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A SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH CENTER STUDY COLLEGE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES UNIVERSITY OF PUERTO RICO

MANUFACTURING OCCUPATIONS in

PUERTO RICO by H. DANIEL DARLING

and ROBERT S. RAY

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UNIVERSITY OF PUERTO RICO PRESS

1954

Other Publications of Research Done in the Social Science Research Center Samuel Ewer Eastman and Daniel Marx, Jr., Ships and Sugar: An Evaluation of Puerto Rican Offshore Shipping, 1953, University of Puerto Rico Press. 230 pages. Paul K. Hatt, Backgrounds of Human Fertility in Puerto Rico, A Sociological Survey, 1952, Princeton University Press. 512 pages. (In cooperation with the Office of Population Research, Princeton University.) Eleanor E. Maccoby and Frances Fielder, Saving Among Upper-Income Families, 1953, University of Puerto Rico Press. 159 pages. Northwestern University, Department of Geography, The Rural Land Classification Program of Puerto Rico, 1952, Northwestern University, 261 pages. Harvey S. Perloff, Puerto Rico's Economic Future, A Study in Planned Development, 1950, University of Chicago Press and the University of Puerto Rico, 435 pages. Rafael Picó, The Geographic Regions of Puerto Rico, 1950, University of Puerto Rico Press, 256 pages. Lydia J. Roberts and Rosa Luisa Stefani, Patterns of Living in Puerto Rican Families, 1949, University of Puerto Rico Press. 411 pages. (In cooperation with the Department of Home Economics, University of Puerto Rico.) Eric Williams (editor), Documents on British West Indian History, 1807-1835, Select Documents from the Public Record Office, London, England, relating to the Colonies of Barbados, British Guiana, Jamaica, and Trinidad, 1952—Trinidad Publishing Company. 466 pages. (In cooperation with the Historical Society of Trinidad and Tobago.) Caroline F. Ware, Estudio de la Comunidad (revised) 1952, Pan American Union, Washington, D. C. 162 pages.

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A SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH CENTER STUDY COLLEGE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES UNIVERSITY OF PUERTO RICO

MANUFACTURING OCCUPATIONS PUERTO RICO by

H. DANIEL DARLING and ROBERT S. RAY

UNIVERSITY OF PUERTO RICO PRESS 1954 ill

OCCUPATIONAL RESEARCH PROJECT H. DANIEL DARLING, Director ROBERT S. RAY, Assistant Director

Sr. Sergio Velez Gonzales, Research Assistant Sr. Maximino Velez Nieves, Research Assistant Sr. Jose Garcia Navedo, Research Assistant Sr. Apolinar Rosado Torres, Research Assistant Sra. Carlota A. Mayoral, Research Assistant

PREFACE The Occupational Research Project which resulted in this study was sponsored and financed by the Social Science Research Center of the College of Social Sciences, University of Puerto Rico which also provided office space and clerical assistance. In addition to the findings presented here, the authors prepared twenty industry "statements" which made up a 12-chapter "Part II" of the full report of the study. Each of these statements presents the detailed findings with respect to one surveyed industry and includes "occupational staffing patterns." These show the proportion of the work force in each occupational group, and, where significant, the changes which occur between peak and low seasonal employment periods, and between large, medium, and small establishments. Several references to the details presented in "Part II" will be found in this study, and the material is available for reference at the Social Science Research Center. The authors are grateful to the Puerto Rico Department of Labor, Sr. Fernando Sierra Berdecia, Commissioner, for many services. Among these should be mentioned the special tabulations, technical assistance, and information on the Tobacco Stemming industry contributed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Sra. Alicia C. Irizarry, Director, and particularly the assistance given by the Wage Analysis and Special Studies Section under Sra. Herminia S. de Gaztambide, Chief. The authors also wish to express their appreciation to the Puerto Rico Department of Education, Sr. Mariano Villaronga, Commissioner, for providing the services of Sr. Jose Garcia Navedo and to Sr. Garcia himself and the other members of the research staff for their diligence and cooperation in a difficult task. Principal credit must go to the more than three hundred manufacturers whose interest in the project, and willingness to contribute information at a considerable expense of time, provided the basic data of the study.

TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Preface

Table of Contents

vii

Charts and Tables

viii 1 1 2 3 4 7

Chapter 2. Manufacturing in Puerto Rico Changes since 1949 Variation by Size of Establishment Size of Firm Definition Surveyed Industries Occupational Implications

8 9 9 10 10 12

Chapter 3. Seasonality in Manufacturing Impact of Seasonal Changes Variation by Industry Seasonal Patterns Interrelations of Industries Adjustments to Seasonal Changes

14 15 17 17 18 19

Chapter 4. Hiring Process Local Recruitment Methods Employer Comments Off-shore Recruitment Current Need for Workers Shortage Occupations Implications

22 22 23 25 27 28 30

vii

Chapter 1. Introduction Purpose of the Study Selection of Industries Summary of Method Coverage Limitations of the Study

viii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 5. Occupational Patterns Purposes Grouping Occupations Measure of Importance Principal Occupations Major Occupations Principal Fields of Work Major Fields of Work Staffing Patterns, by Industry Seasonal Variations in Staffing Patterns Variations due to Size

