low-wage field of farm employment and several low-wage service industries. In fact, average annual earnings in 1933 and 1934 were lower for construction than for Federal work relief. The drop of about 48 percent in annual earnings from 1929 to 1933 is greater than that for any other industry or industry group for which these estimates were made. As mentioned previously, it scarcely seems possible that any future drop in construction activity will be allowed to become an almost total collapse such as occurred from 1928 to 1933; but it is inescapable that annual earnings are more dependent on a substantial degree of general prosperity than is the case in most other industries. The estimates shown are for the entire construction industry including office and shop

at the construction jobs themselves. Average earnings for journeymen are above the figures for the various years, and average earnings are still higher for journeymen in moderately large and large cities, including their surrounding suburbs, in the north and on the Pacific coast. Earnings in 1948 were substantially higher than in 1947 for many construction workers because of a greater physical volume of construction combined with generally higher basic wage rates; for the industry as a whole, however, the difference between the two years was probably quite moderate because of less extensive labor shortages with corresponding reduction in premiums and a greater seasonal reduction in activity during the closing months of the year.

Source: U. S. Department of Commerce, Survey of Current Business, July 1948 issue, table 26, and July 1947 National Income Supplement, table 26.

Classes or Grades of Workers

Cutting across the entire construction field are the three classes of workers by whom construction is performed: journeymen; tenders and other semiskilled workers; and laborers. While in some respects foremen and apprentices can each be regarded as a separate class, both are grouped with journeymen in most parts of this bulletin because of very great similarities in many important features of their work. Their distinguishing characteristics are stated below for the building trades as a whole rather than separately for the individual trades.

Journeymen

By far the most important class is that of journeymen or skilled workers. These are the men who operate tools and machines and who process and install materials. As already mentioned, they are divided among numerous trades, each having a designated field in the over-all construction operation. The trades dif

fer among themselves in the required skills, knowledge of materials, and knowledge of design or lay out. They are alike, however, in that in each case the standard of competence is ability to perform all types of work within the range of the trade, good working knowledge of all of its materials and how they are used, and understanding of the principles on which the work of the trade is based. Some journeymen are naturally more capable than others, and in most construction trades, as in other occupations, there are difficult or uncommon jobs for which journeymen with unusual dexterity or long experience are preferred.

While the kinds of work differ among the separate trades, most of them require a similar degree of skill. Laying out the framing members for a dormer window in a roof is quite different from laying out the plumbing system for a house, but they call for the same general kind and degree of ability. Each job requires knowledge of the assembly to be made, knowledge of the materials, and knowledge of what to do as well as how to do it. It is such knowledge, rather than merely facility in the use of tools, that marks a journeyman; skill with tools is necessary but is only part of the all-round ability required.

Foremen in any of the skilled trades are invariably journeymen who have been promoted. Most commonly a foreman is in charge only of the crew for his own trade (usually including any tenders, helpers, or laborers working with the journeymen) but not infrequently he is in charge of all of his employer's workers. Thus, either a carpenter or a bricklayer might be in charge of a general contractor's entire gang at a project where several houses are being built. On very large jobs there are frequently foremen for laborers and for some of the semiskilled occupations, but these men have a smaller range of responsibilities than do the foremen in the skilled trades. On such jobs there are commonly several foremen in the larger trades, each in charge of the members of his trade working at a particular part of the project, and there may also be subforemen ("straw bosses," "pushers"); there is also a general foreman or superintendent responsible for the coordination of all work, who usually delegates direct supervision of the journeymen to the gang foremen.

work in their respective trades, at least broadly if not in detail, and for seeing that it is carried out correctly and quickly. They call attention to any unusual requirements or situations needing special attention; arrange for delivery of materials as needed; hire, lay off, and discharge workers; represent the contractor in dealings. with other contractors or their foremen, the owner, and the architect; interpret the drawings, if these are not entirely clear, or else obtain an interpretation from the contractor or the architect; and keep pay-roll records and records of material deliveries, unless the job is large enough to have a timekeeper. In most localities small jobs are run by "working foremen" who work at their trades along with members of their own crews except when engaged in supervisory or management duties, while on large jobs the foremen do no actual production work. The general contractor's foreman, whether a working foreman in charge of three or four men or a general foreman directing several hundred men through trade foremen and sub-foremen, is responsible for coordination of the work of all contractors on the job but has definite authority over the enployees of the general contractor only.

