Box 15, Folder 13, Document 68

Box 15, Folder 13, Document 68

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When the community welfare is in danger, and when opportunity
knocks, it's traditional in Atlanta that businessmen give the
most important leadership. Our subject today is loaded with

danger and opportunity.

This presentation was brought about by five organizations
serving our community -- under the leadership of businessmen.
Businessmen give intelligent direction toward worthwhile gcals,
and they use special abilities to shape effective programs.
Their dedication has inspired the simmer and participation of

other vital community elements.
These organizations are...

... The City of Atlanta...
-+-The Atlanta Chamber of Commerce...
«+». The Community Council of the Atlanta Area...

-»» Lhe Greater Atlanta United Appeal...

«e.and Economic Opportunity Atlanta, Incorporated.
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As Atlanta grows, so grows the need for continued leadership
by businessmen. With Atlanta's growth, the very problems

these organizations exist to meet will keep on growing.

We want to concentrate on just one of these problems: JOBS. .
These organizations are all concerned with jobs. Employment

.-.and unemployment...are at the core of their programs.

Atlanta's attractiveness as a place to live and do business
depends a great deal on the municipal services of the city...
schools, water supply, streets, fire protection and police
protection. Local tax funds support the city wii finance these
services. Thus, the extent and quality of municipal services
depend on whether there is profitable business activity, and

whether our citizens are productively employed. .

The Chamber of Commerce seeks a continually growing

business community. It looks for growth in industry and

jobs...which stimulate trade. And it seeks growth in

community facilities which,.in turn, help bring in more

industry and more jobs.


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The Community Council is a social planning agency. It helps
coordinate growth by collecting and analyzing facts, by
helping develop programs of community benefit, and by getting

sponsorship for needed programs.

The United Appeal supports agencies with purposes related to
the social needs of our community...in health, recreation,
family counseling, and care for children and the aged. Filling
these social needs is often the key to getting a job, or keeping
it. The Urban League and Goodwill Industries are two United

Appeal agencies with functions directly related to jobs.

Economic Opportunity Atlanta, Incorporated, brings together

all segments of the city in a concerted effort against poverty.

' E-O-A coordinates and channels services to the poor, and

starts new services for needs which aren't being met. E-O-A
tries to help people help themselves. ..to make them

contributing members of society...and to break the vicious

“eycle of poverty that becomes more serious with each

generation.
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There are many other agencies which offer services in the
field of employment and unemployment. The organizations
we mentioned work closely with a number of them, sharing
information, facilities and ideas. You probably are familiar
with the programs of these other agencies, or nerhaps have
participated in one of the programs. To name just a few of
these agencies...

... The State Employment Service of the Georgia Denartment
of Labor...our vocational 4 .. Family and Children's
Services...the Vocational Rehabilitation Division of the State
Department of Education. ..the manpower and apprentice

training programs of the U. S. Department of Labor.

There are other organizations, more recently established,
which concentrate their efforts on a particular phase of
Atlanta's employment. For example... the Atlanta Employers
Voluntary Merit Employment Association, which is a group of
businessmen with a mutual desire to halt discrimination

practices in employment. _.
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Often, several of these organizations will pool their

resources in a cooperative effort. A recent example was

the Employer Workshop on Manpower Resources, held in

late November through the efforts of three organizations --

the Chamber of Commerce, the Merit Employnient Association,
and the Georgia Department of Labor. Its purpose was to help
employers evaluate all the available manpower r+sources and

employability programs against their own job requirements.

It is obvious, then, that these organizations recognize their
community responsibilities in employment. It is apparent,
too, from the programs and activities under way, that
something is being done ta-help get our unemployed people

on the job.

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The need for continued business leadership is equally clear.
None of these organizations, individually or collectively,
claims to have all the answers to unemployment. And no one

yet has solved the problems that cause unemployment.
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We can't promise all the answers, either. But our purpose,
during the next few minutes, is to lvok at some of the facts...

raise some questions...and provoke some thinking among

this group that, perhaps, will lead us toward some of the ©

answers.

Specifically, let's try to determine the extent of the problem
in Atlanta. Let's examine the problem as it directly affects
businessmen, and addresses itself to the programs of our

community organizetions.
Begin by stating the problem in its simplest terins:

In our community, jobs are going unfilled. At the same time,

people are unemployed.