32 32 33 35 35 36 36 37 37 39 40

Chapter 6. Occupations in Manufacturing Occupations in 1949 Occupations in 1960

42 42 45

Chapter 7. Conclusions

49 Appendix 52 61 68

A. Methodology B. Sample Schedule C. Job Definitions Developed Charts and Tablee Charts 1 2 Tables 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Title

Page

Months of Peak Seasonal Activity by Industry Peak Seasons in Industries Associated with Sugar

Twenty Industries Included in the Occupational Research Study as a Proportion of Manufacturing Totals Coverage, by Establishment, Employment and Industry Georgraphical Distribution of the Establishments Visited Size of Establishments in 20 Selected Industries Size of Surveyed Establishments in 20 Selected Industries Number and Index of Production Workers in Four Selected Months of 1949 Seasonal Employment Changes in Surveyed Establishments by Industry 1950-1951

18 19

5 5 6 11 12 15 16

TABLE OF CONTENTS

8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

Methods and Aids Used in Recruiting Workers by Puerto Rican Manufacturing Establishments Off-shore Recruitment of Workers in Last Five Years Number of Firms Needing Additional Workers and Number of Workers Needed, by Industry Number of Workers Needed, by Occupation Number of Occupations by Industry Distribution of 975 Occupations by Number of Workers Engaged in Each Distribution of Peak Season Employment by Fields of Work and Industry Relative Distribution of Employment by Fields of Work by Industry for the Month of August 1949 Census Employment Totals Converted into Occupational Fields of Work by Industry .. . . Comparison of the 1949 and 1960 Employment Levels by Fields of Work in 18 Manufacturing Industries . . Number of Additional Workers, by Industry and Field of Work, Needed by 1960

24 26 27 28 34 36 38 43 44 46 47

Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

It is generally agreed that the future prosperity of Puerto Rico lies in increased industrialization. Only by developing in this direction can the island provide the jobs necessary to support its expanding population, improve its economic position and raise its standard of living. Such industrialization requires the investment of new capital, the development of new manufacturing industries and the attraction of new employers. "Operation Bootstrap," to which the Insular Government is devoted, has already achieved considerable success in attracting new manufacturing establishments. The expansion of manufacturing activity and the creation of employment opportunities in the island, however, involves not only new industry but existing industry. Firms newly attracted to Puerto Rico must be kept in operation, and existing firms must expand, if the efforts of the Insular Government are to be completely successful. To be fully effective in expanding employment opportunities, in both existing and new manufacturing establishments, the programs and policy of the Insular Government must grow out of a detailed knowledge of the manpower structure and recruitment problems of Puerto Rican manufacturers. The Occupational Research Study was designed to reveal some new facts about manufacturing employment in Puerto Rico in the hopes that these would contribute in some small way to a greater understanding of the way in which existing industry recruits and utilizes its work force. If these facts can speed the more effective organization of Puerto Rican labor markets, reveal some of the manpower problems employers face, and point the way towards further study of other industries, they will contribute to the over-all goal of an industrialized Puerto Rico. Purpose of the Study In broad terms the Occupational Research Study attempted to: a. Determine the characteristics of the hiring process; 1

MANUFACTURING} OCCUPATIONS IN PUERTO RICO

b. Discover employment needs; c. Develop occupational staffing patterns. Knowledge of the hiring process presently used by Puerto Rican employers, as indicated by this study, permits an evaluation of the relative importance of the various recruiting devices and their effectiveness in meeting employer needs. Knowledge of the extent to which employers have found it necessary to import workers with special skills indicates the inadequacies of local sources of labor. To the extent that the study discovered unsatisfied current need for workers—and even some pervasive shortages—in a surplus labor market it pointed out inadequacies that need to be corrected. Furthermore, current shortages indicate the types of labor it will be difficult for newly attracted establishments to hire and the bottlenecks which may develop if industry attempts to expand. The occupational staffing patterns developed in the course of the study show, for each industry, the percentage of its work force engaged in each occupational group. These are included in "Part II" of the study, available for reference at the Social Science Research Center. They permit each employer to check his own job structure with the average pattern for his industry—a comparison which may reveal strength or weakness in his own organization. More important, they provide a necessary tool for determining the occupational structure of the employed part of the present work force and for making rough estimates of the probable occupational needs of new or expanding establishments in the same industries. Specifically the Occupational Research Study aimed at answering the following questions with respect to existing manufacturing establishments in Puerto Rico: 1. Where do employers get their workers? Do these sources meet their needs? 2. How do employers organize their work forces? What skills do they use and in what proportion? 3. How do seasonal changes affect occupational patterns? 4. How do staffing patterns differ by industry and by size of firm in the same industry? 5. How many and what kind of workers are currently needed? 6. How many and what kinds of workers may be needed by 1960? Selection of Industries The manufacturing industries were selected for the occupational inventory for four reasons:

