Lighter Envelopes

Ice cream and fertilizers made more jobs in April, as business moved to satisfy the seasonal demands of gullets and gardens. But seasonal increases in nonagricultural fields fell far short of normal April figures, according to Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins last week. Madam Secretary estimated that since fall, 3,000,000 U. S. workers have been laid off. Those who still have jobs are getting lighter pay envelopes than a year ago, although most hourly rates are unchanged since against union resistance it is easier to cut hours than rates. As usual in depressions, payrolls have dropped faster than jobs. In a year, the Labor Department's index of factory employment has gone down 22%, payrolls 33%. Both have moved faster in the Roosevelt Depression than in the first year of Hoover's: from October 1929 to October 1930 factory employment fell 20%, payrolls 30%.

Typical items of Depression II:

P: Michigan's weekly payrolls in April, as compiled by the State, were half those of April 1937. Automotive jobs were off 46% from a year ago, payrolls 54%.

P: Carnegie-Illinois Steel Corporation, principal subsidiary of U. S. Steel, last week reaffirmed for the third quarter present prices for delivery and consumption in the U. S., except certain flat-rolled products. This was interpreted as confirming wage rates, for Steel officers have said prices could not be cut without cutting wages. At S. W. O. C. headquarters in Pittsburgh, Statistician Harold Ruttenberg reported that steel jobs had fallen from 602,000 last August to about 300,000.

P: Westinghouse Electric announced a 10% cut for 13,000 salaried employes.

P: Massachusetts factory workers lost 2.5% of their jobs, 4.7% of their income from March to April. But employment and payrolls in both wholesale and retail trade in the Commonwealth improved over March.

P: Endicott-Johnson, employing 20,000 shoe workers in five New York cities, announced a wage cut of 5%, atop a 10% cut last month.

P: In Chicago's packing industry, employment and wages held up.

P:International Harvester, which in April had 39,700 employes against 47,500 year ago, cut its schedule to four days a week, its payroll from 10% to 20%.

Somewhat better than employment news were reports that lumber production, carloadings, power production, steel ingot production, although far below last year, were up last week, or better than the trend.

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