Guest Editorial ; The Hard Facts About Jobs The following editorial reprinted from The Financial Post presents an interesting but incomplete picture of the problems facing unskilled workers in Canada. What the Post has neglected to do, to properly round out their analysis of the problem, is to mention that a large per- centage of the unemployed are the by-products of automation and technological change and that unless there is a marked change in the monetary and fiscal thinking of this nation, to ereate more jobs, we will always be faced with increasing unemployment. Training alone will not create jobs. AS the chart on this page makes very clear, it now takes a lot more than a little reading, a little writ- ing and a little arithmetic to pave the way to job security. In the relatively short period of 10 years, the dra- matic expansion of white collar jobs has revamped this country’s entire employment structure. At the time of the 1951 census, there were 1,762,000 blue collar jobs and 1,690,000 white collar jobs. By 1961, blue collar was up 16% to a little over 2,000,000, but white collar leaped 43% to 2,413,000. Significantly, within the white collar category the most rapid expansion of jobs is taking place where the skill requirements are highest. The professional and technical group, for instance, rose by 67% during the decade. Clerical jobs increased by 47%, sales jobs by 33%. Equally significant, in the blue collar category, the number of jobs where practically no skills are needed, declined by 10%. This is so, despite a 22% increase in the total work force. The only expansion of jobs within the blue collar group occurred where skills count — among the crafts- men working in the production process. Jobs for miners, loggers and fishermen were fewer at the end of the decade than at the beginning. The big shift from blue collar to white collar is taking place at a time when the teenage products of the postwar baby boom are about to explode into the labor market by hundreds of thousands. Between 1961 and 1966, the teenage population will be rising 18 times as fast as it did, on average, in the two decades 1935-1955. This means that to cope with the teenage influx and scale existing unemployment down to more re- spectable levels, the Canadian economy will have to produce about 175,000 new jobs a year for the next few years. If we only create as many in the next four as we did in the last four (500,000), unemployment will be a destructive 8% of the work force. To get it down to 4%, at least 800,000 new jobs will be needed between now and the end of 1966. These facts and figures make urgent policies de- signed to stimulate the Canadian economy into faster growth. They also make it crystal clear that today’s youngster who has no skills of substance will be to- morrow’s unemployed man. —The Financial Post WHITE COLLAR COUNCIL An increasing interest in organizing shown by office work- ers has led to the establishment of a permanent advisory council of Technical, Office and Professional Workers (TOP). TOP was formed in Windsor when delegates from eight United Auto Workers union locals in Windsor, Toronto, Oshawa, Chatham, Sarnia and Brantford met to discuss trade unions and the white collar worker. Publication date of the next issue of the WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER is August 1. Deadline for ad copy i i 25, and for news July 26. eer iSioe Published Twice Monthly on the First and Third Thursdays by INTERNATIONAL WOODWORKERS OF AMERICA (AFL-CIO-CLC) Regional Council No. 1 a? Editor . . . Grant MacNeil REGIONAL OFFICERS: é : . Jack Moore Jack MacKenzie Jack Holst Bob Ross President Ist Vice-President 2nd Vice-President oe ee : ary-Treasurer : Fred_Fiebe International Board Members Joe Madden, Walter F, Alen Address all communications to: FRED FIEBER, Secretary-Treasurer 2859 Commercial Drive, Vancouver, B.C. TR. 4-5261 - 2 Subscription Rates Advertising Representative $2.00 per annum G. A. Spencer as Second Class Mail, Post Office Dept. ‘ and for Payment of Postage in Ca rake , Ottawa, THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER 2nd Issue July, 1963 Jobs Decrease In Poultry Business Too Things are done in a big way at the Feathercrest Poul- try Farm at Mount Albert, Ont., some 40 miles north of Toronto. For example, in a set-up that comprises one of the most modern “egg fac- tories” in all Canada, there are five laying houses each 280 feet long. Each of these lay- ing houses can accommodate 12,000 birds for a total laying flock of 60,000. The plant has over four miles of water troughs and the same amount of feed troughs. Since each 12,000 birds produce 450,000 BTU’s of body heat per hour, eight 3-foot fans are required to change the air in each house every 40 seconds of the night and day. So much of the equipment is automatic that only a dozen people are required to feed, clean the houses, grade, sort, wash and pack the eggs. The egg washing machine is capable of washing and dry- ing thousands of eggs per hour. A constant check is kept at all times on egg quality which is so important with today’s consumer. —From Western Producer. 800,000 Of all days to catch fish at a popular resort, yesterday is reported to be the best. —Independent, Whitewater, Kansas. Back when B.C’s logging industry was in its infancy,man-sized work _ rated man-sized refreshment. Real beer. Today, Old Style is still brewing a man’s kind of beer. Time hasn't cut Old Style down to size. It’s brewed the old-fashioned, natural way for a flavour as big as all outdoors. Old Style BEER BREWED AND BOTTLED BY MOLSON’S CAPILANO BREWERY LTD. This advertisement is not published or displayed by the Liquor Control Board or by the Government of British Columbia. ei