Monday, Dec. 25, 1939
Job Hunters
Although unemployment is a primary U. S. problem, finding the right job is an important secondary one. There is no official U. S. agency to chart job trends and steer youth into the most promising occupations. Last year two smart, jobless young men started an unofficial agency to do it. By last week, when they finished their first year, their enterprise had grossed $100,000 and they had become leading authorities on job hunting.
When Lyle Manly Spencer and Robert Kenneth Burns were at college (University of Washington), they were a famed world-touring debating team, and Burns was also U. S. champion (so named by Pictorial Review) at selling magazine subscriptions. They were graduate students at the University of Chicago when they raised $16,000 from their friends and started Science Research Associates in a Chicago office. Their theory was that there were plenty of jobs to be had if people knew where to look. Now they have 55 researchers and writers studying industrial trends, new businesses, new professions, the 22,000 ways to make a living in the U. S. Their findings are published in a monthly magazine, Vocational Trends, and pamphlets, are sold (cost of complete service: $17.50 a year) to CCC camps, 4,500 high schools, half the U. S. colleges and universities. Some findings:
P: Fastest-growing business is the slot-machine industry, which has increased tenfold since 1929, employs 70,000.
P: Each year there are 100,000 new jobs for truck drivers.
P: The notion that air conditioning and Diesel engineering will employ vast numbers of new workers is just a notion: last year 100,000 went to Diesel schools, only 4,000 got jobs. Reason: Diesel engineering recruits most of its workers from gasoline engineers, who can learn Diesel work in a week or two. Similarly, air conditioning employs made-over plumbers.
P: Shortest-handed profession is research: it has 50,000 workers, needs many thousands more.
P: Instead of studying stenography (overmanned), girls should learn to operate business machines (undermanned). >The war is likely to help printers, aviation, chemical and railroad workers, is bad for cotton and tobacco farmers.
P: Suggested steps for getting a job: 1) buy a loose-leaf notebook; 2) keep a record of findings about yourself and possible careers; 3) prepare yourself for a particular career before you start hunting.
P: Biggest factor in getting and keeping a job is oomph: at least half of the men & women who lose jobs (except in Depression layoffs) are fired for maladjusted personalities.
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