albert E. Payne has become
manager of the Morehead City ESC
office following the retirement of its
former manager. Retired after 20 years
Army service, Payne was the veterans
employment representative in Monroe
before moving to Morehead City. He
attended school at Central Piedmont
Community College, University of
Maryland, Southeastern University
and the Armed Forces Institute.
Another retired military man,
Marion F. Barnhill, has moved to New
Bern to take over managership of the
ESC officer there. A veteran of 26
years in the Air Force, Barnhill was a
bomber pilot during WWII and he was
promoted to the New Bern post after
eight years with the Wilmington office.
His most recent assignment there was
Job Bank manager. Barnhill is a native
of Tarboro and he and his wife have
seven children. He has long been active
in church work and has held many
church offices.
Out west a native of Mitchell County
has become manager of the
Hendersonville local office. He is John
E. Murdock, Jr., a former interviewer
and veterans employment represen-tative
in the Spruce Pine ESC office.
Murdock, who holds a BA degree in
history from Western Carolina
University, spent five years in the
Marine Corps. Subsequently, he
worked in textiles before joining the
State. His promotion was effective
January 1.
Another graduate of Western
Carolina University, Ed Guy, was
promoted manager of the Bryson City
office April 1, succeeding Fred Riddle
who moved to the Salisbury office. A
business administration graduate, Guy
joined the ESC in 1967 as an
interviewer in Sylva and then became
an employment counselor stationed in
Cherokee. In 1971 he was promoted to
field representative serving five
western counties.
James C. Crooks is now manager of
the Washington local office. A native of
South Carolina, Crooks retired from
the Air Force in 1948 after 20 years
active military service. While in
service he had tours in England, Korea
and France. He had three years as an
AFROTC instructor at the University
of West Virginia and a tour in the
Pentagon. After retirement he worked
in Minnesota for a short while, then
returned to N.C. for an interviewer job
at the Charlotte local office in 1970. Jim
says, "I have attended night school at
the University of Maryland, Central
Piedmont Community College and
UNC. Now I have approximately three
years college. I intend to continue
schooling until a BS degree is
obtained."
When long time Mt. Airy manager
John Taylor retired, David B. Johnson
moved over from managership of the
Lenoir office to take over Taylor's job.
A former Army Medical Service Corps
officer, Johnson is a 1964 graduate of
Wake Forest College with a degree in
history. He joined the ESC in 1966 and
worked as a veterans employment
representative for three years in
Lenoir.
Out east again the Williamston local
office has a new manager. He is
William R. Ayers, a native . of
Robersonville. He graduated from
Wake Forest in 1967 and two years
later joined the State as an interviewer
in Williamston. Then he was promoted
to the Wilmington office and
afterwards to the Raleigh central
office. Ayers returned to Williamston
as a claims supervisor in 1972 and then
was promoted to manager of the
Ahoskie office. He became Williamston
manager in April.
Current manager of the Ahoskie
office is Guerry Goode, a native of
Jacksonville, Florida and a 13-year Air
Force veteran. Goode joined the ESC
in 1964 as an interviewer in Raleigh.
He later became an interviewer in
Durham and Winston-Salem and was
promoted to Ahoskie manager May 1.
MURDOCK GUY CROOKS JOHNSON GOODE
18 ESC QUARTERLY
MORE WORKERS,
EMPLOYERS ARE
UNDER U.I. LAW
Effective January 1, 1972, the
Employment Security coverage was
expanded by about 150,000 workers
and as a result wage payments have
now grown by over half a billion dollars
annually. The coverage expansion has
been as follows: (1) the previous indus-trial
coverage has been lowered from
employers of four or more workers to
those of one or more; (2) nonprofit
organizations, such as religious,
charitable, civic, social, and fraternal
associations, employing four or more
workers have become liable for the
first time; (3) State hospitals are newly
liable; as are (4) institutions of higher
learning such as colleges and univer-sities.
The number of additional reporting
units attributed to the expanded
coverage had an even greater impact
as over 30,000 units were added or a
gain of 65 percent over the former
coverage. The accompanying table
portrays the gains in reporting units,
employment and wage payments by
major industry groups resulting from
the expanded coverage. Although the
table is concerned only with measuring
the gains contributed by the expanded
coverage over the former coverage in
the first quarter, 1972, it is also illus-trative
of the significance of the
expanded coverage. With the extended
coverage, first quarter, 1972, employ-ment
registered a significant 10.6
percent gain over first quarter 1971
employment. But if the expansion had
not taken place, the rise would have
been held to an insignificant 0.1
percent.
