YOUTH

ADULT

Mr. SVIRIDOFF. The organization I represent, Community Progress, Inc., is the community action agency in New Haven. It is responsible for conducting a comprehensive commuity action program under the Economic Opportunity Act, through grants made by the U.S. Department of Labor, the Office of Economic Opportunity, the Ford Foundation, the President's Committee on Delinquency, the Housing and Home Finance Agency, and other Federal agencies which have an interest in the comprehensive program. The Office of Manpower, Automation, and Training supported our first experiments with on-thejob training.

The manpower program, which is central to our inner-city effort has been in existence for approximately 2 years. During this period we have worked with 6,000 unemployed from the inner-city neighborhoods of New Haven. Of this disadvantaged population about 60 percent is Negro and the overwhelming majority school dropouts, with long records of unemployment.

We have found that of the various tools that have been developed in the manpower field-work crews, institutional training, direct job placement, basic education, counseling, recruitment at the neighborhood level, and so forth-by far the most fruitful has been on-the-job training.

The reasons became obvious very early in our experience. On-thejob training, unlike institutional training, requires very little time to develop. It makes possible immediate action, a quick link between the candidate and the employer.

It is not necessary to find 12 or 15 openings as is the case with institutional training. It is possible to retail this program, but retail it on a large scale.

It is of tremendous help to small business which I am convinced has given up competing with large industry for the cream of the labor market. Consequently, in the process many small businesses have given up the opportunity to expand. On-the-job training in New Haven has made possible a large amount of expansion among small

businesses.

If you will look at our appendixes and examine the kind of industries with which we have contracts, you will get some idea of what this has meant.

Of the 6,000 applicants though on-the-job training has been available for only 14 months of the 2 years of the program-you will notice that 691 have gone through institutional training in the 2-year period, but 475 have already gone through on-the-job training in a 14-month period.

The remainder have either gone into work crews or the Job Corps or some 1,400 have been placed directly on jobs.

These jobs are not low-paying jobs. The minimum wage established by our organization is $1.50. Most of the jobs pay more than $1.50. They are skilled and semiskilled jobs. We do require that good training be provided. We maintain regular contact with the employer, and provide, where necessary, the kinds of supportive services which will enable individuals in the inner city who are having personal difficulties to remain on the job.

Now the numbers placed: 42 percent have been nonwhite, many Negroes have been placed in jobs where they have never been employed before. For example, you will notice in the list of jobs such as news

paper reporter and even radio news announcers. Negroes never had an opportunity for training in these fields before these opportunities were opened up through on-the-job training.

Of all of the on-the-job trainees 93 percent have at least two dependents; 32 percent have five or more dependents; 57 percent are school dropouts; 28 percent have never gone beyond the ninth grade; 27 percent of them were unemployed before they were placed for more than a month; 18 percent were unemployed from 8 to 12 months.

The most interesting figure of all, which I would like to call your attention to, is the figure on the rate of unemployment of those who have gone through on-the-job training compared to the rate of unemployment of those in institutional training and those placed directly on jobs. These figures are based on a followup survey of all of the individuals who have gone through these various programs 6 months after they started in the program.

In on-the-job training the rate of unemployment now is 7 percent; in institutional training, 23 percent; in direct placement, 11 percent. I think this is the most convincing figure of all.

Senator KENNEDY of Massachusetts. I am rather surprised it is that high.

Mr. SVIRIDOFF. You mean the rate of unemployment?

Senator KENNEDY of Massachusetts. Yes.

Mr. SVIRIDOFF. You must remember we are dealing with the hardto-employ here and if out of 500 placements in on-the-job training, 35 individuals are unemployed, that is really a pretty good record. Remember, we are talking about a small part of the total labor market but that sector which is the hardest to employ. The rate of unemployment in the area is actually quite low now. It is well under 4 percent, fluctuating, but it is a relatively low rate of unemployment.

Senator KENNEDY of Massachusetts. How many of those 500 would be unemployed themselves

Senator MURPHY. I was going to say look at it in the other direction. You could say that probably 97 percent had been unemployed habitually, and you have reduced 97 down to 7.

Mr. SVIRIDOFF. That is right; 35 percent of them were unemployed for longer than a month, the majority of them were unemployed before they went into on-the-job training, some of them were employed in low-skilled jobs, but 35 percent of them had been unemployed for a period of more than 1 month. In fact, 18 percent of them had been unemployed for a period of 8 to 12 months before they went into on-the-job training, and so to reduce that to 7 percent is a very encouraging result.

Incidentally, this compares-I heard the national figures yesterday and this is right on the nose with the national figures. The rate of unemployment on Manpower Development and Training Act institutional programs is running 24 to 25 percent, and on-the-job training is running 6 to 7 percent. So this confirms the national figures. Senator KENNEDY of Massachusetts. You might tell us just a little bit, if you would, about how the administrative functions of this operation works.

Mr. SVIRIDOFF. Yes. We are contractors for the Bureau of Apprentice Training, we have the authority to negotiate the on-the-job contracts with the individual employers A staff of approximately