INTRODUCTION

First, and most important, the expansion potential for these industries is greater than for any other segment of the economy. Dr. Harvey S. Perloff expresses this idea in his recent book where he says: "When we consider the trends in agricultural employment and the essentially derivative nature of the service industries, it seems clear that the manufacturing and handicraft industries have a key role in the provision of employment opportunities for the rapidly growing labor force (in Puerto Rico). They can, in fact, be thought of as serving as the basic employment level in the island." 1 A second reason for selecting manufacturing was that more adequate statistics were available than for the non-manufacturing industries, thereby minimizing the volume of preliminary research on the location of firms, and the types of industries in Puerto Rico. Third, the size of the establishments in manufacturing is generally larger than in the non-manufacturing industries making possible a broader coverage of workers with fewer field visits. Finally, the small number of establishments made it possible to cover a major portion of the manufacturing industries in Puerto Rico. Summary of Method The information for this study was obtained by personally interviewing 336 employers in 20 selected manufacturing industries during the period from October 1950 to May 1951. The industries selected were generally those which employed 500 or more workers in 1949 and which contained three or more establishments 2 with at least fifty workers. Within each industry an attempt was made to cover a minimum of seventy-five per cent of the total employment which, in many cases, required interviewing all employers in the industry. When such high coverage was not possible because of the number of small establishments, all with a total employment of fifty or more were visited as well as a large proportion of the smaller establishments. In the allotted time it was impossible to construct statistically valid samples for each of the surveyed industries. The method of selection ' Harvey S. Perloff, Puerto Rico's Economic Future. University of Chicago Press (Chicago, 1950), P. 332. S An establishment is a single physical location where industrial operations are performed: Where a single physical location comprises two or more units each such unit is treated as a separate establishment. An establishment is not necessarily identical with the business concern or firm which may consist of one or more establishments.

MANUFACTURING OCCUPATIONS IN PUERTO RICO

outlined above approached this goal, however, and the coverage in each industry is considered broad enough to provide a base for reasonably accurate generalizations. Data for the Occupational Study were collected by the use of the interview-questionnaire technique with the visits timed during the months of peak activity. Interviews in each establishment were conducted in two phases. Broad information about the establishment and its experiences and problems, as well as general comments were obtained by the interviewer during an informal discussion with the manager or owner. Following this, the occupational information was obtained by direct observation of each employee at his work. As a result, each worker was classified according to the job he actually performed rather than by his payroll title. A sample of the questionnaire used and a detailed discussion of the methodology appears in the appendix. Industries were classified according to the Standard Industrial Classification Manual (hereafter termed the SIC), issued by U. S. Bureau of the Budget in 1945. In classifying occupations the Dictionary of Occupational Titles e was used. Original job definitions were prepared for those occupations unique to Puerto Rico and not included in the DOT. These definitions are listed in the appendix. Coverage The importance to Puerto Rico of the industries surveyed by the Occupational Study can be indicated in a number of ways. The twenty industries covered, according to Census data, 4 have an annual average employment of approximately 31,900 workers, or nearly 66 percent of total manufacturing employment on the island. In addition, they represent a similar percentage of the manufacturing payrolls in the island. In terms of value added by manufacturing, they account for over sixty-eight percent of the island's total. ( See Table 1.) On an industry basis, coverage of the survey ranged upward from a minimum of 37.0 percent of estimated total employment in the children's dress industry. ( See Table 2.) 'United States Employment Service, Division of Occupational Analysis. Second Edition (Washington, 1949). This volume will be referred to as the DOT throughout the rest of the report. For a thorough discussion of the development of the DOT and of the problems involved in grouping occupations see The Occupational Research Program of the U. S. Employment Service, by William H. Stead and W. Earl Masincup. Public Administration Service, Chicago, 1942. 4 U. S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. Census of Manufacturers, 1949: Puerto Rico. Washington, D. C.: 1951. Hereafter referred to as "The Census."

INTRODUCTION Table 1 TWENTY INDUSTRIES INCLUDED IN THE OCCUPATIONAL RESEARCH STUDY AS A PROPORTION OF MANUFACTURING TOTALS (Census of Manufacturers, 1949)

Item

Average Employment

Annual Salaries and Wages Paid

Annual Value Added by Manufacturing

Total Manufacturing 20 Industries Percent of Total

55,137 36,609 65.8

$49,204,864 32,237,267 65.5

$93,420,523 63,829,301 68.3

Table 2 COVERAGE, BY ESTABLISHMENT, EMPLOYMENT AND INDUSTRY

Industry

Canning and preserving Raw cane sugar Cane sugar refining Bottled soft drinks Malt liquors Rum Tobacco stemming, redrying Men's & boys' suits & coats Men's dress shirts, nightwear Separate trousers Blouses and waists Women's & children's underwear Corsets and allied garments Children's dresses Dress gloves Handkerchiefs Wood household furniture Newspapers Fertilizers (mixing only) Machine shops Totals

No. Establishments

Total Employment

Total 1949

No. Surveyed 1950-51

August 1949

Surveyed Establishments August 1950

19 36 5 33 4 31 42 11 17 35 18 29 2 26 28 45 152 4 7 4

12 34 5 31 4 21 39 4 11 13 15 15 6 8 18 29 52 4 8 7

935 8,828 252 865 801 1,379 6,978 636 744 1,054 821 1,242 86 874 1,153 2,284 1,427 738 622 166

665 5,696 309 695 470 1,196 6,000* 658 1,263 451 700 500 705 370 980 2,500 930 640 590 850

548

336

31,885

26,168

* Approximate. 11949 Census of Manufacturing, adjusted to include all employees. The above comparisons are only approximate because of the difference in time, and in some cases because of differences in industrial coding.

