housing furnished by Arkansas employers prior to authorized occupancy by Mexican nationals for the spring season. Preoccupancy housing inspections were also conducted in other areas, including Wisconsin, Indiana, Tennessee, Michigan, and Kentucky. Continued emphasis on employer responsibility for furnishing and maintaining suitable housing and facilities for Mexican workers has brought about significant building and remodeling of units. A reporting program to insure compliance with Bureau food service instructions for Mexican workers went into effect this year. It provides for evaluation, control, and investigation, when necessary, of food service records maintained by restaurant operators furnishing meals to Mexican nationals. Employers are required to maintain a cost and menu file and to submit financial reports to the Bureau through its regional offices. Inspection of vehicles used to transport Mexican workers for short distances (from the labor camp to work area) was made during this year to bring the vehicles into compliance with short-distance transportation standards that became effective in February 1960. More than 3,300 vehicles were inspected; violations were found in about one-third of the vehicles. Investigations and Payroll Inspections.-Foreign Labor Service representatives conducted 4,424 investigations of complaints and other matters pertaining to the Migrant Labor Agreement and Standard Work Contract. They discovered violations in 2,094, or 47 percent, of the cases investigated. A total of 31,529 payroll inspections were made, uncovering 3,412 violations. Payments to Mexican workers as the result of investigations, payroll inspections, and other compliance activities amounted to $284,650. Forty-five employers were declared ineligible to use Mexican national contract workers due to serious violations of the agreement and work contract. Litigation and Settlement of Claims.-During the fiscal year, the United States in its capacity as guarantor of the Migrant Labor Agreement paid $1,175 to Mexican workers. This brought the total paid to date under the guarantee to $65,306, with the total collected on this amount at $37,666. Debts pending litigation amount to $7,160; losses due to death, insolvency, and other reasons total $3,886; debts pending final administrative action amount to $16,595. Veterans Employment Service Leadership in programing and the functional supervision of State agency services to veterans are the responsibility of the Veterans Employment Service. A veterans employment representative (a Federal employee) attached to each State's employment service staff insures that State agencies accurately reflect Federal policies of special services to veterans. In addition, each local office has a representative whose duty is to provide veterans the service to which they are entitled by law. Employment Service Activities The employment situation for veterans was affected markedly by the sharp business downturn during the second half of calendar year 1960 and throughout the early months of 1961. Since veterans represent nearly one-third of the total civilian labor force, any major shifts in the economy directly affect their job status. This is especially true in a recession of the kind that occurred during fiscal year 1961 when the heavy goods production industries where male workers predominate experienced the most marked and persistent weaknesses. The recession probably accounts for the increased number of applications filed by veterans, a rise of 143,200, or 9 percent, over fiscal year 1960. This increase, however, was not as large as the 12 percent upswing in applications filed by male nonveterans. Under this load, placements of veterans made by local offices decreased by about 158,000, or 13 percent. This reduction is undoubtedly owing in part to the loose labor market which discouraged many veterans from changing jobs and also to the fact that many were experiencing difficulty in securing employment. The effectiveness of the special policies for veterans is reflected in the fact that veterans received 34.7 percent of all male placements in the employment service during fiscal year 1961 while they represented 26.8 percent of the available applicants. Selected employment service activities for veterans, fiscal years 1960 and 1961 Applications from disabled veterans increased in fiscal year 1961. Fairly small (1.6 percent), this rise was the same as that for all handicapped men. Placements decreased 13 percent from the previous year; nevertheless, disabled veterans received 51.4 percent of all male handicapped placements while they represented only 38 percent of the available applicants. Selected employment service activities for disabled veterans, fiscal years 1960 and 1961 Program Development and Evaluation Continuous efforts to refine the program for veterans in every State marked fiscal year 1961. State veterans employment representatives (VER) conducted formal evaluations in approximately 1,350 local employment offices to determine the effectiveness of the services rendered. In order to assure full program coverage, each State VER is required to prepare a written work program for the ensuing fiscal year and submit it to the national office for review. This plan of action contains the current status of the program in the State, identifies major problem areas, and outlines courses of action. During fiscal year 1961, representatives of the national office conducted supervisory visits in all but three States and Puerto Rico. During these field visits, all program areas were reviewed for adequacy of performance, and recommendations for corrective action were made where appropriate. During fiscal year 1961, the Bureau made a nationwide survey to determine the characteristics of veterans registered for employment in the public employment offices. Identifying veterans by occupational classification, age distribution, educational attainment, and marital status, the study provided a profile on today's veteran applicant. This up-to-date knowledge about veterans seeking employment was valuable to all supervisory officials. Staff Training Two regional training conferences for State VER's were held in Hartford, Conn., and Atlanta, Ga. Conference-type workshops provided a forum for discussion of all major program activities. Topics included employment assistance to the older worker, local office evaluation, the relationships with veterans' organizations, and community industrial development pro grams. During regular field visits, national office representatives gave