Box 7, Folder 12, Document 14

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THE NEED FOR PUBLIC SERVICE EMPLOYMENT’



The Urban Coalition Action Council

“~

At the time of the original convocation that created the

national Urban Coalition in 1967, the Steering Committee of that

convocation stated its position on public service employment.

That statement called for immediate legislative action based in

part on the following principles:

1)

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"The Federal government must enlist the cooperation of
government at all levels and of private industry to

“assure that meaningful productive work is available to

everyone willing and able to work."

"To create socially useful jobs, the...program should

‘ concentrate on the huge backlog of employment needs in

parks, streets, slums, countryside, schools, colleges,
libraries and hospitals..."

"The program must provide meaningful jobs--not dead

end, make work projects...

"Basic education, training and counseling must be an
integral part of the program...Funds for training
education and counseling should be made available to
private industry as well as to public and private
nonprofit agencies."

"Such a program should seek to qualify new employees
to become part of the regular work force and to meet
normal performance standards."

"The operation of the program should be keyed to

specific localized unemployment problems and focused ,
initially on those areas where the need is most
apparent,"

™

On April, 1; 1968, in testimony before the Subcommittee on

Employment, Manpower and Poverty of the Senate Committee on Labor

and Public Welfare, John W. Gardner, chairman of the national

Urban Coalition Action Council, reaffirmed the convocation's

statement. Mr. Gardner's testimony also made public for the

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Public Service Employment : is Page 2

first time the preliminary conclusions of a study by Dr. Harold
Sheppard of the Upjohn Institute.l Dr. Sheppard was commissioned
by the Urban Coalition to survey the public service needs of a

sample of major cities and to examine the general problems of

underemployment and unemployment in’ this country in terms of

those needs.

Sheppard's study, released in final form in January of
this year, dispelled some myths which have greatly influenced
past thinking on unemployment and underemployment; about the poor
who do not work and the much larger group of poor who do. For
example, 85 to 90 per cent of the poor who do not work are ill,
disabled, in school, or in the case of many women, they are
unable to enter the labor market at soe Beawtiee of home respon-~
sibilities. :

‘Sheppard's analysis emphasized the critical facts about
the underemployed, who he defines as those who work and are still
poor. In any analysis of what constitutes the poor in this
country, underemployment looms as large--if not larger--than
unemployment. Sheppard found that, conaeevativele, almost five
million people in this country were underemployed. This is a
significant figure since it includes by definition people who
work and are still poor, and does not include unemployed 88 defined

by the Federal government.

Harold L. Sheppard, The Nature of the Job Problem and the Role
‘of New Public Service Employment, the Upjohn Institute, January
1969


" Public Service Employment : - Page 3

Sheppard advanced an even more startling théory, based on
Bureau of the Census statistics, on the number of. poor families
in the labor force and the per cent having two ee more wage earners.
Weivg this method, Sheppard concluded that in 1966 at least six
million members of families worked on some basis and were poor.
In addition, there were 1.3 million unrelated individuals in the
labor force at the same time. Therefore, there are perhaps as
many as 7.3 million men and woneh who are Labor’ fone6 participants

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and yet are poor. ~He concludes that most of them are employed but

.

still do not earn enough to raise their-families or themselves
out of poverty. |
Equally significant weight must be given to the quality
of the unemployed in terms of age, location, duration, etc.
The quality can have serious consequences for the cities. At
the time of the Sheppard study, the Office of Economic Opportunity
estimated that the central cities contained nearly 1.3 million
job seekers or underemployed poor persons of whom 33% were in the
16-21 age group (1966 figures). :1968 figures for Detroit show |
that the unemployment rate for the city asS.a whole was 3.8%, but
for 16-19 year olds it was 13.6%. Unemployment in the central
elty, both white and nonWwhLte, was 11.2%. In round numbers there
were almost 22,000 unemployed in Detroit between the ages of 16-19.
In the central city there were 34,000 people 6f all ages unémapbeseas>
In Los Angeles, 35,000 Ware betweah 36 ana 1% and the total

for-the central city was 71,000. One must conclude that the bulk

2the data for Detroit and Los Angeles are from the Supplement to
the President's 1969 Manpower Report and are averages for the
calendar year 1968. Data is also available for 18 other cities.

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* Public Service Employment : a Page 4

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of the unemployed are in the central city; and if Sheppard's
‘conservative figures on underemployment are considered, there is
today a strong concentration of unemployed and underemployed in
the central city, and many are in the 16-19 age group. None of
these figures will startle anyone. Yet, measured against achieve-
ment much remains to be done.

Sheppards analysis of the “needs" of the cities was done
by a survey of 130 cities Wee populations of 100,000 or more.
Although not done in depth, the general conclusions of the survey
_ established the fact that in these pines there were at least
280 ,000 potential positions which were needed but not filled and
not budgeted. Even more significant was the fact that the city
representatives estimated that there were at least 140,000 of
these jobs that did not require technical or professional training
and could be filled by inner-city residents. Contrary to popular
belief that these jobs by .definition were make work, 30 per cent
were in education of which again 27% siete nonprofessional, 12.4%
were in health and: hospitals of which 13.3% were nonprofessional,
and 25% were in police, fire and sanitation of which over 23% |
could be filled by nonprofessionals. Most people would consider
these categories of work to be essential to the efficient and

productive operation of a city.