Of the seven major industry groups,
Service was the primary beneficiary
from the extended coverage. Not only
were over 11,000 small service
establishments with almost 70,000
workers added to the Service group,
but it was expanded to include approxi-mately
30 State hospitals employing
8,000 workers and almost 90 institu-tions
of higher learning with over
30,000 workers. Thus, the gains of the
Service group over its former coverage
were quite large: 11,165 reporting
units of 140 percent; 106,657
IMPACT OF EXTENDED COVERAGE
BY BROAD INDUSTRY GROUP
employment or 101 percent; and $675
million in wages annually or 115
percent (based on first quarter 1972
data).
As to be expected, the Trade group
followed Service in the numerical size
of the gains in reporting units, employ-ment,
and wages because of its large
number of traditionally small estab-lishments.
This group added almost
11,000 reporting units with about
22,000 workers and annual payrolls
approaching $100 million. On a
percentage basis, reporting units were
expanded by 54 percent; employment,
seven percent; and wages, about four
percent.
With respect to percentage gains
over the former coverage, Construc-tion
varied little from the experience in
the Trade group because of the great
number of small construction estab-lishments.
The numerical gains,
however, were much smaller because
of the smaller size of the industry:
reporting units gained about 3,500;
employment about 8,000; and wages of
about $42 million annually.
The Finance, Insurance and Real
Estate group is also one that employs a
large number of small establishments
such as small insurance and real estate
offices. As a result, the expanded
(See EXTENDED, Page 29)
by the Expanded Cover
Industry Group
Gair
Total
Construction
Manufacturing
Transportation, Communi-cation
and Utilities
Trade
Finance, Insurance and
Real Estate
Service*
State Hospitals
Institutions of
Higher Learning
Other®
674
10,895
2,585
11,165
34.
54
rst Quarter 1972
Employment Total Wages
Amount
umber Percent Added Percer
dded Gainedf (,000) Gaine.
17,213 10.4 $208,773
7,920 7.9 8,739
3,865 0.5 4,248
1,574 1.8 1,673
21,770 7.0 20,812
0.4
0.9
4.4
f Percent added to old coverage contributed by the ex
1972.
* Includes State Hospitals, Institutions of Higher Lear
@ Agricultural Services, Forestry, Fishing and Mining.
TEST
RESEARCH
CENTER
By HERBW. CAMPBELL
Test Research Supervisor
The present labor market offers a
challenge to all engaged in personnel
work for the best utilization of avail-able
manpower. Tests are, of course,
far from being perfect, predictive
instruments; but unfortunately this is
even more true of other methods of
appraising individuals' fitness for jobs.
This does not mean that tests should
replace other methods used in hiring,
however; tests do add further informa-tion
about the applicant. When tests
are used in the hiring process,
employers find that benefits accrue in
terms of lower training costs, higher
production, and lower turnover.
"But the Equal Employment Oppor-tunity
Commission and the Office of
Federal Contract Compliance are
against testing." Not so! The following
quote from the purpose of the EEOC's
"Guidelines on Employee Selection
Procedures" not only endorses but
encourages the use of properly vali-dated
tests.
"The guidelines in this part are
based on the belief that properly vali-dated
and standardized employee
selection procedures can significantly
contribute to the implementation of
non-discriminatory personnel policies,
as required by title VII. It is also recog-nized
that professionally developed
tests, when used in conjunction with
other tools of personnel assessment
and complemented by sound programs
of job design, may significantly aid in
the development and maintenance of
an efficient work force, and indeed, aid
in the utilization of human resources
generally."
Sound like something new? For
years the Test Research Unit has been
involved in a continuing program of
research to ensure that our tests
remain the most "properly validated"
assessment tools available to the many
employers throughout the country
using our services.
From 1947 until the early 1960's, test
development and research was a
function of the Industrial Services
Section and was conducted by IS Occu-pational
Analysts whenever need arose
out of other industrial services involve-ment.
By the mid 60's the demand for
these studies had grown so much that
three analysts were doing test develop-ment
projects as a major part of their
jobs.
