live beyond rural Virginia and we are saddled with a great number of those people.

We have, at the present time, seven persons whose major job and sole job is the placement of veterans on jobs.

We had two vacancies sometime ago, but we were unable to fill those vacancies because of the personnel freeze.

In addition to working very very closely with the recently discharged veteran, the veterans employment specialist also makes sure that our main line interviewers in our central office, as well as our out-stations, devote their full time and energy toward seeing to it that the veterans are given priority service and that no veteran leaves the office without every attempt being made to place him on a job.

I think that is the gist of my statement, Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Garland, looking into the future, bearing in mind we can anticipate that this problem perhaps is going to intensify rather than deescalate, what suggestions do you have for this committee as to broadening the range of service, and more than just coun seling services, important as those are, getting more jobs available and matching the returning veteran with job opportunities?

Mr. GARLAND It has been our experience that there are not enough jobs to match the kind of applicants that we have coming to our agency. That has been our most recent experience.

During the last year, for example, the last fiscal year, we registered about 12,000 applicants, veterans looking for jobs. These were, in the main, about 70 percent black, and we do not have any breakdown on the extent to which we placed these individuals, but returning to the thrust of your question I think it is simply a matter of increasing job opportunities, trying to get from employers jobs so that these young people can be placed on jobs.

The CHAIRMAN. How would you categorize the availability of information to your agency as to job openings in the Washington Metropolitan area? Do you think you have a pretty good index of where potential jobs are or is it less than good, meager, or nonexistent? How would you describe the inventory of potential jobs available to you and your people?

Mr. GARLAND. According to our job developers, whose major duty is to go out and visit employers and solicit jobs, the kind of jobs we have been able to get, for example, in response to the "Jobs for Veterans" programs have been very very meager. There was a national effort, a mail-out to 900,000 employers and some of those employers were in the District of Columbia and the responses from employers in the area indicated those who wanted to give jobs or training opportunities, somewhere in about the amount of 100 and our staff visited those employers and I think it has been able to reap very very few jobs. The CHAIRMAN. One hundred employers in the area responded to the questionnaire and then the followup interview with employers brought forth just a few jobs?

Mr. GARLAND. Correct. So, using it as a basis, I would think that either we would have to resort to a more intensive effort to go back— well, I think the veteran's position for example, will enable us to a large extent to go out and have contact with employers to try to reap more jobs.

I would like to put a footnote to that that we have not as yet gotten those positions as of this moment.

The CHAIRMAN. We have heard this morning from, I think you have been present throughout the hearings, the Department of Labor, U.S. Civil Service, U.S. Veterans Assistance Center, and now your agency, Office of Employment Service. Do you find cases where an unemployed veteran is spending an awful lot of time just shopping from agency to agency, department to department on sort of a continuous merry-go-round?

Mr. GARLAND. We have found that to be the case. However, our veterans employment specialists are set up to refer veterans to any agencies to which the veteran wishes to be referred. The specialist is trained to have a thorough knowledge of the existing resources in the District of Columbia.

The CHAIRMAN. It appears to me that if I were a returning veteran, without any readily merchantable or marketable skill, I should try to zero in one place for the services that should be rendered insofar as employment opportunities are concerned.

Do you find some of your clientele to be rather disappearing in the sense that, well, "Here I am again, I have knocked on eight more doors of different government agencies and I am back again."

Mr. GARLAND. I should think that is a frequent experience. However, I would like to emphasize again that while we don't see ourselves as sort of taking over the job of the VA contact officer, we are prepared and knowledgeable with respect to the resources and programs to which the veteran is entitled and we try very, very hard, particularly as to a recently discharged veteran, to inform him as fully as possible as to the benefits that are available to him, also the programs for which he is eligible, and we try, with respect to employment, not to start off on a dead-end job but rather to try as hard as possible to get him some training opportunity.

The CHAIRMAN. All right, thank you very much, Mr. Garland.
I appreciate it.

(Mr. Garland's prepared statement follows:)

PREPARED STATEMENT OF ULYSSES G. GARLAND, DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF EMPLOYMENT SERVICE, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA MANPOWER ADMINISTRATION

Mr. Chairman and members of this committee: I am Ulysses G. Garland, director of the Office of Employment Service, D.C. Manpower Administration. I am here as spokesman for the agency. My major responsibilities in the D.C. Manpower Administration relate to the selection, referral and placement of job applicants at our main location, Sixth and Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., and at our decentralized offices: 7 Neighborhood centers, 11 public high schools and a professional office.

