are shown in the following tabulation of percentage changes for the various industry divisions and for total nonagricultural employment, from April 1940 to November 1946.

United States California

AGRICULTURE, FORESTRY, AND FISHING

Employment in agriculture experienced the usual seasonal fluctuations during 1945 and 1946, but on a relatively high level. Farmers in many areas in the State took advantage of unusually favorable. weather conditions in November and December 1946 and a more abundant labor supply to advance winter farm operations well aheadof usual schedules. As a result, employment during the closing months of 1946 was sustained above normal seasonal levels.

In December 1946, 355,000 persons were engaged in agriculture, forestry, and fishing, compared with the seasonal high of 477,000 in September. Not included in these totals are 15,000 Mexican nationals who were working on California farms at the end of the year and 20,000 during peak operations in September 1946.

RETURN OF EMPLOYMENT PATTERN TO NORMAL

The shift of the California economy from peace to war resulted in severe distortion of the employment pattern. With the return to peace, traditional relationships began to be restored and the employment pattern at the end of 1946 was not very different from that in 1940.

Employment in the Northwest'

IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST,2 which had only a moderate degree of industrialization before the war, the wartime employment growth was concentrated chiefly in shipbuilding and aircraft. Since these warexpanded industries were staffed to a large extent through in-migration, it was anticipated that the postwar employment problems of the region might well be acute. This has not proved to be true as yet, since activity in the area remains high and unemployment is not marked.

Trends in Northwest Compared with United States

3

During the war period, nonagricultural employment exclusive of government, in the Pacific Northwest, showed much greater relative TABLE 1.-Trend of nonagricultural employment in Pacific Northwest and United States, by major industry division, September 1939,3 and annual averages 1943-46

Includes all nonagricultural divisions except government.
The States of Oregon and Washington comprise the Northwest.

Estimates for manufacturing and construction are based on 1939 annual averages, all others are based on September 1939.

1 Prepared in the Employment Statistics Division of the Bureau's Employment and Occupationa Outlook Branch, by Eleanora H. Barnes under the direction of Clara F. Schloss.

The States of Washington and Oregon comprise the Northwest as used in this article. "Nonagricultural employment" as used in this article includes wage and salary workers in all nonagricultural establishments except government. Proprietors, self-employed persons, domestic servants, and personnel of the armed forces are excluded. This applies to both regional and United States employment.

gains than did like employment throughout the United States. At its wartime peak, employment in the region had risen above prewar by over 70 percent, as compared with a 36-percent rise in the total number of nonagricultural workers in the United States. Although postwar employment declines were proportionately greater in Washington and Oregon than in the United States as a whole, employment in the Northwest in 1946 on the basis of annual averages was 39 percent greater than in 1939, while the corresponding figure for the United States was 27 percent (see table 1).

Trend of Nonagricultural Employment in Northwest

In September 1939, almost a third of the 588,000 nonagricultural workers in the Pacific Northwest were employed in manufacturing, and more than a fourth were in trade (see chart and table 2). By 1943 the wartime expansion was well under way and about one out of every two workers in the Northwest was employed in manufacturing. In January of that year, nonagricultural industries employed more than one and a half times as many people as in 1939. The largest increase was in factory employment, which went up by 130 percent, although all divisions except mining and finance shared in the gain.

The peak nonagricultural employment-over 1,000,000—was reached in July 1944, when almost 415,000 more people were at work than in 1939. Although manufacturing employment was somewhat below its maximum at this time, the combination of near maximum numbers in transportation and public utilities, construction, and trade, raised nonagricultural employment to its record level. Even before the end of the war, there were sharp cuts in shipbuilding and in aircraft, so that employment was rapidly reduced. Nonagricultural employment as a whole reached a postwar low of 770,400 in November 1945, which represented a decrease of about a fourth from the peak level but an increase of almost a third above the prewar level. About four-fifths of the reduction was in manufacturing industries, in which seasonal contraction of food industries and a prolonged strike in the lumber industry, in addition to heavy cut-backs in the shipbuilding and aircraft programs, contributed to the decrease. At the same time, trade, finance, and service industries were all taking on employees in the period between July 1944 and November 1945, thus limiting the net decline to some extent.

Even at this low point, all major industry divisions except mining showed appreciable gains over the prewar period, ranging from 13 percent in finance to 40 percent in manufacturing.

2

TABLE 2.-Estimates of nonagricultural employment in Pacific Northwest by major industry division, September 1939 and by month January 1943-December 1946

1 Estimates include all full- and part-time wage and salary workers in nonagricultural establishments (except government) who worked or received pay during the pay period ending nearest the 15th of the month. Proprietors, self-employed persons, domestic servants, and personnel of the armed forces are excluded. 2 See table 1, footnote 2.

See table 1, footnote 3.

From the low point in November 1945, activity increased again, so that by December 1946, about 70,000 nonagricultural workers had been taken on, which brought the total to about 840,000. Much of this expansion was in such industries as trade, which accounted for a third of the gain, and in services, which took on about a fifth of the new workers. These industries had been understaffed during the war.