The North Carolina Employment
Security Commission continued to
prove its capability and willingness to
accept and carry out projects for the
national office and North Carolina
employers, and in 1966 a separate test
development unit was authorized by
the U.S. Department of Labor for the
North Carolina agency. This unit was
authorized five positions for the sole
purpose of test development and
research.
The unit continued to grow through
the years that followed and in 1971,
with a staff of nine, was cited by the
U.S. Department of Labor for its out-standing
contributions to the national
test research program for 1970.
In 1972 the unit became the
Southern Test Development Field
Center, one of three field centers in the
nation, with added responsibilities for
coordinating test research efforts and
data collection for 17 southern states.
Additional duties included training test
research analysts from approximately
25 states or the eastern half of the
United States. To carry out these
duties as well as regular test research
activities within the State, the Field
Center was allocated five new posi-tions,
bringing its total number to 14,
the largest test research staff in the
nation.
The unit's primary responsibility
since its inception has been the valida-tion
of Specific Aptitude Test
Batteries, using the General Aptitude
Test Battery as a research instrument.
This is done in accordance with a
research process established by the
American Pyschological Association,
which are the guidelines later adopted
by the EEOC and OFCC.
A job analysis is conducted to
identify aptitudes that may be
important for successful performance
of the job and to ascertain that all
workers to be included in the research
sample are performing the same job.
All employees in the sample are tested
with the complete GATB and a
measure of job performance obtained
from the immediate supervisor. A
preliminary statistical analysis is then
conducted again to identify relevant
aptitudes. The information obtained
from the qualitative and quantitative
analyses is then combined and
a final analysis conducted to obtain the
final set of norms. The final set of
norms is the most efficient set of norms
for a particular occupation. It is the set
of norms that, when used in
combination, will screen in the largest
number of good workers and screen out
the largest number of poor workers.
The types of research conducted by
the Test Research Unit have varied
through the years with the goals of the
Employment Service. In 1966 priority
was placed on the development of the
Non-reading Aptitude Test Battery
(NATB), a non-reading edition of the
GATB, designed to measure the apti-tudes
of the educationally disadvan-taged.
This project remained top
priority until its completion in 1971.
The NATB is now being used in our
local employment offices across the
nation.
Another special project was initiated
in 1967, the development of the Basic
Occupational Literacy Test (BOLT), an
achievement test designed to measure
the basic reading and arithmetic skills
of adults. The test will be used by
Employment Service personnel to
measure the extent of literacy training
needed by educationally deficient
individuals going into various training
programs. Eventually the BOLT will
be used to establish realistic educa-tional
requirements for success in
specific occupations based on functional
educational levels as opposed to formal
educational levels. The BOLT is
currently scheduled to go into
operational use within the next year.
The unit continued to work on
various special projects through these
years. Studies were conducted on pre-testing
orientation programs, a new
interest inventory, proficiency tests for
typing and dictation, studies on the
new manual dexterity boards to ensure
equivalency, and research on testing
the deaf, including revised GATB
instructions to be used by local office
personnel to administer the GATB to
deaf applicants.
In 1970 emphasis was again placed
on SATB development. With the
issuance of the EEOC "Guidelines on
20 ESC QUARTERLY
NATB
The NATB is a non-reading version
of the GATB and is designed to
measure the same nine aptitudes of
the educationally disadvantaged.
Eight new tests were developed
especially for the non-reading
battery to measure aptitudes G, V,
N, S, and P, while six of the twelve
GATB tests, with revised instruc-tions
and format, were retained to
measure aptitudes Q, K, F, and M.
It was possible to retain these six
tests because the individual's
performance does not depend on his
ability to read. Total administra-tion
time is approximately 3 1h
hours.
GATB
The basic tool used for USES test
research is the General Aptitude
Test Battery [GATB], which was
first published by the United States
Employment Service in 1947. Since
that time the GATB has been the
object of a continuing program of
research to validate specific tests
against success in many different
occupations. Because of its exten-sive
research base the GATB has
come to be recognized as the best
validated multiple aptitude test
battery in existence.
The GATB consists of 12 tests which
measure 9 aptitudes: General
Learning Ability [G], Verbal Apti-tude
[V], Numerical Aptitude [N],
Spatial Aptitude [S], Form Percep-tion
[P], Clerical Perception [Q],
Motor Coordination [K], Finger
Dexterity [F], and Manual Dex-terity
[M].