MANUFACTURING OCCUPATIONS IN PUERTO RICO

The magnitude of the task of analyzing occupations, even on a limited scale and in an economy which is not highly industrialized, can be indicated by a few statistics. During the course of the occupational study, interviewers observed the tasks performed by 37,951 individual workers. The workers were classified on the basis of the work performed into 975 defined occupations and 76 full staffing patterns were prepared. These were then combined into the 39 fields of work staffing patterns presented in Part II. (See paragraph 2 of Preface.) Geographically, the establishments visited were located in 46 of the 77 municipalities of Puerto Rico. More than half of them were found in the metropolitan areas of San Juan, Rio Piedras, Ponce, and Mayaguez ( Table 3) . Table 3 GOEORAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE ESTABLISHMENTS VISITED

Municipality

Number of Establishments Visited

Aguada Aguadilla Aguas Buenas Aibonito Arecibo Arroyo Barceloneta Bayamon Cabo Rojo Caguas Camuy Carolina Catano Cayey Ciales Coamo Comerio Corozal Fajardo Cuanta Guayama Guayanilla Humacao

1 4 1 2 20 2 2 22 8 18 3 1 1 6 1 3 2 3 4 3 2 2 2

Municipality

Juncos Lajas Loiza Manati Mayaguez Morovis Ponce Rio Piedras Sabana Grande Salinas San German San Juan San Lorenzo San Sebastian Santa Isabel Toa Alta Toa Baja Utuado Vega Alta Vega Baja Vieques Yabucoa Yauco Total

Number of Establishments Visited 8 1 1 4 60 2 27 28 6 1 5 55 7 2 1 1 3 4 1 1 1 2 2 336

INTRODUCTION

Limitations of the Study The principal limitation of the Occupational Research Study is its narrow scope. It was possible to include only the major manufacturing industries. There is a need for similar information on the rest of the manufacturing segment of the economy which includes about one hundred additional industries smaller than the ones covered. Though they do not hire as many people, contribute as much to Insular income, or show as much value added by manufacturing as the twenty included here, still they hire about one-third of the total workers engaged in manufacturing. Other studies, similar to this one, should be conducted to fill this gap. Similar information is also desirable with respect to non-manufacturing activities although a somewhat different survey technique must be developed for these industries. The small number of manufacturing establishments in Puerto Rico and the comparatively few establishments within each industry present a unique problem to the statistician, and add a further limitation to this study. Normal statistical techniques for analysis lose their reliability. Minor changes in just a few firms, which would prove to be insignificant in a heavily industrialized area, will "show through" the statistics in Puerto Rico. Thus one newspaper more or less on the Continent makes little or no statistical difference. In Puerto Rico, however, the loss of one newspaper, which occurred after the survey, represented a 25 percent decrease in the number of establishments in the industry. This limitation is particularly apparent when precise industrial classifications are used. Six of the industries included in this study (Table 2) are composed of less than 10 establishments and all but one industry have less than 50 establishments. The necessity of withholding data which might serve to identify a single establishment has created some limitations on the industrial scope of the study. Industry with less than three firms had to be excluded from the survey for this reason. As a result it was not possible to cover such important industries as stone, clay, and glass products and textile mill products. Limitations in the use of staffing patterns based on Fields of Work Groupings 5 grow out of the awkward structure of this classification system. No alternative choice exists, however, for grouping occupations by type of work in a manner which permits comparisons between industries and with other areas of the United States. 'Occupational Analysis and Industrial Services Division, United States Employment Service, Fields of Work Groupings, Washington, 1946.

