Trouble Centers

While U.S. employment stands at a record high of 67.2 million, there are some areas where unemployment is becoming a permanent problem. Secretary of Labor James P. Mitchell last week classified 70 such U.S. areas as centers of "chronic labor surplus" because unemployment has been at least 50% higher than the national average over four of the past five years. Of the 3,426,000 workers idle in August, Mitchell estimated that 500,000 were in the 70 most distressed areas. Seventeen of the areas, including Detroit, Providence and Charleston, W.Va., were officially labeled as "chronic" for the first time. Reasons: depletion of natural resources, the shift from hard coal to natural gas and oil for heating, the transfer of industries to other regions, and growing automation.

Thus the coal-mining, textile and auto industry towns, said the Labor Department, bear the burden of chronic unemployment. In Detroit alone, automation, decentralization and lower production have brought the loss of 130,000 auto manufacturing jobs in the past nine years. This means, said the Labor Department, that since 1950 one out of every three auto workers has lost his job.

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