78-11-A3
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Employment
TranscriptHas talk of unemployment become a hard to break habit and is it a habit we should break because there's no reason for it. I'll be right back. In past broadcasts, I've talked to the probability that we aren't getting an honest count and haven't for some time with regard to unemployment. For months, metropolitan papers in their Sunday editions have carried scores and scores of pages of help wanted ads. Why then should we continue to be given information that indicates large-scale unemployment with all its heartbreak for those vainly seeking jobs. One answer could be that so many government programs in the social reform field exist only if there is chronic and persistent unemployment. Curiously enough, we the people with an almost instinctive wisdom have given indications that we no longer consider unemployment a top priority. When polled as to what are our most important national problems, inflation is number one by an overwhelming majority. Unemployment is now down with the also rans, and as is so often the case, the people are right. Last April, the number of unemployed fell below six million for the first time since 1974. Now jobless people numbering six million would indicate that we do have a problem, but that's not necessarily so. There are many of those who are first-time job seekers, even more who are voluntarily unemployed and it's estimated that possibly 2 million actually have jobs but are working for cash to avoid taxes. Really significant figures have to do with, among other things, how long the unemployed remain out of a job. The average for all labor is less than 13 weeks, but for skilled workers it's less than a month and add to this the fact that a greater number are moonlighting, holding down two jobs, and it's easy to understand why many industries are hoarding manpower fearing a shortage. More than a hundred million Americans are working, the greatest number in our history. The most astounding figure, however, at a time when government is still claiming that unemployment, has a problem has to do with the percentage of adults who are employed. 63 percent of all those over age 16 in America are employed. That too is an all-time high figure and establishes the fact that more women must be in the workforce than at any time in our history. It's time to reorder our priorities. The jobs those hundred million Americans hold are vulnerable to an energy shortage an even greater threat is declining productivity due to aging and obsolescence of our industrial plant brought on by unnecessary government regulation and short-sighted tax policies. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, we have double-digit inflation and that is the biggest threat of all. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening. |
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