Governmenl Programs Offer Dealers A Manpov/er Source

' The scarcity of employable workers has reached the formidable state where many building material dealers are tagging it -their t'uppermost concern,t' the National Lumber and Building Material Dealers As- "sociation reports. Members say they are finding it oonext to impossible to hire a man who has a modicum of experience in the building material industry."

With the current manpower bottleneck showing no apparent signs of easing, dealers are told to take courageous steps in recruiting and training new employees. Speaking for the association, T. T. Sneddon, said recently, "Demand for skilled workers in our industry exceeds the supply by far. The severity of the problem calls for greateruse of all manpower programs offered by local,-state and federal agencies. This would include working with boards of education, vocational schools and federal programs to foster full use of available manpower."

A Department of Labor program, which is presently functioning to assist business- men in matching people to jobs, was referred to by Sneddon. "Under provisions of the Manpower Development and Training ,A.ct in 1962, unemployed or underemployed workers may be hired by a private employer and trained for specific jobs with the cost of instruction, wasted materials, or damaged equipment or goods defrayed by the government under terms of a contract. The Department of Labor will assist dealers in development of their on-the-job training programs and will pay approximately $520 per trainee to each dealer who takes advantage of the law. In talking with a dealer in Maryland who undertook such a program, and was very satisfied with his results in getting six above-average workers, we are somewhat perplexed why other dealers are not doing the same," Sneddon said.

Get Bat Man

A dealer should first get in touch with the Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training (BAT) of the Departnre+ of Labor and declare his interest. There are offioes of the Bureau in most cities, "A field representative will discuss your worker needs with ybu. The BAT man will then help draw up a proposal which will include the number of trainees needed-may be only one or euetu as high as l(N. Specified in detail will be the type of work, the number of weeks' training required, and what will be the trainees' wages. If the training project meets the department's approval, a contract is then signed which spells out how much money will be given the firm for the entire training program."

Before trainees are hired by the dealer, the Department of Labor gives each individual an aptitude test on basic skillsthose required to do the job adequately when training is completed. "This testing screens those persons termed not suited to dealer operations. The trainee becomes an employee of the lumber and building materials firm and comes with no special privileges. He must be able to meet the standards of the work and learn his tasks to the satisfaction of his employer," Sneddon emphasized.

The dealer can use. any means to hire these people-through local state employment services, "ofi the street," through ads or from among those he has previously laid ofi. In addition, present employees may, under certain conditions. 'be selected for upgrading. However, anyone selected must be in one of the following categories, Sneddon said: (I) unemployed, (2) working su'bstantially less than full-timg (3) working below their skill capacities, (4) will be

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