on-the-job training to State VER's. In the same manner, VER's gave training to local office personnel. In addition, formal training for local office veterans' employment representatives was given in several States. One member of the national office staff attended a 2-week management course offered by the Brookings Institution for employment security personnel. Liaison and Public Relations Activities The Veterans Employment Service (VES) has continued its work with other State and Federal agencies and organizations. Much work has been done in the field in establishing local interagency committees on vocational rehabilitation for the purpose of coordinating efforts of other interested agencies in rehabilitation work. New display panels presenting services to veterans by local employment offices were developed in fiscal year 1961, and will illustrate the employ ment story at meetings of major veterans' organizations throughout the United States. VES representatives attended all of the major national veterans' organizations meetings and participated in special conferences, supplying information on employment services for veterans. Presentations were made throughout the United States on the Department of Labor's manpower story which has been especially adapted for presentation to veterans' organizations, and other appropriate groups. In cooperation with the President's Committee on Employment of the Physically Handicapped, car cards and pocket calendars were distributed to promote the placement of disabled veterans. Representatives of VES participated in numerous promotional programs such as State older worker conferences, White House Conference on Aging, National Employ the Handicapped Week, and award programs promoting the employment of veterans. All these activities proved beneficial in improving job opportunities for veterans and in encouraging applicants and employers to use the services available through the State employment service offices. Unemployment Insurance The Federal-State unemployment insurance system provides insured workers with partial compensation for wages lost during periods of involuntary unemployment. In doing this, it acts as an economic stabilizer, maintaining income and purchasing power and thus serving as an important weapon in the arsenal of economic policy. About 46.6 million workers in commerce, industry, and government, including the Armed Forces, are covered under Federal and State laws.1 About 2.3 million employers were subject to Federal and State unemployment insurance laws, contributing in fiscal year 1961 about $2.360 billion. This amount includes taxes paid by employees as well as employers in Alabama, Alaska, and New Jersey. In fiscal year 1961, during which the economy was beset with problems, 8.1 million insured workers drew one or more unemployment insurance benefit checks totaling $3.7 billion for 111.6 million weeks of unemployment. Pools of unemployment have developed in the Nation resulting from automation and other changes in production processes and location of industry. Now, more than any other time since the inception of the program, the economy is faced with the prospect of a steadily increasing number of workers who, in the absence of remedial action, seem destined to spend a large part of their working lives unsuccessfully seeking jobs. Each of the last two recessions began with a volume and rate of unemployment higher than at the outset of the preceding recession. Included among the 1 In addition, about 900,000 railroad workers are covered under an unemployment insurance program administered by the Railroad Retirement Board. various remedial proposals are a number involving the unemployment insurance program, such as payment of benefits during the retraining of dislocated workers, coverage of groups not now protected, and improvements in the sufficiency and duration of benefits. Program Research and Planning The problems posed for unemployment insurance led to a reexamination of the program aimed at indicating areas of weakness and developing proposals for improving and strengthening it. Since the Bureau acts as a national clearinghouse for studies of the characteristics of the unemployed, factors affecting unemployment, and other areas involved in any reevaluation of unemployment insurance standards and practices, it cooperated with the States in planning research and assisted representative States to undertake studies on a variety of unemployment insurance problems. One of these projects dealt with the 1.9 million agricultural workers who have been excluded from unemployment insurance protection largely because available data were inadequate for determining the feasibility of covering them. There was a need to develop information on the employment, unemployment, and earnings patterns of farm workers, and the employment and payroll patterns of farm employers. To meet this need, the Bureau prepared a detailed methodology and work materials for a series of studies including field interviews of a representative sample of farm employers and their workers. Such studies were conducted with the technical assistance of the Bureau by employment security agencies in four representative States. Final reports on the results of these studies are expected to be completed in fiscal 1962. In addition to their unemployment insurance uses, the study results will provide valuable information, not presently available from other sources, on the amount of employment and unemployment among farm workers, on the value and type of perquisites, and on migration patterns. Primarily, however, the studies will provide a factual basis for judging the feasibility of unemployment insurance coverage for agricultural workers. The high level of claimant exhaustions raised immediate problems of aiding the unemployed. Extensive analyses of economic and unemployment insurance data during the 1958 recession as well as the current year, and for the temporary unemployment compensation program of 1958, served as bases for the Administration's legislative recommendations which evolved into the Temporary Extended Unemployment Compensation Act of 1961. The program aspects of this act are discussed below. Insofar as research is concerned, the act requires that certain information be collected for all States on the characteristics of beneficiaries and their experience under the law. These studies entail the most massive technical planning and administration of any research project in the history of the unemployment insurance program. Conducted on a sampling basis during four widely |