PERSONNEL. The following proposed personnel1 is submitted for the fiscal year If the recommendation on page 8, so to reorganize the editorial forces of the department as to secure the most efficient service be adopted, the personnel, of course, would be augmented to the extent such reorganization indicated. The very greatly reduced force with which the division has been. compelled to carry on its work has forced it to request details from the bureaus in order to function. There are detailed from the Children's Bureau one clerk at $1,000 and from the Bureau of Naturalization one clerk at $1,200 and one clerk at $1,000. The inadequacy of present salaries has rendered it impossible for the division to retain the personnel trained to perform the duties necessary. Based on the expenditures necessary to maintain a family, or compared with the value of the work performed, neither the administrative nor the clerical positions are at all adequately compensated. Taken as a whole, the efficiency of the personnel of the division is much lower than four years ago, and unless salaries generally can be raised it is certain further to deteriorate. An increase of at least 25 per cent of present salaries is the least that would be considered in any sense fair to employees of the division, from chief to messenger boy. OVERTIME. It has been possible to reduce materially the amount of overtime required of clerks as compared with the previous year. The records, however, show that in order to keep the work of the division current it has been necessary to permit overtime to the extent of 1,069 hours. This work has been performed cheerfully whenever the needs of the service indicated its necessity, but it is hoped that the coming year will show a still further material reduction or a total elimination. CONCLUSION. Notwithstanding the conditions under which the employees of this division have been forced to work, the constant shifting necessary Salaries quoted contemplate a continuation of the bonus of $240 per annum provided in appropriations for the fiscal year 1921. to fill the vacancies made by those who have left, and the necessary doubling up in order to keep the work of furnishing the several bureaus and offices of the department the supplies and printed matter necessary to their proper functioning, they have, by their faithfulness and continuous efforts, made it possible to keep the work of the division nearly current; and I sincerely hope that the Congress may see its way clear either to adopt the recommendations of the Commission on Reclassification or some other adequate means of properly compensating these employees for the class of service they are rendering. Respectfully submitted. Hon. W. B. WILSON, H. A. WORKS, ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR GENERAL UNITED STATES EMPLOY MENT SERVICE. U. S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, U. S. EMPLOYMENT SERVICE, Washington, D. C., September 1, 1920. SIR: There is submitted herewith the Third Annual Report of the United States Employment Service for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1920. GENERAL SURVEY OF THE YEAR. The record of the service during the year under review presents the aspect of a constant struggle to meet, with inadequate and diminishing financial resources, the serious conditions of unemployment resulting from the rapid demobilization of the military and naval forces and war workers of the country and the increasing demands of the reviving peace-time industries. Owing to the failure of Congress to pass the deficiency bill prior to its adjournment on March 3, 1919, it had become necessary to curtail seriously the activities of the service during the four months, March-June, when unemployment was at its height, and to make an appeal to the public to aid in carrying on the work during that critical period. The instant and generous response with which this appeal was met by State and municipal authorities as well as by numberless private citizens and welfare agencies, and the aid extended by the War Department in cooperating in the organization of special employment bureaus for soldiers, sailors, and marines, made it possible for the service to tide over the emergency without serious embarrassment. The work of replacing returning service men in industrial life, which was mainly supported by chambers of commerce and similar commercial organizations, with help from the American Red Cross, the Knights of Columbus, Y. M. C. A., and other welfare organizations was continued for several months into the year under consideration, some of it to the end of the year 1919; but after June 30, upon the passage by Congress of the sundry civil bill, which carried an appropriation of $400,000 for the United States Employment Service for the ensuing year (instead of the $4,600,000 which had been asked for), most of the private contributions were discontinued, necessitating a further reduction in the activities of the service and especially a curtailment of its field work. Fortunately this enforced reduction in the number of employment bureaus maintained by the service (from 500 to 62) was to a considerable degree compensated by the fact that the States and municipalities which had formerly maintained a public employment service now took over many of the offices which the United States Employment Serv 15283-LAB 1920- -58 913 |