I am glad to have this opportunity to come before this committee to discuss with you some of the employment problems of veterans in the District of Columbia and the metropolitan area. Due to the unique geographical location of D.C., it is necessary that we give service to applicants and employers in the metropolitan area in co-operation with the Virginia and Maryland Employment Services. Another unique factor for the District of Columbia is that the typical veteran, and in particular the minority veteran, considers that the District, as the seat of government, offers more job opportunities and job security than any other locality. Therefore, many of our veteran applicants who are residents of other states come here after discharge from service seeking to establish their careers. As you will see in my analysis of applicant and job characteristics further along in my statement, in general we have a segment of unskilled applicants seeking careers in a job market that is basically administrative and professional: and very low in industrial and low salaried service type occupations. The migrant appleant faces

such barriers as lack of references for employment and purchasing power necessary to establishing a residence and subsistence. Another great factor common to all veteran applicants is the need for immediate subsistence after release from service. This makes it necessary for many of the veterans to resort to quick pickup of dead end menial jobs which prevents them from processing for meaningful employment or pursuing the various benefits that may be available to him. Therefore, he becomes locked in a rut, frustrated and even bitter.

In the opinion of our Veterans Employment Specialists, through their daily interviewing and counseling of these recently discharged veterans, the great majority of our veteran applicants are not looking for a free ride, are not militant (maybe unhappy), are not drug addicts and are not carrying grenades in their pockets. All of this contrary to many of the stories that seem to be favored by certain segments of the population.

The D.C. Manpower Administration presently has a Veterans Employment Section consisting of 6 professional personnel within the Office of Employment Service and 1-person assigned to the Office of Employer and Technical Services. The primary responsibilities of the Veterans Employment Section's personnel are interviewing and counseling of all recently discharged veterans, at least on their initial visit to the employment office, counseling of veterans referred by main line interviewers because of special veteran oriented problems, and special cases referred by outside agencies; and conducting training of main line interviewers and intake personnel to insure that they are aware of how to administer priority services to veterans. The Veterans Employment Section's personnel maintain liaison with the military units in the metropolitan area, giving orientation and counseling to military personnel processing for discharge or retirement. They make general and specific job development contacts with private employers and the various government agencies and maintain liaison with civic, service and supportive type organizations.

I would now like to address myself to the eight questions posed by your Committee:

1. During the months of April, May and June 1971, 3,082 new veteran applicants registered with our office. Of this total approximately 2,157 were of the Vietnam era.

2. There were 1,002 (33%) confirmed placements of veterans made during this base period. Ninety-eight percent of these placements were in the following occupations: Clerical-Sales (26%); Service Occupations (33%); Structural Work (19%) and Driver-Warehousemen (20%). Eighty-eight percent were placed in the category of work in which they sought. Twelve percent were placed in temporary interim positions such as 700 hour and intermittent Civil Service positions for guards, custodial workers and grounds keepers.

3. Approximately 15% of the Vietnam era veterans registered during this base period initiated processing for various training programs such as International (High School, Technical, Business Schools), Manpower Development Training Act programs, New Careers Programs (Fire, Police and Environmental) and Vocational Rehabilitation. A small percentage of this group are awaiting college programs in September.

4. The reasons why the unemployed have not been successful are: (a) Lack of marketable skills.

(b) Tight market with few positions.

(c) Expectations too high.

Our experience concerning apprehensive employers has mostly been favorable except for those veterans with Undesirable Discharges which group would be comparable to those applicants seeking employment with bad references. With respect to other factors affecting employment of the recently discharged veteran. your attention is invited to my earlier remark concerning the migrant applicant.

5. We can improve the employment opportunities for the veterans by:

(a) A crash, remedial brushup type of educational program readily available upon discharge to bring the veteran's reading, writing, and arithmetic ability to the point of at least being able to pass the basic entry aptitude tests used by private employers and government agencies. Many of the vet

erans with High School or GED credentials cannot pass these tests and therefore the so-called benefits are not available to them.

(b) Increased educational-training programs that the veteran can utilize immediately after discharge and still subsist. The more ideal program for the majority of our applicants is the On-the-Job (OJT)-Apprenticeship type training which offers a salary supplemented by the Veterans Administration benefits if we can get him into the program.

Expansion of existing resources in such program as Job Opportunities in the Business Sector (JOBS), which has proved to be particularly successful for males in this area, would be beneficial to returning veterans.