Apprentices are, of course, journeymen in training. Early in the apprenticeship period they do only the simpler work of the trade while starting to build up their familiarity with tools, materials, and principles and, at this stage, work under rather close supervision. As the apprenticeship progresses, they do a wider range of work under decreasing supervision but with explanation of new situations and, in the final months, they are capable of a range of work approaching that of journeymen. Semiskilled workers

Semiskilled workers may be divided into three classes: Tenders, helpers, and truck drivers. No formal training is required for any of these.

Tenders work with the trowel trades-bricklayers, stone setters, plasterers, marble setters, tile setters, terrazzo workers.19 Unlike an apprentice, a tender is not a learner in the trade. The tenders do not use tools and have no chance to learn the work of the journeymen, except

19 Semiskilled workers for marble, tile, and terrazzo are ordinarily called helpers, but their duties are essentially those of tenders rather than those of helpers as described in the paragraph below.

general, they prepare mortar or plaster, supply the journeymen with materials, set up and move portable scaffolding, clean or polish some types of completed work, and remove debris.

Helpers, as distinct from tenders, use the commoner tools and perform the simpler operations of a trade and in some cases become journeymen in their own right. They are fully recognized in only two trades, elevator construction for which there is no apprenticeship, and boilermaking as entered through construction work. 20 In both of these cases the helpers may be regarded as informal apprentices, without provision for graduation from helper to journeyman at any stipulated date. Helpers have been employed from time to time in numerous other trades-carpentry, painting, electric wiring, sheet metal work, plumbing, and steamfitting. In some localities such helpers have been employed in fairly large numbers, and some of them have learned enough to become accepted as journeymen. For some years, however, they have not been recognized in collective agreements, and have been employable only on jobs not covered by such agreements. Their status is thus quite risky, and their opportunity to acquire real knowledge and skill in their occupations is ordinarily much inferior to that offered through apprenticeship.

The duties of truck drivers in construction work are not basically different from the duties of truck drivers in other industries and cannot be regarded as constituting a separate occupation. Rather, they are merely those truck drivers who at a given time are employed by construction firms.

Laborers

Laborers are the workers doing those jobs for which no formal training is necessaryloading and unloading trucks, carrying materials, moving equipment, hand excavating and backfilling, wheeling and placing of concrete, etc. In building work their employment has tended to be less regular than that of journeymen and semiskilled workers because many laboring tasks required a large gang for a short

20 In construction boilermaking, helpers showing sufficient aptitude are recognized by the union as being engaged in learning the trade, although their employment status remains that of a helper until they are able to demonstrate a journeyman level of knowledge and competence; helpers are also recognized in shop boilermaking, but here their status as semiskilled workers is permanent, and journeyman status is attained through apprenticeship.

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non-building work their employment has been more regular. The trend in employment opportunities for laborers has been downward in building work and seems likely to continue so. The use of machinery has grown steadily for several important kinds of work done by laborers, and future development of machinery, new types of models intended especially for small projects, has been pursued actively by many manufacturers.

A few types of laboring work are generally treated as semiskilled and have corresponding wage rates because of hazards, discomforts or the requirement of particular familiarity with working conditions. One such type is underground excavating under air pressure for tunnels, subways, some types of deep foundations, etc. Another is demolition of old buildings, where experience and familiarity with the risks present are necessary for at least most of the members of any gang so that workers inexperienced in this hazardous activity can be assigned to the less dangerous tasks. Experience as a laborer is the usual background for entering some of the semiskilled occupations such as bricklayers' or plasterers' tender.

Trades as the Basis of

Construction Work

Any construction work except the simplest uses a wide variety of materials, each with its own characteristics and each requiring appropriate tools and methods of handling. Most of these materials appear in many different types of structures, and the job of putting them in place is essentially the same. Thus brickwork is used in houses and apartment buildings, churches, hospitals, factories, in fact buildings of all types, and also in nonbuilding structures like walls or utility manholes. The operations involved in the brickwork are essentially the same for all of these structures and for many more; but in any single type of structure, such as a two-story house, the job of building the brick walls and chimney is basically different from the other jobs needing to be done.

Hence, construction operations have long been divided among a number of different trades. Some have been recognized as distinct occupations for thousands of years, while others arose fairly recently when technical de

tural steel work, and power-operated construction machinery, etc.) created types of work clearly outside the fields of the older trades. Technical developments have changed the characteristics of most trades, particularly within the last 25 years, but distinct trades continue to be the basis on which construction operations are organized. The increasing complexity of buildings and the increasing range of materials and tools, combine to increase rather than diminish the necessity for division of the exceedingly wide construction field.