CAMPBELL
Employee Selection Procedures" many
tests used in industry began to face
challenges on validity. During this time
the GATB's and SATB's held their own
as validated tests.
The Duke Power Case in March 1971
was the turning point in the history of
personnel testing in general. In this
case, the U.S. Supreme Court placed
the burden of proof on the employer to
prove that his selection methods were
non-discriminatory and job-related.
The GATB continued to meet the new
standards, even to the extent that
various employers across the nation
were ordered by the courts to use
USES tests in lieu of tests they were
using when charged in discrimination
cases.
The same burden of proof, i.e., that
our tests are not discriminatory, rests
with the Employment Service; and
early in 1972, the U.S. Department of
Labor's Testing Branch decided that
revalidation was needed on many of
our SATB's in order to assure
employers using our testing service
that no discrimination, even inad-vertent,
was taking place.
This revalidation was needed
because, at the time the majority of the
SATB's were developed, there was no
documentation of minority and non-minority
group representation in the
sampling. Since it is essential to have a
sample that is representative of the
working population, this information
has become increasingly vital in imple-menting
equal employment oppor-tunity
in industry. Moreover, many of
the batteries were developed a number
of years ago and need to be updated to
determine whether the aptitude tests
are still valid after job changes brought
about by advanced technology.
In early 1972, the Manpower
Administration appropriated funds for
a nationwide revalidation effort. Many
states which had never been involved
in test research were staffed with
analysts. All other projects were
phased out or dropped, and in June
1972 our top priority became revalida-tion
of SATB's with minority group
representation in the samples.
Many operational changes began to
take place in our testing program. One
change affected our program im-mensely.
The number of Specific
Aptitude Test Batteries that we could
report results of applicants to
employers was reduced from 466 to
177.
This change resulted in some loss of
employer confidence and a noticeable
loss of confidence by some of our local
office managers. For years the GATB
had held its own, and now we were in
effect saying that we were unsure of
the validity of over half of our SATB's
since minority groups were not
adequately represented in the original
samples. These SATB's will become
operational again as soon as revalida-tion
permits.
There seems to be an attitude among
some employers as well as our own
personnel that "testing is on the way
out." Again, not so! Why should we do
away with the most scientific selec-tion
tool in existence? Why should the
Employment Service want to discon-tinue
testing when it is one of its best
selling points for ES services? To prove
this point, we conducted a survey of
employers when our number of SATB's
was trimmed to 177. Over half of the
employers who discontinued testing
also discontinued using the Employ-ment
Service as a source of applicants.
Nothing Replaces Testing
Testing is here to stay. There is
nothing that can replace it. If alterna-tives
existed, we would have already
explored them. The speed with which
we return to normal testing procedures
depends to a very great extent on the
ability of our local office personnel to
sell the program to employers and, to
an even greater extent, on employer
cooperation. It is the employers who
are interested in testing who will save
our testing program.
Since our revalidation efforts began,
many local office personnel have given
their time in assisting our unit in the
search for samples of workers in these
occupations; many employers have
scheduled workers to be tested for
research purposes, paying them for the
time involved or even overtime in
many cases so these studies could be
carried out. Due to the efforts of these
people, our revalidation program is
underway. But, we are still a long way
from home!
Test development analysts are
traveling daily, searching for samples,
contacting employers, explaining our
program, and testing samples of
workers for these studies. However,
we need many additional samples.
Employers who have used our tests
for years and know the value of testing
have an optimistic attitude. Their main
question is how long will it be before
they can use our tests again. The only
answer we can give ,at this time is that
it is totally dependent on our joint
efforts. We need local office personnel
to talk testing to employers and
employers to assist us by furnishing
samples, regardless of size. Most of all,
a more optimistic attitude of the
testing program is needed in our own
camps. After all, it is one of the best
tools that we have.
ESC QUARTERLY 21
CONGRESS CHANGES SOCIAL SERVICES PROGRAM
WORK
INCENTIVE
By CARL NEWTON
WIN Supervisor
The Work Incentive (WIN-I)
Program, which was authorized by
Title IV of the Social Security Act,
became operational in five counties in
North Carolina during the latter part of
1969. Its objective was to help persons
who were receiving financial support
and social supportive services under
the Aid to Families with Dependent
Children (AFDC) program to secure
gainful employment. The program
provided training, basic education, and
job placement services. Under this
program, the Department of Social
Services determined those AFDC
recipients who were appropriate for
WIN and referred them to one of four
WIN projects which were administered
for the Department of Labor by the
Employment Security Commission.
