Jewish vocational guidance and placement agencies in 18 major cities of the United States report increasing calls on their services, with more job applicants registering and with employers exhibiting a greater degree of selectivity in hiring practices, according to Leonard H. Cohn, president of the Jewish Occupational Council, national coordinating and planning agency of Jewish vocational services.
Mr. Cohn, releasing today the results of a study in the United States and Canada, noted that the number of unemployed coming into Jewish agencies was between 16 and 30 percent higher in the first quarter of 1958 than in the same period of 1957. While employers have been more selective in hiring, job seekers have become less so under the pressure of the recession. This view is expressed by many applicants’ offering to “take any job at all.”
During 1957, the 18 reporting agencies–supported by Jewish federations, welfare funds and citywide community chests–serviced 73,000 different job applicants and requests for vocational guidance. They made over 16, 000 placements a quarter of them refugees. In addition, some 5, 000 Jewish youths received guidance with choice of careers and schools.
The agencies which are affiliated with the Jewish Occupational Council and which participated in the study are located in Akron, Baltimore, Boston, Buffalo, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Louisville, Minneapolis, Montreal, Newark, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and Toronto.
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.
