The Butler County Press

Industries; Employment New

Federal Security Administrator Paul V. McNutt Reveals Findings in Survey of 1,900 Different Occupations-- Women Capable of Handling Various Work.

Washington, D. C. (ILNS).- Women could be employed to a much larger extent in defense industry than at present, a government survey indicates.

In an effort to promote employment of women workers in defense plants where shortages of male labor are becoming apparent, Federal Security Administrator Paul V. McNutt has announced that a study of 1,894 different occupations required in 21 key defense industries, revealed that a large majority are jobs in which women could be successfully employed, although they are not at present being hired for such work.

Only 331 Jobs "Unsuitable"

Only 331 of the nearly 1,900 kinds of jobs analyzed were found to be definitely "unsuitable" for women. The study, prepared by the Bureau of Employment Security, Social Security Board, included the vital airplane, shipbuilding, and machinery industries, where widespread shortages have already occurred, as well as a number of other heavy production industries. An additional 47 occupations in these fields are already customarily filled by women exclusively or by either men or women.

Almost two-thirds of the total-1,185-were occupations in which the degree of physical strength required and the conditions under which the work is performed were declared to present no barrier to the employment of women. Moreover, 654 of the occupations in this group were of a kind in which women could be placed immediately, only a brief period of preparatory training, if any, being necessary, according to the study.

New Employment for Women

Even in the case of the other 531 occupations, for which considerable training is required, McNutt pointed out that breaking up some of the jobs into their single-skill component parts would make possible the immediate employment of women. Down-processing of complex jobs to permit the employment and training, on-the-job, of semi-skilled workers has already been widely adopted by defense employers as a means of meeting skilled labor shortages.

Some of the occupations mentioned by the administrator in which women could be employed were a wide variety of jobs in the manufacture and assembly of parts for motors, radios, recording instruments, and airplane gauges. He also stated that the development of new machinery now made possible the employment of women even in the manufacture of heavy shells and other types of munitions, whereas the method formerly used made it necessary to employ men only. A large majority of the operations in the manufacture of automobiles, trucks, and tanks, even final body assembly, could also be performed by women, since heavy parts are moved by machinery.

Many Industries Listed

A numerous list of occupations in the manufacture of parts for electrical equipment and in the operation of boring, shelving, welding, anodizing, cutting, drawing, sawing, stamping, and other types of automatic machinery used in the manufacture of machines and machine tools were also included in the list of acceptable jobs for women. In the ship and boat-building industry, women were listed as acceptable for employment as boilermakers' helpers, draftsmen, machinists' helpers, blueprint machine operators, flash welders, and a large list of other occupations.

The industries covered by the survey were manufacture of aircraft and parts, air transportation and service, aluminum products, munitions manufacture, automobile, motorcycle, truck and tank manufacture, and equipment, communications, electrical machinery, firearms, industrial chemicals, iron and steel and their products, machine tools, machine models and patterns, foundries, professional and scientific instruments, railroad equipment, ship-building and repairing, utilities, and petroleum production and refining.