In December of 1971, Title IV of the
Social Security Act was revised again
by certain amendments which became
effective on July 1, 1972, and which are
known as the "Talmadge Amend-ments,"
for Senator Herman Talmadge
of Georgia, who introduced the bill.
These amendments resulted in the
emergence of a new Work Incentive
Program, "WIN-II."
(See Insert, Page 23)
The Talmadge Amendments pro-vided
an opportunity to standardize
the WIN adjudication system. Pro-cedures
have been established in North
Carolina for processing hearings and
appeals in cases which arise because of
failure or refusal to accept employment
or to participate in the WIN program
without good cause, or because of a
claim of exemption on the grounds of a
change of status. The adjudication
process will be divided between the
Employment Service Division and the
Unemployment Insurance Division.
The first level of adjudication will be
handled by the Employment Security
Commission local office WIN staff, the
second level by the UI Claims
Deputies, the third level by the UI
Appeals Deputies, and the fourth level
by a National Review Panel.
Although the Talmadge Amend-ments
became effective on July 1, 1972,
it was not until May 1, 1973, that the
WIN-II program was expanded on a
statewide basis to offer services to the
remaining 95 counties in North
Carolina which were not included
under the WINJ program. The delay in
implementing WIN-II was due
primarily to the time required for the
joint development of a statewide
operating plan for approval by both
State agencies, to the time involved in
hiring and training new staff, and to
the time involved in implementing a
statistical system for the reporting of
WIN activities. The WIN-II program in
North Carolina is administered jointly
by the Department of Labor and the
Department of Health, Education, and
Welfare. Program operations for the
Department of Labor are the responsi-bility
of the Employment Security
Commission; those of the Department
of Health, Education, and Welfare are
the responsibility of the Department of
Social Services. The implementation of
WIN-II requires close cooperation and
the exchange of information between
the two agencies.
The function of registering indi-viduals
for WIN is performed by
eligibility specialists in the Income
Maintenance Units of the Department
of Social Services at the county level.
Completed registration forms are
forwarded to the appropriate WIN
office, where WIN staff review them
and select registrants for appraisal.
Those registrants who are selected for
appraisal are notified to appear for an
appraisal interview which is conducted
jointly by WIN staff and the
Department of Social Services staff
whenever possible. If, as a result of an
appraisal interview, an individual is
judged to be appropriate for WIN, the
individual then becomes a WIN
participant. When the individual can be
referred to a job or training, certifica-tion
is requested from the Department
of Social Services Separate Adminis-trative
Unit (SAU) to the effect that
needed supportive social services can
be provided. The supportive services
requested are those required for the
participant to accept work or training.
If no services are required, the SAU
certifies to that effect.
The major thrust of WIN-II is
toward job placement, on-the-job
training, and public service employ-ment.
The 1971 Amendments require
that at least one-third of all WIN funds
be spent to provide on-the-job training
and public service employment to WIN
participants. However, some institu-tional
training is possible where it can
be established that the training will
lead directly to employment and where
it has been established by the local
Labor Market Advisory Council that
jobs are likely to be available in the
area at the end of the training period.
Since the success of the WIN
program depends upon the developing
of jobs for participants, a new incentive
has been provided to employers in the
form of a WIN federal tax credit provi-sion
in the Revenue Act of 1971. The
amount of the WIN federal tax credit is
20 percent of cash wages or salaries
paid to a WIN employee for the first 12
months of employment. The first 12
months of employment do not have to
be consecutive, but no WIN tax credit
will be allowed for wages paid after 24
months from the first day of employ-ment.
The amount of credit that can be
claimed is limited to the income tax
liability, generally. However, if the tax
liability exceeds $25,000, the maximum
credit is $25,000 plus one-half the
amount of tax credit over that amount.
Amounts not allowed because of the
limitation may be carried back three
years and then forward seven years.
