200- 



100- 



O 



z 

 < 

 en 



O 



I 



en 



z 

 o 



CO 



or 



UJ 



a 



O 



or 



UJ 



LOSSES 



TO OUTSIDE INOUSTRY- 



TO ARMED FORCES 



|~ 



MAY STAY 

 — OUTSIOE AREA 



-WAR CASUALTIES 



LABOR FORCE 



600 



500 



400- 



300 



200 



100 



TRADE 8 SERVICE 



TRANSPORTATION 

 CONSTRUCTION — 



MISC MANUFACTURING 

 FOREST INDUSTRIES — 



X 



FOOD 6 KINDRED PRO0UCTS_ 

 AGRICULTURE 



METALS 8 MACH MFG 

 TEXTILES MFG 



MINING 



VIRTUALLY 



NO 

 UNEMPLOYMENT 



1940 



Figure 5. — Employment in 1940 



increase, reaching in 1940 a maximum of about 

 1,602,000, much of it concentrated in the neighbor- 

 hood of the coal fields (fig. 4). In thai year 463,000 

 people were employed; 169,000 persons, 27 percent 

 of the total labor force, were seeking employmenl 

 (fig. 5). The commodity-producing industries ac- 

 counted for 49 percent of the employment; the re- 

 mainder was provided by the dependent construc- 

 tion, transportation, trade, and service occupations. 



In the years 1940 45 the war effected radical 

 changes. About 145,000 men and women from the 



region entered the armed forces; 70,000 went else- 

 where to work in war industries. Production in- 

 creased and brought .1 consequent increase in em- 

 ployment. The 77,000 young people " who reached 



working age during this 5-year period were thus able 

 to find work, and a labor force of 493,000 was \ irtually 

 all employed w hen the war ended. 



- tins figure represents the net addition to the working t"i> < 

 after allowance has been made for deaths and retirements. 



'J'h, Anthracite Forest Region A Problem Area 



1945 

 and 7945, and outlook for 1950. 



But what are the prospects for the future? Many 



of the thousands who were in the armed forces or 

 worked in war plants outside the region will have 

 returned home. Thousands o\ young people will 

 have mown up and will be looking lor jobs. By 19! 

 there may he 639,000 persons in the labor force 

 146,000 more than in 1945. W ill there be jobs for 



ever) bod) .' 



The anthracite industry may be able to support a 

 tew thousand more than at present. Though eoal 

 production amounted to 60 million tons in 1944, the 

 increase was due almost entirely to strip mining .u\y\ 



mine waste-bank reclamation, which require rela- 

 tively little manpower. Longer wartime hours and 

 nunc efficienl methods made it possible lor fewer men 

 to mine more coal. 1 he number employed by the 

 industry in 1944 was less than '8,000. Furthermore, 

 the coal deposits, especially in the neighborhood 

 Hazleton, arc nearing exhaustion Production ctei 



■ sec footnote J, p ' 



