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Operation Retrieval is a research project designed by the Department of Labor to review and assess the experiences of 55 experimental and demonstration projects for disadvantaged youth conducted during the period 1963-65, and to assess the impact of strategies in job placement, job creation, and job development. Job placement and development units are discussed in terms of their relationship to other project components, the structure of the staff, and the location of the job placement unit. Methods used to obtain jobs for disadvantaged youth include: (1) applying traditional techniques, (2) developing new jobs, (3) working with employers to modify job requirements, and (4) developing youth potential to meet employer standards. Five types of problems and possible approaches to job placement are: educational deficiencies, arrest records, and physical, emotional, and resource problems. Follow-up is discussed in connection with supportive services and employment experiences. Recommendations relate to retrieval and use of information, research, inter-agency relations, and follow-up activities. (JK)

Research was concerned with determining mobility and situational factors linked to the behavior and attitudes of job-displaced workers, and examining the influence of each variable in explaining the social consequences of unemployment. Data were derived from interviews with 260 white, blue-collar respondents from a larger random sample of former employees of an automobile manufacturing plant which closed operations in 1956. The interviews were conducted in 1958, about 27 months after the shutdown. The major components of adjustment to job displacement selected as dependent variables were: (1) personal alienation as measured by a seven-item version of the Srole Anomia Scale, (2) satisfaction with life as measured by a four-item scale, and (3) social participation as measured by contact with relatives and friends. Independent variables were age, education, skill level, unemployment status, number of months of unemployment, degree of economic deprivation, and the amount of variance explained by each combination of five at a time. Data indicated that the situational factor (the degree of economic deprivation) was more important than the mobility factor (post-displacement job pattern) in shaping the attitudes and behavior of displaced workers. Economic deprivation was more productive of alienatory attitudes and behavior (anomia, dissatisfaction with life, and withdrawal from human contacts) than job mobility. (ET)

TO STUDY THE APPLICATION OF EQUAL EMPLOYMENT PRACTICES IN COMPANY SETTINGS AND TO ASSESS THE IMPACT OF THESE PRACTICES ON MINORITY GROUP EMPLOYMENT, 20 COMPANIES WITH VARYING EMPLOYMENT STRUCTURE, INDUSTRY, SIZE, NUMBER OF BRANCH UNITS, GEOGRAPHICAL SPREAD, AND PRODUCT OR SERVICE WERE STUDIED. ALL WERE TRYING TO PROMOTE EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES IN THEIR FIRMS. DATA WERE OBTAINED FROM UNION OFFICIALS, 134 COMPANY OFFICIALS, 205 WHITE WORKERS INCLUDING SUPERVISORS, AND 215 NEGRO WORKERS WHO WERE INTERVIEWED BY PERSONS OF THEIR OWN RACE TO FACILITATE FRANKNESS. THE FINDINGS INCLUDED -- (1) MANAGEMENT REPORTED MORE EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES ACHIEVEMENTS IN DEVELOPING NEW RECRUITMENT PROCEDURES THAN IN TRAINING AND PROMOTION PRACTICES, (2) MANAGEMENT VIEWED THE NEGRO JOB PROBLEM AS A COMMUNITY RATHER THAN A COMPANY RESPONSIBILITY, (3) UNION UNWILLINGNESS TO MODIFY SENIORITY AND APPRENTICESHIP STRUCTURES HAD BEEN A BARRIER TO EQUAL OPPORTUNITY, (4) FEW WHITE WORKERS ADMITTED THAT NEGROES HAD ANY SPECIAL JOB DIFFICULTIES BECAUSE OF SKIN COLOR, (5) THE MAJOR FEAR OF WHITES WAS THE ENVISIONED THREAT OF PREFERENTIAL HIRING PRACTICES FOR NEGROES, (6) NEGRO WORKERS FELT THAT THERE WAS CONSIDERABLE JOB DISCRIMINATION AGAINST THEM IN HIRING, TRAINING, AND PROMOTIONS, AND THEY BELIEVED THAT THEIR LACK OF OPPORTUNITY WAS MORE A MATTER OF THEIR SKIN COLOR THAN THEIR LACK OF TRAINING, AND (7) THE NEGRO PROMOTION RATE WAS IN FACT LOWER THAN THE WHITE RATE. RECOMMENDATIONS INCLUDED THE NECESSITY FOR CONTINUED MONITORING OF COMPANY EQUAL EMPLOYMENT PRACTICES BY OUTSIDE AGENCIES WITH STATUTORY POWERS TO EFFECT CHANGE. (ET)

This study tried to isolate some of the characteristics that account for the variation in community receptivity to federal aid programs. The communities selected for the study had a population of 25,000 or more and had been in existence prior to 1950. Community participation in the programs was measured by the absence or presence of communities in the program, the per capita dollar value of the programs, and number of courses and curriculums being used in the community. The analytical scheme of the study could not be applied to community receptivity to Job Corps and Community Action Programs, but it was applied to poverty programs, urban renewal, and low cost housing. Data showed that communities with diffused power structures were far more likely to participate in federal aid programs than communities with concentrated power structures. (BC)

A sample of 1010 low-wage workers in Detroit (stratified by sex and welfare status) were interviewed in 1969. Data were collected on background characteristics, labor market experiences, and work career histories. The data relate to sexism as an important determinant of income in low-wage groups (women earn less and have lower status jobs), training and education effects on wage determinations and work careers characterized by instability and lack of access to institutional memberships such as unions. (NTIS)

In this guide to job development for the hard-core unemployed, activities, personnel qualifications, and other necessary elements of effective action before, during, and after placement are discussed with reference to the needs of hard-to-place clients and prospective employers. Role structures are prescribed for an ideal job development team consisting of a job market analyst, specialists in employment and placement, and a job coach to help guide and evaluate trainee progress. Problems in preparation and planning, management of staff members, and the handling of resources are briefly noted. Four basic considerations in approaching employers are set forth: (1) shaping appropriate employer perspectives; (2) preparing for initial contacts with employers; (3) technical assistance to facilitate the employment of workers hard to place; (4) enlisting employers' active commitment to job development. Problems and requirements of job development in rural areas, resource integration of organized labor into job development efforts, and new careers and subprofessionalism in the public sector, are also described. The JOBS NOW project in Chicago, with its stress on maximum autonomy in decision making at all levels, is presented as an organizational model. Four tables are included. (ly)