Chapter 2

MANUFACTURING IN PUERTO RICO

As is well known, sugar has been the mainstay of the Puerto Rican economy throughout much of its history. Until recently what industry there has been, has depended basically upon sugar. Transportation to move the sugar and machine shops to build and repair the mill equipment are typical of the first industries to develop. Retail stores and the personal service industries were dependent upon the wages paid to the agricultural and manufacturing workers in the sugar industries for their businesses. Manufacturing, however, is now growing both in importance and in diversification. In 1939-1940 manufacturing establishments produced about 10 percent of the net income of Puerto Rico. 1 By 1945-46 it had increased its share to about thirteen percent of the total. In 1949, manufacturing firms had an annual payroll of $49,205,000, and the value added by manufacturing was $93,421,000, according to the Census of Manufacturing. In terms of diversification, the Census showed that in 1949 there were 138 different manufacturing industries, and 1998 establishments. These employed an average of 55,137 workers during the year. The major portion of these industries are closely associated with agriculture. The second largest broad group consists of the garment industries. Together these two major groups account for almost two-thirds of the total value added by manufacturing for Puerto Rico. According to estimates made by the Insular Bureau of Labor Statistics, total manufacturing employment represented about one-fifth of the total employed labor force in August 1950. Agriculture, which employed about thirty-five percent of the total at that time, was the only industry to exceed this proportion. 2 I The Net Income of the Puerto Eican Economy; Fiscal Years 1989-40 to 1945-46. Office of the Governor (San Juan, 1949). ' Departamento del Trabajo de Puerto Rico, Negociado de Estadísticas del Trabajo. Informe Mensual sobre el Grupo Trabajador Civil, Boletin #85, (San Juan, 30 de octubre, 1950) pp. 2, 19.

MANUFACTURING IN PUERTO RICO

Changes Since 1949 The process of change has continued since 1949. In the raw cane sugar industry two centrals have been closed since that date and employment has declined about one-third. Employment in the sugar refineries increased between August 1949 and August 1950 by about 23 percent. This rise can be traced directly to the fact that in 1950-1951 the sugar quota (which has always been less for Puerto Rico than the island's usual production) was lifted for all Economic Cooperation Administration shipments to Europe. The increased volume of business permitted refineries to expand employment. Both beer and soft drink producers lowered employment levels between 1949 and 1951, although no firms are known to have gone out of business. Producers of both types of drinks found it increasingly difficult, during this period, to meet growing competition from the mainland. Five new establishments appeared in the corsets and allied garments industry between 1949 and 1951 which resulted in an employment increase of perhaps 500 workers. An exact determination of the increase is impossible because the coverage of the Census and that of the survey was not identical. An even greater rise in employment has occurred since 1951 if the expansion which the new firms anticipated at the time of the survey was accomplished. No attempt was made to keep up with post-survey changes, but it is known that one newspaper ceased operations in June 1952 (resulting in an employment decline in the industry), and significant changes undoubtedly occurred in a number of other industries. Variation by Size of Establishment There is considerable difference between industries in the size of Puerto Rican manufacturing establishments. According to the Census the average size of all establishments in manufacturing is approximately 28 workers. In the sugar mills, however, the average establishment employs 377 workers. At the other extreme is the cigar industry composed almost entirely of tiny establishments. According to the Census there were 577 establishments in the cigar manufacturing industry, 533 of which had fewer than five workers while only two had more than 50 workers. Data from the same source show that only two establishments out of 265 in the bakery products industry employed more than 50 workers.

MANUFACTURING OCCUPATIONS IN PUERTO RICO

When compared to the Continental United States, manufacturing activity in Puerto Rico is characteristically small. On the mainland the generally accepted definition of a "small establishment" is one with fewer than 500 workers. If such a definition were applied to manufacturing establishments in Puerto Rico all but nine of the 1,998 manufacturing establishments covered by the 1949 Census would be classified as small establishments. Size of Firm Definition In order to compare manufacturing establishments and industries by size it was therefore necessary to develop definitions which would better fit Puerto Rican industries. This was done by establishing three size classes, large, medium and small. For the purposes of this study a large establishment is one with 100 or more workers; a medium size establishment is one with 50 to 99 workers and a small establishment is one with less than 50 employees. Using these definitions, each surveyed establishment was classified by size in accordance with the number óf employees it had at its seasonal peak of operations. The findings with respect to the extent of size-variation within each industry, and the effect that the size of an establishment has upon its staffing pattern are presented in Part II, which is available for reference at the Social Science Research Center. Surveyed Industries The variation that exists between the 20 industries covered by the Occupational Study is indicated by applying the above size criteria to average annual employment shown by the 1949 census. Such an application reveals that the wooden household furniture industry contains the highest proportion of small firms with 98 percent of the establishments having less than 50 employees. At the other extreme are the sugar mills, 92 percent of which employ 100 or more workers. This industry is distinctive also because it contains seven establishments with an annual average of more than 500 employees which would fall into the mainland definition of a large establishment. Of all the 548 establishments recorded by the Census in the 20 selected industries, 380 or 69.3 percent had an average employment of less than 50 workers; 69 or 12.6 percent had from 50 to 99 workers; and 99 or 18.1 percent had 100 or more workers. (See Table 4)

MANUFACTURING IN PUERTO RICO

Table 4 SIZE OF ESTABLISHMENTS IN 20 SELECTED INDUSTRIES (Based on average annual employment from 1949 Census and ORS size criteria) Size Distribution

Industry

Total Number of Establishments

Small

Medium

Large

Total

548

380

Canning Raw Cane Sugar Sugar Refining Soft Drinks Malt Liquors Rum Tobacco Stemming Men's, Boys' Suits Men's Shirts Men's Trousers Women's Blouses Women's Underwear Corsets and Allied Children's Dresses Gloves Handkerchiefs Furniture Newspapers Fertilizers Machine Shops

