Fair Practice

One reason that the unemployment rate among Negroes is twice as high as among whites--four times as high for teen-agers--is that Negroes, conditioned to a life of rebuffs, do not realize how many jobs have opened up to them. The latest way of getting the message across, and bringing labor-short employers together with job seekers, is for cities to stage "job fairs." Businessmen have sponsored various kinds of job fairs in Chicago, Seattle, New York and, perhaps the best-organized and most successful of all, San Francisco.

On a weekend last February, 75 companies and Government agencies set up recruiting booths in the Civic Auditorium. Among those represented: Metropolitan Life, Safeway Stores, General Electric, IBM, Bank of America, Trans World Airlines, Levi Strauss. To draw a large crowd, sound trucks blared the news of the fair through neighborhoods heavily populated by Negroes, and clergymen spread the word from pulpits. In all 10,000 people showed up looking for jobs. They met with company recruiters, some of them Negroes, who explained each company's requirements and opportunities.

Last week the results were in. Altogether, 175 visitors are known to have landed jobs through the fair, and hundreds more have made contacts--which is at the very least a good start. Of those hired 48% are Negroes, 27% Mexican-and Spanish-Americans and 9% Orientals. Said CBS Radio Vice President Jules Dundes, co-organizer of the fair: "The idea is simple and workable. I can only hope it will be adopted by chambers of commerce of all other cities in the U.S."

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