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This may seem a paradox. . but we know it is not a new

situation, nor is it peculiar to Atlanta. There've always been
people out of work. And, except during depressions, there've
always been jobs open for willing, qualified workers. This is

true in every economy which provides employment for a great


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number of people...even in a market as healthy as

Atlanta's today.

So we're looking beyond the normal and commonplace. We
want to talk about what we can do after the pool of qualified
workers runs out and some of the jobs are still unfilled. We
need to consider people who aren't working because of
limited education or none at all...physical handicans. ..not

enough skill or motivation...or combinations of these things.

It's elementary that unemployment can have a bad effect on
the economic health of the community. But bring it c!sser to
home by asking this question: What is my duty, as a citizen,
to try to cut ar high cost of public maintenance of our

people who aren't productively employed? —

Turn the question around: What is my opportunity, as a
businessman, to strengthen our markets and economy by
helping convert a big tax drain into purchasing power and
taxable income? Suppose we could somehow add 100 dollars

a month to the incomes of all the Atlanta families which now


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earn less than 4,000 dollars a year? This would increase the

purchasing power among these people by more than 95 million

dollars a year.

But perhaps the most important dimension to be examined is
this: What effect will unemployment and underemployment

right now have on Atlanta's growth potential? In shert, what

about tomorrow?

Compared to other parts of the country, Atlanta has relatively
little unemployment. We often brag about our low rate... which

is officially 2-point-5 per cent,

Part of the reason for this low rate is Atlanta's key Position in

the Southeast...a region which has had a lion's share of the nation's
postwar economic growth. We can also thank programs such as
Forward Atlanta, through which Atlanta's business leadership has
been imaginative and aggressive in getting the share we deserve

of the nation's growth.
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In a full economy, the qualified, willing job-seeker can find
work. By almost any standard, 1967 and several years
previous have been years of full economy in Atlanta. Retail
sales, effective buying income, and other economic indicators
have been moving steadily up. Certainly, we can't blame

unemployment on any lack of health in the Atlanta economy.

We said our unemployment is comparatively small...by official
‘contenant, Yet, for a number of reasons, we cannot afford

to minimize it. For one, we know that there are maiy others

who are less than fully employed but who aren't counted with the

2.5 per cent. They don't fit tiie statistical definition of unemployed.
No one is certain how many people are in this category. And we

can only wonder how many children are growing up to carry on Family:

traditions of poverty, ignorance, poor health, idleness, and willing

for unwilling dependence on public and private doles.

Our population has grown. In 1967, the 2.5 per cent represents

thousands more people than it did ten years ago.
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More people live in cities today. They are easier to count,
put in categories, and observe. In a rural environment,

there are more ways to subsist without formal emplovment.

We are familiar with some of the causes of unemployment,
and some of them stem, in part, from the very affiuence we
have described. Minimum qualifications for some jobs are
rising faster than the average educational attainment. There
are problems of health, housing and even transportation, and
there are deserted mothers tied to the care of deserted

children.
No one can say positively how much effect any cne of these
things is having on unemployment. If we could’be sure,

effective solutions might be easier to develop.

But these things are certain:
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Thousands of people in Atlanta don't earn enough to support
themselves and their families. They are PEOPLE NEEDING

JOBS...the 2.5 per cent, others who aren't being counted

ojficially, and some others who have jobs but are under-

employed or underpaid.
Empioyers in Atlanta's dynamic economy cannot always find
all the skilled people they need to help run their businesses.

This is the other category...JOBS NEEDING PEOPLE,

And... Unemployment is waste...a waste of productive effort...
2 waste in terms of unrealized consumption of goods and
services. It's a drag on growth, and, under some conditions...
. «+» Unemployment can stop growth in its tracks. Thatisa

blunt statement which deserves to be documented.
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Some alarming facts with a great deal of bearing on our
subject were developed by the city's Community Improvement
Program...the C-I-P, Part of the C-I-P study dealt with
the number of jobs in certain categories, and projections of

what the situation will be in 1983, if present trends continue.

For example, in 1983, there will be 515, 000 jobs in the

City of Atlanta. That's 48 per cent more than in 1965.