19 36 5 33 4 31 42 11 17 35 18 29 2 26 28 45 152 4 7 4

14 1 0 29 0 23 11 7 11 27 13 23 1 20 20 24 149 1 3 3

1 2 2 3 1 6 10 1 4 7 4 3 0 4 2 14 3 0 2 0

4 33 3 1 3 2 21 3 2 1 1 3 1 2 6 7 0 3 2 1

An analysis of the 336 establishments covered by the Occupational Research Study by size, shows that 159 or 47.3 percent were small; 57 or 17.00 percent were medium sized; and 120 or 35.7 percent were large. These proportions differ from those of all establishments in the industries surveyed because the study deliberately selected large establishments for complete coverage and medium sized establishments for nearly complete coverage. Furthermore they are not comparable to the size distribution presented in Table 4 because (a) they are based on peak, rather than average employment which gives an upwards bias; (b) they cover 1950 rather than 1949; and (c) they reflect some differences in industry coding between the Census and the Occupational Study.

MANUFACTURING OCCUPATIONS IN PUERTO RICO Table 5 SIZE OF SURVEYED ESTABLISHMENTS IN 20 SELECTED INDUSTRIES (Based on peak season employment and ORS size criteria) Size Distribution

Total Number of Establishments

Small

Medium

Large

Total

336

159

120

12 34 5 31 4 21 39 4 11 13 15 15 6 8 18 29 52 4 8 7

5 0 0 29 1 11 0 1 2 9 8 12 1 4 11 8 47 1 5 4

4 0 2 2 1 6 0 0 5 3 7 2 1 3 5 11 4 0 1 0

3 34 3 0 2 4 39 3 4 0 0 1 4 1 2 10 1 3 2 3

Industry

Occupational Implications The fact that Puerto Rican manufacturing is characterized by large numbers of very small establishments has important occupational implications. On the one hand, it indicates that the workers in these establishments are capable of performing most of the jobs occurring in that establishment, that each is in a sense a "jack of all trades" with respect to that plant. On the other hand, the prevalence of small establishments indicates a lack of the job specialization which frequently characterizes large establishments and which permits the development of highly skilled specialists. It is entirely possible that Puerto Rican manufacturing establishments are organized at the optimum size for the industries in which they are engaged and for Puerto Rico. Indeed there is some evidence that establishments do not increase substantially the number of workers

MANUFACTURING IN PUERTO RICO

they have when they expand production. Instead there is a tendency to handle the additional business by lengthening the workweek, smoothing out the seasonal variation or by building a new establishment of approximately the same size. Nevertheless, further study is needed to determine the relationships between size of establishment and such elements as production costs, profits, worker productivity, occupational skills and wage rates.

Chapter 3

SEASONALITY IN MANUFACTURING

As would be expected, job opportunities in manufacturing vary from month to month depending largely upon the seasonal changes in manufacturing activity. During 1949 an average of 47,735 production workers were employed in all manufacturing industries in Puerto Rico. Using that average as a base of 100, the index of employment was 104.3 in February, rose to 107.0 in May, declined to 91.7 in August and began to rise again to 96.1 in November. In other words, employment in August, the lowest of the four months covered by the Census was 14.3 percent below that in May, the highest of the selected months. A similar comparison was made of changes in the number of production workers reported by the Census in the 20 industries covered by the Occupational Research Study. Again using average employment for the year as a base, the index of employment for February is 108.9; for May 111.4; for August 87.0; and for November 92.4, a change of 21.9 percent from the high month of May to the low month of August. A comparison of the seasonal employment changes in all manufacturing with those in the selected 20 industries (See Table 6) shows that the pattern of change is identical, but that the amplitude of change is greater in the surveyed industries. This results from including in the survey four of the most highly seasonal industries on the island (sugar grinding, sugar refining, tobacco stemming, and canning,) which exert greater influence in the smaller group of industries than on total manufacturing. The Occupational Research Study made no attempt to establish monthly employment series in order to measure the magniture of employment changes resulting from seasonal movements. Instead, the study was concerned solely with how such changes affected the pattern of employment in each establishment visited in order to develop, for each industry, the occupational changes resulting from seasonal changes in plant activity. 14

SEASONALITY IN MANUFACTURING

Table 6 NUMBER AND INDEX OF PRODUCTION WOaxERs IN FOUR SELECTED MONTHS OF 1949 Number of Production Workers

Manufacturing

Average 1949

Feb.

May

Aug.

Nov.