However, no unused credit may be
carried back to a tax year beginning
before January 1, 1972. The credit may
be claimed for tax years beginning
after December 31, 1971. If a WIN
employee voluntarily leaves employ-ment,
or leaves because of illness or
disability, the employer may claim the
22 ESC QUARTERLY
Win II
To require that non-exempt individuals
register with the manpower agency for man-power
services, training, and employment as a
condition of eligibility for AFDC. Those
individuals who are determined by the Depart-ment
of Social Services Income Maintenance
Unit staff to be exempt from registration
remain a part of the AFDC population in
exempt status. Exempt recipients may volun-teer
for registration and enter the WIN
registrant pool. These individuals will be
treated as other registrants, except that no
sanctions will apply if they refuse to accept
employment or to participate in WIN.
Mothers who volunteer must be registered
upon their request.
To decrease from 20 percent to 10 percent
the cost of non-federal contributions to WIN
operations.
To mandate that state welfare agencies
establish separate administrative units (SAU's)
at the state and local levels to perform services
solely in connection with the administration of
the WIN program, and to participate with the
WIN manpower agency in the development of
employability plans which describe the
education, training, work experience, and
orientation needed by individuals to become
employed.
To require that a Statewide Operational
Plan be developed jointly by the State WIN
manpower agency and the State welfare
Special Administrative Unit. This plan
prescribes how the WIN program will be
operated at the local level and will indicate the
number and types of positions which will be
provided for training, for on-the-job training,
and for public service employment.
To require that a Public Service Employ-;
ment program be established to provide
federally-subsidized employment for WIN
participants with public or private non-profit
agencies, leading to permanent unsubsidized
employment.
To require that a program of on-the-job
training be established to provide federally-subsidized
training for WIN participants hired
by public or private employers, leading to
permanent unsubsidized jobs.
To authorize an incentive payment of not
more than $30 per month, and payments
for transportation and other costs to the
extent that such costs are necessary and
directly related to participation in the WIN
program.
To provide for the establishment of a
National Coordination Committee to establish
a uniform reporting system and similar
administration policies; and for the establish-ment
of Regional Coordination Committees
for each region which will review and approve
Statewide Operational Plans.
To require that, beginningjuly 1 , 1973, and
for every fiscal year thereafter, the Depart-ment
of Social Services must certify to local
employement offices as being job -ready at
least 15 percent of the average number of
individuals required to be registered during
the year. The federal share of AFDC assistance
payments will be reduced by one percentage
point for each percentage point by which the
number of certifications fails to meet the 15
percent requirement.
To require that Labor Market Advisory
Councils be established or designated by the
Department of Labor in areas with a
significant number of persons registered for
WIN, in order to identify and advise on the
types of jobs available or likely to become
available in the area served by the Council.
The North Carolina Manpower Council
performs this function in North Carolina,
working through local Ancillary Manpower
Planning Boards.
tax credit for the period of time the
individual was employed. To meet
eligibility for the tax credit, employers
must receive certification from the
Employment Security Commission to
the effect that the WIN employee was
registered for WIN at the time he was
hired and that the WIN hire is not
causing unemployment elsewhere.
Employers may also receive a fast
tax writeoff for providing facilities for
on-the-job training for WIN workers
and for day-care facilities for the
children of WIN workers.
From a total of 46,564 AFDC families
in North Carolina, it was estimated
that 23,446 individuals would be regis-tered
in the WIN program in fiscal year
1972-73. Of these it was estimated that
12,894 would be appraised and that
5,250 would be selected for active parti-cipation
in the program and certified.
However, it has been necessary to
reconsider these estimates because
program activities did not begin state-wide
until May 1. Full WIN activity
began on that day, however, and it is
anticipated that the program will easily
meet its goals in fiscal 73.
MRS. W, X, Y, AND Z
Mrs. "W" is black, 31 years old,
has completed the 12th grade, is
separated from her husband and has
four children, ages 7, 8, 9, and 10.
She had been on welfare approxi-mately
seven years, and was
receiving a welfare grant of $188 a
month when she entered the WIN
program.
Her previous employment of
about nine months was primarily as
a food service worker and as a
domestic maid with wages ranging
up to $1.00 an hour.