Nearly four out of ten of these new jobs in the city will be

, in our cutout Business District. This means 64,000 more

; people will be employed in our Central City...the downtown
area.
Most of these new jobs will be in five main categories:
GOVERNMENT, FINANCE, INSURANCE, AND REAL ESTATE,

with about 10,000 jobs in each group, and RETAILING, with

about 5, 000 jobs.
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None of these new jobs will be in manufacturing, wholesale
trade or distribution. The Central City won't gain in this

kind of employment.

Jobs in GOVERNMENT, FINANCE, INSURANCE, REAL

ESTATE, AND RETAILING, .. WHITE COLLAR JOBS.

Now consider another set of facts from the C-I-P study...

facts about population.

By 1983, the Negre population of the City of Atianta will

increase by 62 per cent... the white populatior by 4 per cent.

Forty-five per cent of the Negro population will be in the
age group of 20 to 54. MORE THAN HALF will be under 20

or over 54.

From another phase of the C-I-P study comes this projection:

In 1983, about 32,000 Negro families living in the city will
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have family income of LESS THAN THREE THOUSAND
DOLLARS. About 45,000 Atlanta Negro families will

have incomes of less than $5,000 a year.

Put some of these facts together to see what they imply:

FIRST.. .job growth will be in white collar oc2pations.

SECOND,..our population will be made up of the pesple
who, by current standards, are LEAST qualified for white

collar jobs.

THIRD...downtown retailing will be supported by a
preponderance of families with poverty-level incomes...

families with very little to spend in retail stores.

And FINALLY...Atlanta's growth potential will be impossible

to realize unless established trends are changed.
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Those facts make it easier to understand the disturbing
statement of a few minutes ago... that UNEMPLOYMENT

CAN STOP GROWTH IN ITS TRACKS,

Therein lies our challenge. ..the challenge to begin now
changing some of these conditions which, in turn, will

help reverse or slow some of the undersirabie trends.

As we begin to realize the size of the probiem, other

questions demand answers. Who are the PEOPLE involved?

Do we need -- or can we get -- an accurate profile of our

unemployed population?

There is some data available to help us find a starting point.
One example of such datais a study based on interviews

with 47,000 people, between 16 and 75 years old, living
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in poverty neighborhoods. These interviews were
conducted about 18 months ago through 12 neighborhood
centers of the E-O-A, Here's what the study found out

about these 47, 000 people:

won OT per cent earned less than $3,000 a year.
...52 per cent of all households were headed =y women,
_ «+82 per cent were Negroes.
...57 per cent of the adults did not graduate from high school.
---5 per cent had a fourth grade education or Icss.
..~7 per cent had no formal education at all.
-».12 per cent needed medical aid to remove a work handicap.
..~ll per cent claimed no job skill, or only farni work as

experience,

e-e2 per cent were 65 or older.

Of all those seeking work, 65 per cent were Negro women.
About two out of three said they would like to have more

vocational training in hopes of improving their lot.
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A composite would be difficult to draw. But look at two

case histories:

A typical case...A woman, 33, divorced, mother of four
children. She has a seventh grade education. Works es a
maid and makes 28 dollars a week. Pays 12 doliars of that
for a three-room apartment. Her children are left alone
while she works because day care would cost two-thi.ds of

her weekly salary.

Another case, less typical but just as real...A young man,
22. Completed the fifth grede in a rural school. He is
married to a young woman who completed the third grade.
They are expecting a child soon. They live with his sister
and her five children...eight persons in four rooms. He
has worked as a delivery boy and busboy, averaging a dollar

an hour. He has serious problems with a loan company.
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These two have jobs, of sorts, for the time being. But
theiv future is uncertain and prospects are poor that they will

e=3 ever hold jobs at a level much higher.

They lack the skill and educational attainment to fill some
of the vacancies which we know exist. For instance, the
State Employment Service reports a large unfilled demand

for several job skills...

.-.-Comptometer operators, stenographers, secretaries,
typists, telephone operators , file clerks, cashiers, key
pznch operators, draftsmen...not the sort of jobs to be
filled by a fifth-grade drop-out, or by an untrained domestic.
There are other types of jobs requiring less skill, which
still have a demand greater than the supply of people to hold
them: Food service and preparation, hotels and motels,

building maintenance, and repair and installation work.

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