All Manufacturing Index

47,735 100

49,790 104.3

51,066 107.0

43,774 91.7

45,887 96.1

20 Surveyed Industries Index

31,996 100

34,849 108.9

35,645 111.4

27,844 87.0

29,570 92.4%

Impact of Seasonal Changes In order to obtain data on occupational changes, it was necessary to ask each employer when his seasonal peaks and lows occurred, and how much his employment level changed from peak to low month. These data, included in the survey largely as "control items," together with the employers response, raise a question as to how to measure the impact of seasonal employment changes upon the workers of Puerto Rico. If the demand for factory labor in Puerto Rico were greater than the supply of such labor, and if there was nothing to prevent a worker laid off in one industry from shifting immediately to another manufacturing industry, net month to month changes in the level of total factory employment ( such as these presented in table 6) might adequately describe the amount of worker dislocation attributable to seasonal factors. Such a labor market does not exist on the Island. Instead, there is considerable evidence that workers become attached to a particular establishment, or, to a much lesser extent, to a particular industry. When workers are released during the slack period they tend to remain unemployed. Consequently, the effect of seasonal changes, in terms of the number of workers involved and the unemployment caused, can better be measured by adding the employment changes from peak month to low month for each industry and each establishment. Such a technique ignores the date of the change and gives an approximation of the gross effect of seasonality, which is more useful to governmental agencies concerned with unemployment, and the placement of workers in jobs. Using the approach of ignoring the particular month involved it was determined that employment in the establishments surveyed varied from 37,951 during their high periods to 19,376 during their low periods, a drop of 49.0 percent ( table 7) . Measured in this manner, the extent

MANUFACTURING OCCUPATIONS IN PUERTO RICO Table 7 SEASONAL EMPLOYMENT CHANGES IN SURVEYED ESTABLISHMENTS BY INDUSTRIES 1950-51 Reported Employment High to Low Change

Industry

Peak Month

Low Month

Canning Cane Sugar Sugar Refining Soft Drinks Malt Liquors Rum Tobacco Suits Shirts Trousers Blouses Underwear Corsets Dresses Gloves Handkerchiefs Furniture Newspapers Fertilizer Machine Shops

1,176 11,996 748 695 476 1,282 9,491 658 1,302 495 796 629 705 417 1,031 2,891 962 642 669 890

569 4,492 172 688 453 1,176 948 658 1,263 433 677 481 705 366 970 2,435 905 639 511 835

—51.6 —62.6 —77.0 — 1.0 — 4.8 — 8.3 —90.0 .0 — 3.0 —12.5 —15.0 —23.5 .0 —12.2 — 5.9 —15.8 — 5.9 — .5 —23.6 — 6.2

37,951

19,376

—49.0

of seasonal movement in the surveyed manufacturing industries becomes distinctly more impressive than the net drop of 21.9 percent in the same industries shown by Census data to have occurred between the peak month of May and the low month of August. The comparison of the net and "gross" changes presented here is not exact. It is probable that had the Census obtained employment figures for each month, rather than for four selected months, the amount of variation between the high and the low months would have been somewhat greater than that shown. If this assumption is true there would have been less difference between the two months. On the other hand, the Census data used covered only production workers—the group which seasonality most directly affects—while the survey data covered all workers. The effect of making the Census data strictly comparable by adding in nonproduction workers would have been to widen the con-

SEASONALITY IN MANUFACTURING

tract. It is deemed unlikely that enough difference would result from making the two series strictly comparable to alter the comparison significantly. Variation by Industry It has been indicated above that there was a 49 percent drop in employment levels between the month of peak operation and the month of low operation for the 336 establishments surveyed. Within the total the proportion of change varied widely by industry with the heaviest relative declines occurring in the industries most closely associated with agriculture. For example, the raw cane sugar industry, (sugar mills) the largest manufacturing industry in the island, reported an employment drop of nearly 63 percent between peak season and low season, and the tobacco stemming and redrying industry, the second largest on the island, reported a 90 percent drop in employment from peak to low month. Although not as important to the island's economy from the standpoint of employment, large proportional changes were also reported by the sugar refining industry and the canning and preserving industries (a drop of 77 percent and nearly 52 percent respectively). At the other extreme, stability of employment throughout the year was reported by a number of industries. Seasonal employment declines of less than 5 percent were reported by 6 of the 20 industries surveyed, half of which were associated with garment manufacturing. (See Table 7.) Other stable industries included soft drinks, malt liquors and newspapers. Seasonal Patterns It is customary to determine seasonal patterns in terms of changes in employment for an industry as a whole, and such a procedure generally proves satisfactory for most purposes despite the influence a large employer can exert on the pattern of a whole industry. There are special situations, however, when such an approach fails to yield the most useful type of information. For example, a public employment office dealing with individual employers and involved in recruiting workers during periods of employment expansion or registering laid-off workers during a decline of employment needs to know the seasonal pattern of each employer in the area it serves. Similarly, a governmental drive to expand employment is frequently concerned with what it can do for individual employers, as well as for groups of establishments.

