Problems of Readjustment in the Postwar Labor Market

• DOI: 10.1177/000271624222400126
• Published date: 01 November 1942
• Date: 01 November 1942
• Subject Matter: Articles

157

Problems

of

Readjustment

in

the

Postwar

Labor

Market

By

A.

F.

HINRICHS

I N

THE

short

space

of

time

which

has

elapsed

since

the

beginning

of

the

National

Defense

Program

in

the

middle

of

1940,

the

American

labor

market

has

experienced

a

transition

from

a

peacetime

setting

characterized

by

a

considerable

volume

of

unemploy-

ment

to

a

war

economy

in

which

the

supply

of

labor

has

to

be

expanded

by

drawing

into

the

labor

market

mil-

lions

of

persons

who

ordinarily

would

not

seek

employment.

Unemployment

which

was

reported

as

totaling

8,600,000

persons

in

June

1940

declined

to

2,800,-

000

in

June

1942,

a

decrease

of

5,800,-

000

or

67

per

cent.

During

the

same

period

employment

rose

from

47,600,000

to

53,300,000,

an

increase

of

5,700,000

or

12

per

cent.

Despite

the

drain

of

men

into

the

armed

forces,

the

civilian

labor

supply

declined

by

only

100,000

between

June

1940

and

June

1942,

indi-

cating

that

new

workers

were

entering

the labor

force

in

large

numbers.&dquo;

These

summary

figures,

while

indi-

cating

the

magnitude

of

the

changes

brought

about

by

the

war,

conceal

the

important

fact

that

the

impact

of

in-

dustrial

expansion

has

by

no

means

been

the

same

among

various

segments

of

the

labor

market,

’among

different

parts

of

the

country,

or

among

different

industries.

Between

June

1940

and

June

1942,

for

example,

employment

among

males

increased

by

8

per

cent;

among

females,

24

per

cent.

In

June

1940

one-fourth

of

the

persons

in

the

youngest

age

group

(14

to

24

years)

were

unemployed;

in

June

1942

less

than

one-tenth

were

unemployed.

Ma-

jor

differences

are

also

apparent

in

various

cities

of

the

United

States.

The

Bureau

of

Labor

Statistics

index

of

factory

wage

earner

employment

for

April

1942

stood

at

218

for

Los

Angeles;

it

was

only

88

in

Yonkers,

New

York.

For

Portland,

Oregon,

it

was

234;

it

was

82

for

Evansville,

Indiana.

Simi-

larly,

industries

which

ranked

high

as

employers

of

labor

in

the

prewar

period

have

given

way

to

those

which

are

di-

rectly

engaged

in

war

production.

The

number

of

persons

employed

in

the

manufacture

of

engines

and

turbines,

for

example,

was

cut

by

almost

one-

fourth

between

1929

and

1937;

since

the

middle

of

1940,

employment

in

this

industry

has

doubled.

It

is

in

the

differential

impact

of

the

war

upon

the

various

components

of

the

American

labor

market

and

upon

different

segments

of

American

industry

that

some

of

the

major

problems

of

the

postwar

economy

will

be

found.

CHANGING

COMPOSITION

OF

THE

LABOR

FORCE

The

American

labor

market

has

al-

ways

been

characterized

by

a

constant

movement

of

workers

in

and

out

of

the

labor

force.

Men

have

withdrawn

as

they

reached

the

age

of

retirement;

young

people

have

graduated

from

school

and

joined

the

ranks

of

new

workers.

Women

have-entered

the

la-

bor

force

in

an

attempt

to

add

to

the

family’s

income,

while

others

have

with-

drawn

upon

marriage.

These

are

a

few

of

the

examples

of

the

ever

changing

movements

in

and

out

of

the

labor

mar-

ket.

However,

the

current

war

effort

1

Data

on

employment,

unemployment,

and

civilian

labor

force

are

from

the

Monthly

Re-

port

of

Unemployment

conducted

by

the

Work

Projects

Administration.

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