Israel has a great need to develop a long-range manpower policy directed at improving the utilization of manpower in agriculture, industry and other areas of the country’s economy, it was emphasized today in a report by Dr. Eli Ginzberg, research director of the National Manpower Council, who completed a survey in Israel sponsored by the U.S. Technical Cooperation Administration in cooperation with the Israel Government.
Dr. Ginzberg, who is a professor of economics at Columbia Graduate School of Business, warned in his findings that “only through improvement in its effective human resources can Israel ever hope to solve its pressing economic problems and provide a sound base for a stable society.”
Dr. Ginzberg’s report offers a program for improving manpower utilization in the fields of agriculture, industry, government and the military with emphasis on greater development of managerial skills, improved civil service conditions and a more realistic agricultural settlement program. Its specific recommendations in major areas are highlighted by these suggestions:
1. Agriculture — A recognition that new immigrants cannot be absorbed in established agricultural cooperatives but could be used as agricultural day laborers which would enable them to live in larger communities and relieve them of the burdens of individual farm management.
2. Industry — An awareness that adequate raw materials and other assistance must be provided for industries with an export potential to enable them to utilize their manpower as efficiently as possible; greater emphasis on developing managerial and technical prowess not only in industry but in Government also; a foremanship of recruiting key technical and professional foreign personnel.
HIGHER CIVIL SERVICE SALARIES URGED
3. Government — More continuity in office for senior administrators within each Ministry and greater coordination among them; greater use of leading private citizens on part-time commission and committee assignments and wider utilization of special consultants from among people of competence outside the Government; stricter control and selection of visiting experts; higher civil service salaries.
4. Military — Exploration of possibilities of integrating military and civilian services and operations as a manpower and equipment economy device; a review of the reserve system to avoid wasteful call-ups of skilled people; reconsideration of compulsory military service for women “at some point in the future” when “it is no longer necessary to maintain such a high level of defense readiness.”
Dr. Ginzberg also outlined a series of specific recommendations dealing with the educational problems of training professional and scientific manpower and integrating new immigrants into the economy more effectively. He pointed out that it was “a serious error in policy” to concentrate solely on expanding natural resources while devoting only a small amount of attention “to improving the quality of the human potential.”
“Israel’s economic planning must be focussed on the achievement of viability, which implies the reduction and eventual elimination of her large deficit of foreign exchange,” he said. “The intelligent and constructive use of her manpower resources is a necessary condition for the accomplishment of this major economic objective. But it is more. For Israel’s future depends on her people.”
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
