L
0003230
G.F. 323
串
CONFIDENTIAL
- 2 -
By contrast the employment figures for August 1969 (seasonally
adjusted) were:
In apparel:
In textile:
10,000 below July
5,000 below July
The combined figure of textiles and apparel employment at 2,394,000 was the lowest level since April 1968.
In the textile mill industry, in August 1969, there were 983,000 persons employed. This was the lowest since January 1968.
In apparel in August 1969, there were 1,411,000 persons employed. This was the lowest level, with one exception, since August 1968.
The unemployment rates in textiles and apparel have been consistently higher than in all-manufacturing.
for all workers
3.5%
for all manufacturing
2.8%
for textile workers
4.5%
for apparel workers
5.3%
Let me also give you some perspective on wages and earnings in textiles and apparel. I recognize that even though the textile and apparel wage rates are among the lowest in the United States, they perhaps may appear quite substantial compared the wage rates in the Far East.
In August of 1969, the average textile wage rate was the apparel wage rate was
$2.38 an hour $2.32 an hour
In terms of weekly earnings:
textiles apparel
W
$97.58 $84.45
The normal work week in textiles is about 40 hours and in apparel about 36 hours.
In Japan, the hourly earnings range from 37-45 cents an hour and with fringe benefits added the labor costs come to between 42 and 54 cents per hour.
The average hourly earnings in Korea run between 8-16¢ per hour
Taiwan Hong Kong
9-13 per hour 27-31 per hour
In the United States under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the minimum wage is $1.60 per hour. The average in the textile and apparel industry is slightly over $2.30 per hour. With the difference between the average textile and apparel hourly wage in the United States and those paid in the supplying far eastern countries, American labor unions are extremely concerned about import competition. The level of that import competition is a severe depressant on the unions' activities to improve the workers standards in the United States.
When we look at the kinds of workers that are employed in the textile and apparel industries, we find some of the reasons why those industries are important in dealing with the problems of poverty in our economy.
/A
CONFIDENTIAL