Mrs. "W," unemployed, entered
the WIN program in February,
1972. She was provided the stan-dard
WIN manpower services:
three weeks of orientation,
including counseling, testing, deter-mination
of job interests; the how,
when, and where to seek employ-ment,
and how to cope with
problems such as transportation as
it relates to employment. An
attempt was made to instill self-confidence
in Mrs. "W." Day care
for the children was arranged by the
county Department of Social
Services.
Testing indicated that she needed
refresher courses in certain high
school subjects. She was scheduled
for six to eight months of refresher
high school subjects to be attended
daily at a local technical institute to
help her qualify for a higher level
job in the health occupational area
or in a manufacturing plant posi-tion.
She was counseled and
provided encouragement by the
WIN counselor to strive for her
objective during this period of
schooling.
In December, 1972, she was hired
as an electronic assembler at $1.80
an hour with the opportunity for
substantial advancement. Her
employer later called the Employ-ment
Security Commission local
office, on his own initiative, and
stated that Mrs. "W" was perform-ing
her work well. The employer
asked that additional WIN partici-pants
be referred to him for employ-ment
interviews.
The county Department of Social
Services is in the process of
reducing her welfare grant to $8 a
month.
* * * *
Mrs. "X" is black, has completed
the 8th grade, is divorced, 30 years
old, has six children, aged 3-12, and
has been on welfare approximately
IOV2 years. She was receiving $211
a month welfare payments when she
entered the WIN program.
Her previous work experience
consisted of about one year. This
employment included waitress work
at $1.15 an hour and as a laundry
attendant at $72 a week.
She was unemployed when she
entered the WIN program in
August, 1970. She was given the
standard WIN services.
A review of her interests and
abilities indicated a need for her
high school graduate equivalency.
She attended an adult basic educa-tion
course for about seven months.
She obtained her high school
graduate equivalency certificate in
March, 1971. She then attended a
six-month clerical course.
Mrs. "X" began employment as a
tax clerk at $378 a month with the
county tax office in October, 1971.
In November, 1972, she was still
ESC QUARTERLY 23
employed. Her supervisor states
that she was performing her work
very well. Her welfare grant has
been reduced.
* * * *
Mrs. "Y" was a 30-year old widow
with seven children. She had com-pleted
the 8th grade and entered
WIN in January, 1970. Between
March and May of that year, her
two oldest daughters, ages 15 and
12, each had an illegitimate child,
increasing the size of the family to
ten. Her husband had been killed in
1968, leaving her deeply in debt.
During the time Mrs. "Y" was
taking general educational develop-ment
classes in her community, her
oldest two daughters were contin-ually
in trouble, being suspended
every few weeks for conduct
problems, and she was in extreme
financial distress.
During WIN counseling, Mrs. "Y"
had always expressed a desire to
have a job helping people and
counseling them. In December of
1971, the local housing authority
had a job opening for a social work
aid who, living in one of its housing
projects, would know the problems
of its tenants. Mrs. "Y" applied for
the job and was told that she could
have the job if she could get an auto-mobile.
She consequently obtained a
driver's license and with the help o
driver's license and with the help of
her mother made a down payment
on a vehicle.
She was hired by the authority
and has been working full time for a
year. She has attended several
workshops to increase her know-ledge
and is in line for a raise. She
provides transportation for people
in the projects who have appoint-ments
at hospitals, doctors' offices,
the Department of Social Services
and other places. She takes children
to day care centers and in general is
a liaison person and troubleshooter
between project tenants and the
housing authority. Her oldest
daughter completed nurse's aid
training in the Job Corps and is
presently trying to enter a technical
institute for LPN training.
* * * *
Mrs. "Z" is black, has completed
the 10th grade, is divorced, 31 years
old, has three children, ages 3, 5,
and 8, and had been on welfare
approximately two years. She was
receiving $26 a month welfare
(See SUCCESS, Page 29)
In 40-Year History, Public Employment
Program Manages Conglomeration
Of Federal-State Manpower Projects
The Federal-State employment
service system celebrated its 40th
anniversary June 6 with more than 400
million candles on its birthday
cake—one for each time it has placed a
person in a job.
How many more the total should be
is not exactly known, because statistics
for the first two years of the infant
agency have grown hazy. It is known
that 409 million placements have been
made since 1935.
It is conservative to say that for each
working day, over its 40 years of
existence, the Employment Service has
placed 42,500 persons in jobs—an
average of 88 per minute.
