-3- 



Texas oil wells for 1^ days during the month. Additional restrictions 

 were placed on deliveries of gasoline to service stations in the 

 Eastern Seaboard and Pacific Northwest areas. 



Owing to the present and potential difficulties in obtaining 

 adequate supplies of burlap from India, the V;.P.B, on April 20 ordered 

 the cotton textile industry to convert within ti;o months a substantial 

 portion of the looms still malLing civilian fabrics to the production of 

 materials for bagging and other war uses. According to plans now being 

 worked out, adequate supplies of essential civilian fabrics will be 

 assured and it is expected that total production of cotton goods for 

 all purposes will be increased considerably. 



Employment and payrolls . During March, the number employed 

 in civil nonagrlcultural occupations in the United States as a whole 

 increased 7)70,000 to a total of ^0,300,000 persons, according to 

 estimates made by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The largest gain 

 during the raonth occurred among civilian government employees; factories 

 and construction firms also added substantially to their working forces. 

 Total civil nonagrlcultural employment in March v/as more than 2,^00,000 

 above the -March, 19^1 level, and over half of this gain occurred in 

 manufacturing industries. 



United States factory employment during March rose about 1 per 

 cent above the February level, and payrolls increased 2 per cent. 

 Industries producing war goods continued to hire additional workers, more 

 than offsetting the temporary layoffs due to conversion to war 

 production of automobile factories and other consumers' durable goods 

 plants. In nondurable goods industries there was, on the whole, little 

 change in employment during the month. Compared ulth March, 19^1, 

 factory working forces were 12 per cent greater and payrolls wore 39 

 per cent larger. 