(c) Increased awareness by employers of the skills and characteristics that many of the veterans do possess. Even though a veteran has been trained and has served in one of the combat arms, he still has had many valuable experiences and skills that would be of considerable value in an employment situation.

(d) Wider cooperation by employers in job modification. Even though the individual is not skilled in all parts of a job he may very be skilled in certain parts of the job.

(e) An increased utilization by the Federal agencies of Veterans Readjustment Appointments would be of particular importance for our applicants.

6. The major problems are: unrealistic job market expectations; the lack of Area job market skills or educational entry levels; lack of funds to span average readjustment periods; and inability to compete with present available manpower resources. We suggest that discharged veterans receive a "Veterans" Readjustment Pay," payable 1 month after discharge, in an amount equal to the last basic active duty pay, to assist him during the initial months of his readjustment to civilian life.

7. Programs available to the veteran in the District of Columbia are:

(a) The Veterans Employment Section's services to veterans.

(b) Priority services in registration, counseling, training and referral by all D.C. Manpower Administration staff.

(c) Veteran's Readjustment Appointments by Federal agencies.

(d) Apprenticeship training in the Construction and Printing and Industry Trades.

(e) Veterans Administration-OJT opportunities available through approved employers.

(f) Manpower Development Training Act opportunities.

(g) MEDIHC (Military Education Directed Into Health Careers).

8. It is our opinion that the recently announced Veterans Employment Program by the President, when fully implemented, will provide vastly improved opportunities for the veterans. The various programs mentioned above as being available to veterans have been in most cases minimal because of lack of staff to service what is available, minimal OJT-apprentice and MDTA spaces.

Under the proposed program, D.C. Manpower Administration has been allocated 10 temporary spaces for Veterans Employment Aides. The 10 personnel will be assigned to our Veterans Employment Section. The section itself is to be setup as an autonomous unit with authority to work across organizational and administrative lines to maximize:

(a) More responsive and individualized service to the veteran in counseling and job/training referral.

(b) More intensive job development with employers (government and private).

(c) Utilization of the additional resources being made available by :
1. JOBS.

2. MDTA-VA-OJT.

3. Compulsory listing of jobs by Federal agencies and Federal contractors.

4. Use of jobs to be provided under the new Emergency Employment Act.

5. The new Welfare Reform program, if enacted, might include a special component for veterans to be linked with the Emergency Act jobs.

VETERANS ACTIVE FILE AS OF JULY 31, 1971 BY OCCUPATIONAL CATEGORIES

AN EVALUATION OF THE CHARACTERISTICS OF JOB OPENINGS IN THE METROPOLITAN AREA JOB BANK BOOK FOR MAY 1971

Statistical breakdown of orders

"Total Orders: 1844 (District of Columbia 705, Maryland 824, Virginia 315). Total Openings: 4899 (District of Columbia 2163, Maryland 1,901, Virginia 835).

Unused Openings: 666 (300 paid on commission; 23 depends on experience; 200 Job Corps; 44 piece work).

Source of Orders: Federal Government 96, State 7, Local 25, Foreign 2, nonprofit and commercial enterprises 1489, Individuals 225.

Educational Levels: None 2 percent, Read and Write 24 percent, 6, 7, & 8th Grades 28 percent, 9, 10, & 11th Grades 13 percent, High School 28 percent, 13-15th Grades 2 percent, College Graduates 3 percent.

Salary Levels: Below 1.60-5 percent, 1.61-2.00-30 percent, 2.01-2.50-20 percent, 2.51-3.00—18 percent, 3.01-3.50-10 percent, 3.51-4.00-5 percent, 4:01-+-8 percent.

Training Opportunities: Training or no experience required was stated in 1,030 (24 percent) of the 4,233 selected openings, a decrease of 164 in actual numbers from preceding month. Three categories of jobs have 722 (70 percent) of the training/no experience slots offered.

Service Occupations 282-Guards, Kitchen Helpers, Maids and Countergirls. Clerical and Sales 224-Salesmen, Salesmen Drivers, House-to-house and Clerks. Structural Work 216-Various Construction Trades, Apprentices and Construction Laborers.

Geographical distribution of openings in top three categories

Clerical & Sales: District of Columbia: 573, 53 percent of the category openings. Maryland: 275, 25 percent of the category openings. Virginia: 237, 22 percent of the category openings.