%

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It is the conviction of the Urban Coalition Action Council
that the present requirements of the cities and the unfulfilled
promises of jobs can be matched. Such a program will have a

positive impact on the problems of unemployment and underemployment.




Public Service Employment oo Page 5.

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But it cannot be done without some Federal support for city
budgets, state budgets, budgets of nonprofit institutions such

as hospitals, all of which are shrinking Ghaar the pressure of
rising costs. Yet the demand for service to the community remains

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‘and grows.

The private sector is playing a critical role in the employ-

ment of the disadvantaged. The JOBS Program? has had a substantial ~-

impact in the communities where it has been operating for more
than a year. Despite excellent organizational and promotional
efforts and the dedication of thousands of individual businessmen,
the private sector has not been able to attack the total problem.
No one can expect the private sector alone to do the job. In
fact, the private sector should not be asked to do the whole job.
Not only can they not be expected to do it, they cannot do it.

In June 1969 the Secretary of Labor announced that 2,370
employers agreed to hire and train 71,796 disadvantaged workers
with Federal assistance. The goal is 238,000 by June 1970 ana
614,000 by June 1971. This enormous effort must be continued,
but even if we recognize that a much larger group has been employed
through the normal channels of companies, Los Angeles alone needs
more than 71,000 job opportunities for the central city right now.

Although several bills relating -to public service employ-
ment were introduced in the 90th Congress, Congress has failed
to act in this important area. Independent pieces of legislation

and’ manpower "fall out" from other legislation considered to be

350b Opportunities in the Business. Sector, conducted by the
National Alliance of Businessmen




Public Service Employment

public service employment-oriented are on the books.

and the Work Incentive Program (WIN)

are examples,

Page 6

New Careers

Quite apart



from whether the proliferation of prograns, both private and
public sector oriented, requires a more comprehensive approach
‘and a more efficient delivery system, present programs apparently
are not reaching significant numbers of the unemployed and under-
employed.

The present Administration is mindful of this. The Depart-
ment of Labor recently circulated for comment to interested parties
a detailed program draft to be called Public Service Careers Program.
The program is scheduled to be announced in early August, and one
can assume that the recent draft represents the Administration's
currant thinking on this subject.

The draft paper ‘basically agrees with Dr. Sheppard's state-

ment of the program. The Administration's analysis emphasizes that:

1) There is an increasing need for trained manpower in
the public sector at all levels of government
2) Underemployment is a key problem
3) A public service program should: not ie an ‘employer
| of.the last resort program' nor merely another training
program i
4) The Administration proposes.to break down a wide
range of barriers to employment of the disadvantaged
and implement ‘pewadine of current employees
Federal funds will be made available for supportive

5)
services, i.e. training and remediation, transportation

and day care facilities, job restructuring, sensitivity

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Public Service Employment Se. 23 Page 7

training for supervisors. Fifty million dollars in
Title I-B Economic Opportunity Act monies will be
requested.

The Secretary of Labor has stated that the Federal annette
‘ment investment per trainee in the JOBS program is $2,915. Using
three thousand dollars per person and not taking into account any
additional investment that may have been made by the private
sector for each JOBS trainee, the proposed Public Service Careers
Program would gansvete about 16,000 jobs for the entive nation.

The justification that the Labor Department uses for its
limited eftorte in the public sector is the assumed need for
experimentation (For example, will the hire-first train-later
principle work in the public sector), and to determine whether
or not such pir oueene can succeed without some form of Federal
wage subsidy. Representatives of major cities have already |
indicated to Department representatives that Federal wage subsidies
in some form are necessary; that they face continuing deterioration
of essential as well as desirable kecudaes, that budgetary pressures

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are such that the recruiting, training, and supplying of supportive

services-is meaningless if the jobs cannot be sustained in the

city system or the hospital, no matter how badly needed. 4

The Administration's analysis of unemployment and under-
employment problems and the imperative and growing need for a

public service manpower program supports the analysis of the

Annis explains the reaction of some city representatives who,
although critical of the WIN program, regard at least as
realistic in this one respect for it does provide for some
form of wage subsidy for two years.

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Public Service Employment Page 8

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Urban Coalition. But the conclusions from the analyses differ.

The Urban Coalition Action Council cannot support the Administration's
present approach in this area, and so tneopned Assistant Secretary

of Labor Arnold Weber by letter on July 25, 1969. (See attachment)

- The Urban Coalition Action Council is payeudne ‘i vigorous
ipeouxiut of support for meaningful public service employment legis-
lation in this session of Congress. The Action Council is
coordinating and cooperating with its suippoLuLng segments to pre-
pare now for Senate and House hearings. The timetable in the:

House calls for hearings sometime in early October. “This is the
first order of business. Particularly because of the Administra-
-tion's approach at the present time, we rinse undertake to prove
the case for a more rapid and larger effort.in the public employ-
ment field. We hope that all the varied elements in the Urban
Coalition Action Council constituency and all others who have a
concern about the commitment of this nation te offer job opportunities
to those willing and able to work will assist us in this effort.

In order to prepare carefully for the anticipated hearings,
we would welcome any comments or reactions, that you might have
to this proposed effort. We are particularly interested in
critical reactions to the concept of public service employment
as well as comments on present or proposed alternative methods in

either the public or private sector for dealing with the problems

of underemployment and unemployment in 1969.

~

July 30, 1969 (bs)¢ Sean ei

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