The field of each trade is essentially the processing and installation of a given group of related materials for any type of structure, with use of the appropriate tools and equipment. Until about 50 years ago trade distinctions along these lines were comparatively simple, but new materials and methods have made the distinctions much more complicated. Thus, the traditional materials for carpentry were rough lumber, finished lumber and millwork, plus supplementary hardware. To these have been added plywood, rigid insulating board, gypsum board, other building board, nonrigid insulation, "soft" floors (linoleum, asphalt tile, etc.), cement-asbestos shingles, and many others. Meanwhile metal products have become fairly common for uses where wood had been universal-sash and frames, doors and frames, moulding, movable partitions, floor joists, cabinets, and numerous others. Similar examples could be given for other trades.

Developments of this type have meant some degree of turbulence for construction as a whole, have changed the boundaries between trades, and have brought numerous instances of disagreement regarding the trade by which a new material was to be used. Turbulence has been present when there was no jurisdictional conflict. This is well illustrated by the methods used for fire-resistive protection of structural steel, in building construction. Steel columns and beams were covered with specially shaped tile, laid by bricklayers, for about the first quarter century of fire-resistive steel construction.21 Then improved knowledge of con

21 Brick, terra cotta, and other masonry materials, which had been used for such fireproofing of cast and wrought iron as was done prior to the development of steel-frame construction, were also used but were superseded by hollow tile.

crete and improved means for its handling brought a rapid change to covering with poured concrete22, which has been standard for about 30 years. Now a quite new method has appeared, enclosure of the steelwork with metal lath to which a new type of plaster is applied by plasterers. This use of plaster for fireproofing is particularly significant as an indication of change, because older types of plaster were used to some degree for the same purpose about 50 years ago and found to be unsatisfactory. The latest method has the great advantage of a marked saving in weight and seems likely to become a common procedure, if not the standard procedure. Yet the possibility exists that in turn it may be partially or entirely replaced in the future by a still different method.

Four skilled trades have been involved in this series of developments-bricklayers who did the tile work, carpenters who built the forms for concrete fireproofing of columns and beams, and lathers and plasterers who carry out the newest fireproofing method. All of these have been necessary trades in the construction industry throughout the period, and all would have been important regardless of whether these developments took place. There will probably be numerous comparable changes within the next generation, shifting work from one trade to another as new materials and methods come into use. For any given trade these are likely to bring some gains and some losses in employment opportunities, but the history of construction gives scant basis for fear that any of the trades will become obsolete.23

While distinctions between trades can be carried to extremes, their benefits are so real that on the whole they are observed as fully as is practical for the local volume of construction employment. In small communities the amount of building work seldom is sufficient to afford a reasonable income to members of the less common trades. Their types of work are done by other local journeymen, if the latter are capable of it, or else by workmen from larger cities. Thus only the commoner trades

22 Although concrete used for fireproofing is quite distinct from reenforced concrete, this change to fireproofing concrete for the steel work was greatly hastened by an accompanying change from flat masonry arches to reenforced concrete for the floors.

23 The only case of obsolescence of a recognized trade was that of rubble stone masons, for which the circumstances were quite unique. This is discussed briefly on p. 9.

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will be found in a village of 1,000 in a fairly prosperous farming area. Ordinary lathing may be done by the carpenters, ordinary glazing by the painters and often by the carpenters, and the bricklayer will do any stone setting that may be wanted; the plasterer and perhaps the bricklayer also will do cement finishing as well. More difficult and larger jobs (setting of plate glass, metal lathing for a plaster cornice or a suspended ceiling, a great number of other jobs arising infrequently in small places) will be performed by journeymen of the appropriate trades from a larger city nearby.

Training for the Skilled Trades

The accepted methods of training for practically all of the skilled building trades is through apprenticeship. This is beyond question the most satisfactory course available thus far, even though apprenticeship training programs cannot be regarded as beyond the possibility of improvement. In addition, however, many thousands of workers have become journeymen through informal training. After several years of experience as helpers, they acquired enough proficiency to meet local standards for skilled workmen. While still possible under some conditions, this path to journeyman status has many disadvantages and can lead to severe disappointment.

Apprenticeship is a period of on-the-job training in which the new worker is made familiar with the materials, tools, skills, and principles of his chosen trade so that at the end he has a balanced knowledge of the entire field and can perform any of its operations capably. Further knowledge and increased skill normally follow in the course of employment as a journeyman, but the apprenticeship gives a full, rounded background for such progress as well as for changes brought about by new materials and methods.

An apprentice is an employee-under the terms of a written agreement-working for one contractor or a series of contractors for a stated period. Under standard apprenticeship regulations, a local joint committee representing the union and the contractors for the trade at least ratifies the written agreement. Sometimes the apprentice's agreement is directly