handicaps which could be remedied with proper programs and who could be brought into productive employment.

We have underutilized portions of the population, especially the Negro workers. I am very disturbed, as I study the statistics, that the improvement in the employment opportunities of Negro workers is not as great as we thought it would be, as they thought it would be, and everyone expected it would be. As you know, it is almost 10 years ago since the then Senator Johnson introduced the civil rights law of 1957. We have had a succession of civil rights laws since then under President Johnson. We have had the movement for employment opportunity, the protest activities, the conscience of the country obviously touched, and I would have hoped that by now more progress would have been made than is being made. For example, we find that not only the rate of unemployment among Negroes is more than twice as high as among whites, and that has been proven for some years, but it is moving upward. In the last couple of months, the rate of Negro unemployment has moved upward.

Then we found a disturbing fact about the teenage job situation in the summer. As you know, the Government, under the Vice President's leadership, made a very strong appeal to employers all over the country to make summer jobs for the youth, and the response in terms of jobs was really tremendous. As compared to last year, there were about a million more additional summertime jobs. That program really took hold. But the only problem was that most of those additional jobs went to white teenagers and a very few of them went to the Negro teenagers. Now, I am not pointing this out as an example of conscience or intentional discrimination. I think it is much more likely to be a case of something that happens because of lack of attention to the problem. The white students have the connections. Their fathers know how to get them jobs, if necessary; or they have friends who know where jobs are. The job opportunities are likely to be closer to where they live; whereas, that is not true of the Negro children. In general, the education of the white children has been better, more adequate, than the education of the Negro children. For these or for whatever reasons, the fact is that the summer employment drive, while it did yield a great many additional jobs-I think more additional jobs than one would have expectedthe Negro children, and I am talking now of studies through the age of 19-the teenagers did not get any large number of these additional jobs.

One final remark on this subject of Negro employment opportunity. The Negroes are not moving up into the better jobs to the extent that they were given to expect. I think we all expected they would. There has been considerable progress in some fields and in some pro

fessions, especially teaching. There has been considerable progress in government employment. On the other hand, when you look at the proportion of, say, construction jobs available to Negroes in the past few years, it has not been improving to a noticeable extent. That is true of some of the white-collar work, such as clerical work. Of course, nobody expected that the employment distribution could be revolutionized overnight. Everyone knew that this would be a long-term process but it is not moving fast enough. In some fields it is not moving at all. I do not think that statistics make riots.

I do not think my remarks on this subject would be any different if there had not been these destructive riots in Cleveland, Chicago, New York City, and Omaha during recent weeks. Blasted hopes and frustrations can create a situation where constructive leadership falters and blind destructiveness takes over. I think the lack of sufficient progress in the employment field has contributed to the situation where blind destructiveness has taken over in some of our major cities.

I have been talking about manpower reserves. I have talked about the unemployed. I have talked about those persons who would like full-time work. I have talked about people with remedial handicaps and about the underutilized Negro workers. But what about the manpower shortages? Certainly, there are bottlenecks of skill in many areas, including many of the southern communities. The occupations involved tend to be about the same around the country. It does not matter too much where you are; there will be shortages of doctors, nurses, and medical personnel. Skilled metalworkers, such as tool-and-die makers, machinery repairmen and other skilled workers, are short almost everywhere. Some of the construction trades are short almost everywhere. Except in some places, the home building is at a low ebb. Engineers and economists and some professionals are short almost everywhere. It is a funny situation. There is more labor supply in some areas than others but the difference is not in the highly skilled or professional groups. These certain skilled and professional groups are almost short everywhere. Some have unemployment rates of 5, 6, and 7 percent, while others, such as New Orleans, have unemployment rates of less than 3 percent. In fact, about a third of the areas in the country now have unemployment rates of less than 3 percent.

These bottlenecks represent a challenge to our manpower programs. They were made to be broken. You would not have a high employment economy, you would not approach anywhere near full employment, without getting the bottlenecks. It always happens. The path toward full employment is not so smooth that you are not going to get shortages in some occupations and some localities. This does not mean that we have to put on the brakes and stop. It does mean that

we have to do more to adapt the existing labor supply to the needs, to use the kinds of workers who are available, to stop lamenting about the kind of workers that are no longer available, and to do more to bring up the qualifications of those people who are being hired.

