Economy: Brother, Can You Spare a Job?

THE ECONOMY

The Nixon Administration's plan to stop inflation by deliberately stalling the economy is chipping away at the jobs of Middle America. As yet, the stall has produced no real relief from rising prices. Unemployment figures for March, released last week, showed the jobless rate up two-tenths of 1%, to 4.4%, highest since 1965. Altogether, 3,700,000 Americans were out of work —1,000,000 more than a year ago.

Until now, the blue-collar worker has carried the brunt. Last month white-collar unemployment showed its first significant jump, from 3.8% to 4.1%. Easter-season retail hiring was lower than usual, and defense and aerospace layoffs began to hit engineers. One relieving statistic: last month black unemployment rose slowly (from 7% to 7.1%). Over the past year, the black unemployment rate has been rising only about half as fast as the overall rate. The "last-hired, first-fired" pattern may be fading.

Actually, the total number of employed people rose slightly last month, but 500,000 more started looking for jobs, which the economy could not provide. An unusually high proportion of the newcomers were women. They entered the labor force, explained Harold Goldstein of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, "either because the cost of living makes them want to earn more money or because of increasing unemployment of their husbands."