Wirtz Calls Jobless Figures Misleading: Witness at Senate Inquiry
Secretary of Labor Willard Wirtz told Congress yesterday that the NationÛªs annual loss from unemployment is equivalent to ÛÏshutting the country downÛÓwith no production, no services, no pay ÛÓ for over three weeks.Û</br></br>Secretary of Labor Willard Wirtz told Congress yesterday that the NationÛªs annual loss from unemployment is equivalent to ÛÏshutting the country downÛÓwith no production, no services, no pay ÛÓ for over three weeks.Û ÛÏIf that actually happened, we wuld do something about it,Û Wirtz said. But as it is, he continued the loss of work time is so scattered throughout the economy that the impact is not seen so dramatically.</br></br>Calling unemployment the Nations ÛÏmost serious domestic problem,Û Wirtz said monthly unemployment figures are misleading. The jobless total for April was around 4 million, or slightly over 5% per cent of the NationÛªs work force. But Wirtz said reliable estimates indicate that approximately 14 million men and women were unemployed at some time during the year 1962.</br></br>He said unemployment and underemployment cost the Nation between $30 billion and $40 billion in goods and services last year alone.</br></br>Wirtz was the lead-off witness as the Senate Manpower and Employment Subcommittee began what its chairman, Sen. Joseph S. Clark (D-Pa.), called the country's first intensive study of the entire U. S. manpower problem.