Now, on the latter point, I am not speaking only about the training programs, although we are, of course, pushing them all we can within the limitations of the resources. In the first 11 months of fiscal year 1966, we authorized training under the Manpower Development and Training Act for about a quarter of a million persons. During May 1966, we authorized about 34,000. For the most part, the training programs under MDTA and on-the-job training are directed to the shortage areas, shortage skills, and to the surplus groups, trying to bring the surpluses together with the shortages. And so we find a great deal of the training in the field of nursing and auto mechanics, machine tool operators, draftsmen, laboratory technicians and so on. But the biggest part of the job has got to be done privately. The amount of training of the unemployed which the Federal Government can do is really very small compared to the training of employed people. That is to say, the upgrading of employed people which private industry can and must do. Since so many of the available workers do not have good experience or skills, the most obvious thing to do is to upgrade people who do have experience and make room in the beginning jobs for people without experience; instead, as I say, of lamenting for the topnotch A-1 candidates that used to be available in the labor market. In this respect, employers are not doing enough.

There are some fields in which, I think, there is a permanent shortage of training facilities, training institutions, particularly in the fields of instruction and of medical services. So these bottlenecks do not prove a lack of manpower. Secretary Wirtz likes to say that we do not have a manpower shortage; we have skill shortages. The problem is to adapt the existing manpower to the opportunities. I think that we do have the manpower if we will move vigorously enough to use it and to adapt it.

The question is often asked: If production and employment keep expanding, what about the question of inflation? The price increases that have taken place in the past year have been about 22 percent. Naturally, in some months the annual rate is higher, and in some months it is lower. In the first 6 months of this year, the Consumer Price Index went up 1.7 percent, and the whole price index went up 1.5 percent. I do not think anybody should be complacent about that but, on the other hand, it seems to me that there is a lot of overblown rhetoric in the press on what is really a fairly moderate rate of price

increase. I do not mean that I would not like to see it lower. Of course I would. Everybody would. Our prices are going up more slowly than any other major country in the world. I pointed this out to the press the other day when I had my monthly conference on Consumer Price Index. I brought in some figures showing that, as compared to our country, the price trend was two or three or four times as steep in Germany, Italy, France, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Japan, and other major countries. And I said I was not pointing this out as a silver lining, or saying that we ought to be complacent. But I am saying that we ought to see it in perspective. When you come to think of it, when we have on our hands a medium-size war, approaching the size of the Korean war, and the largest capital boom in history, without controls, starting off in 1964 or 1965, from a period of fairly high employment, not starting off from unemployment, as we did in the Korean war or World War II, I think it is really remarkable that the price trend has been so moderate.

As I said, I am not suggesting that we forget about it. Obviously, we have to look very carefully, particularly when we see what the shape of defense spending will be in 1967. The economic, fiscal, and monetary and other policies must be reviewed. Obviously, the most careful attention must be paid to unstabilizing wage decisions and price decisions and those persons in the corporations and the unions who have economic power have tremendous responsibility to consider the public impact of these decisions. I do not detract from that the least bit. But I do say that there has been some rather overblown rhetoric about prices going through the ceiling or skyrocketing. The record does not justify that terminology. The price trend has been rather moderate, considering the magnitude of the demand being placed upon the economy.

Now, insofar as manpower is concerned, to sum up what I said a few minutes ago, I think the demands on manpower are going to become more pressing. Starting about now, I rather think that the lull we had in April and May was only temporary. I think we can meet those demands, but it will call for the most intensive coordinated activity, not so much in Washington as in the States and communities where the work is actually performed, where the programs are actually carried out, to meet the requirements that are being placed on our economy. Thank you.

President CATHERWOOD. Mr. Ross, we are indebted to you for the development of your subject here, which is of vital interest to all of the States and Provinces. We trust that this will be the beginning of a long and productive relationship between you and this association. [Following announcements by the host Commissioner and the President, the luncheon session was adjourned.]