By far the world's largest employ-ment
service, the system covers the 50
states, District of Columbia, Guam,
Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands
with a network of more than 2,400
bustling full-time offices and nearly
2,000 more itinerant points where man-power
services are provided to small or
isolated communities on a scheduled
part-time basis.
Backbone of the Nation's vital
complex of manpower programs, this
far-flung network of public "employ-ment"
offices since 1946—as far back as
certain records go—has taken 293
million new job applications and given
48 million counseling interviews and 38
million aptitude and proficiency tests.
In the last 25 years, for which
statistics are readily available, it has
filled 200 million non-agricultural job
openings alone.
This vast and highly developed man-power
complex has been taking an
average of 8.7 million new job applica-tions
a year. It has made 10.6 million
job placements a year, including those
placed more than one time in a year; it
has listed 7.5 million non-farm job
openings annually, and filled 5.6 million
of them.
Yet it is sufficiently attuned to the
needs of each individual that it can help
a person decide whether his employ-ment
prospects are better if he chooses
to become a tailor or a nurse or an
electronics assembler.
The Employment Service has
developed the world's most reliable
and widely used batteries of general
and specific aptitude tests, which were
put into use first in 1947 and have been
constantly improved and expanded
since then. The ES can test a deaf mute
or a quadruple amputee or a retarded
youth; it has devised tests for persons
who cannot read. It can help applicants
assess interests as well as aptitudes,
and manual dexterity as well as skill in
handling numbers.
The U.S. Employment Service test
batteries are also used officially by the
Government of Canada and by some 84
other foreign countries.
ES reaches out to contact every
returning serviceman to offer a helping
hand in returning him to the main-stream
of the Nation's economic life.
When the draft was going strong, the
Selective Service System referred
every draft rejectee to the local
employment office for job help.
Of the two and a quarter million
Vietnam-era veterans placed in jobs,
job training, or in school during the
first 20 months of the Government-wide
President's Veterans Program
(through Feb. 1973), more than one-fourth—
567,000—were veterans placed
directly in jobs by the Employment
Service.
Like the veterans, members of
minority groups too have been given
special attention by the Employment
Service. In recent years minority group
members have accounted for about 25
percent of all ES applicants and made
up 27 percent of those placed in
nonagricultural jobs. Last fiscal year,
blacks made up 39 percent of the
enrollees in manpower job training
programs who were referred by the
ES; those of 'Spanish heritage
accounted for 11 percent, and Indians
2.3 percent.
For these—and for military retirees,
professionals, the disadvantaged and
the poor, the handicapped, the school
dropout, youths and older workers
—
24 ESC QUARTERLY
the ES has developed special
techniques to help people overcome
any disadvantages and get back on the
career development track.
To all, its services are free—to
employer and worker alike. It is largely
financed by a small tax on employer
payrolls.
The ES certifies and refers nearly a
half million men, women and youth a
year for training in some job skill for
which they have a desire and an
aptitude and an ability—ranging from
landscape gardener to dairy farmer to
furniture upholsterer to automobile
mechanic, auto body repairman,
stenographer, computer programmer,
bank teller, and a wide range of other
occupations— in all, nearly 600 different
vocational fields.
It operates a professional place-ment
network nationwide; an engineer
or other professional can walk into an
ES office and make himself available to
employers across the country via an
interstate placement plan which
matches his skills and knowledge with
job openings listed by any of the 2,400
ES offices. A computer Job Bank
system which now serves nearly three-fourths
of the Nation's work force
brings a speed to the man-and-job
matching that was only dreamed about
ten years ago.
ES has experimented with the move-ment
of workers and their families, in
demonstration projects, from areas in
which their skills aren't needed and in
which they can't find a job, to new loca-tions
where their skills are in demand.
To employers, it furnishes qualified
workers, vital labor market informa-tion,
and helps them cut their turnover
and training costs. In changing plant
processes, it helps employers identify
those individuals who have the
potential to be trained for new jobs.
It is used by such companies as
Continental Can, RCA, American
Tobacco, National Biscuit, General
Electric, Campbell Soup, Armour, and
Ford Motor Company, as well as by
thousands of smaller plants and firms.
On the farm front, ES brings
together groups of migrant farm
workers, in an orderly fashion, to areas
needing seasonal help to harvest crops
that otherwise would be lost. For farm
and agri-business employers, it
performs mu