MANUFACTURING OCCUPATIONS IN PUERTO RICO

Since the Occupational Study was concerned with determining the effect of seasonality on staffing patterns, primary emphasis was placed upon establishments. The extent and timing of seasonal movements, therefore, were determined by the number of establishments involved, rather than by changes in total employment. Variations among different establishments in the same industry were discussed in Part II. Chart 1 shows the months of peak activity in 11 industries: the remaining nine industries reported no significant seasonal changes. The chart has been based on establishments, not number of employees and is in effect a concensus of experience. Even this method fails to indicate the amount of variation between establishments, but it eliminates the effect of employment and places each employer on an equal basis. Interrelations of Industries As has been indicated a number of times above there is a close interrelation between many of the manufacturing industries in Puerto Rico. An analysis of the seasonal patterns presented in Chart 1 indiCHART 1

Months of Peak Seasonal Activity by Industry Industry

Jan

Feb Mar Apr May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec

Canning

Raw Cane Sugar Sugar Refining Rum

Tobacco Stemming Women's Blouses Children's Dresses Handkerchiefs Furniture Fertilizers Machine Shops

SEASONALITY IN MANUFACTURING

cates the relationship between the group of manufacturing industries associated with agriculture and particularly with sugar. ( See Chart 2.) The fertilizer mixing industry starts the "sugar cycle" by providing one of the important raw materials necessary for planting during the months from March to August. There is a secondary peak season in the fertilizer mixing industry in November and December which is associated with tobacco planting. After the first sugar cane is cut in late December, the mills start operating—usually near the first of January. The sugar refineries begin operation about two weeks after grinding begins and continue through mid-June. The refineries would continue operations until about two weeks after the close of the grinding season, but the legal quota for each refinery is reached before that time and they must cease operations. The distilled liquor industry, largely rum production, hits its stride when molasses becomes available from the sugar mills. The molasses is bought and distilled during the grinding season from March through July. There are two lesser peaks in the industry associated with bottling operations for Christmas and Easter. Completing the cycle, the machine shop industry picks up repair orders as well as orders for new or improved equipment after sugar grinding has been completed, and is a peak operation from July to December. Adjustments to Seasonal Changes Manufacturing establishments adjust to changing seasonal needs in a variety of ways, largely depending upon the nature of the industry. Some lay off most of their workers and restrict operations to CHART 2

Peak Seasons in Industries Associated with Sugar

Aug Sept Oct Nov Dee Tobacco

Fertilizers Sugar Mills Refineries 3 Kings Easter

Dist. Liquors

Christmas & New Years

Machine Shops I

MANUFACTURING OCCUPATIONS IN PUERTO RICO

those activities concerned with record keeping, maintenance, or selling. The outstanding industries in this category are tobacco stemming and sugar refining. To a large extent the canning industry uses the same technique, but its degree of employment fluctuation is not as great because its operations are not tied to a single agricultural product. Other industries adjust by varying the length of the workweek without significant changes in employment levels. The clearest example of this method is found in the Machine Shops industry. Here heavy seasonal production schedules require large amounts of "over-time" work 'which are eliminated during the low season. Garment industries stated that they tried to maintain their factory work force, and varied production levels by varying the quantity of "home work." The soft drinks and malt liquors industries maintain stable employment throughout the year and meet seasonal lows in sales and production by altering the workweek. Several industries both release workers and shorten workweeks when the peak season passes. The furniture, fertilizer and rum industries follow this pattern, usually releasing unskilled workers and retaining skilled workers. The raw cane sugar industry has a unique seasonal adjustment. Employment declines in this industry are substantial and to this extent it belongs in the same category as tobacco stemming and sugar refining. However, during the nonprocessing season the entire nature of the operation in the sugar centrals changes to that of repair shops largely engaged in installing new machinery and repairing existing equipment. During this season also, the relative importance of such secondary activities as the production and sale of electric power increases. The highly skilled machinists and their semiskilled helpers used by the sugar mills during the repair season are not released from employment when the grinding season starts. Rather they become production workers. This indicates that, over the years, these individuals have become fully qualified workers in two different occupations and that their highest skills are utilized by the employer during the off-season rather than during the peak season. An analysis of seasonal movements in employment in Puerto Rican factories is not complete without a warning that such information is difficult to determine. Employers seldom think in terms of labor demand, or of employment levels in the island, perhaps because surplus labor supplies always exist. Instead they answer questions about seasonal changes in terms of sales or of production—usually the former.

SEASONALITY IN MANUFACTURING

A good many of the employers reported definite peak and low seasons, yet stated in the same breath that employment stayed constant throughout the year. Because of this tendency, great care has been exerted in this study to record a seasonal movement only when employment figures clearly indicated that one occurred. As has been indicated in Chapter 1, all establishments were surveyed at their peak season of operation. Consequently, figures with respect to peak employment are considered reliable. Data with respect to low season employment were obtained from the employer but may well be less reliable because survey interviewers did not directly observe operations during this season.

Chapter 4

THE HIRING PROCESS

Three characteristics of the island's economy are responsible for the nature of the hiring process used in manufacturing establishments. The first of these is the small size of most manufacturing plants which limits the degree to which operations can be specialized. The second is the constantly high level of unemployment which maintains an overabundance of jobseekers. The third is the prevalence of industries relying upon a large proportion of semiskilled and unskilled workers. Because most factories on the island are small, the numerous functions of management are generally concentrated in one or two individuals. Among these functions is that of hiring and firing workers. As a result of its small size the owner or manager of a typical factory usually interviews and hires all employees. In somewhat larger establishments the authority to hire workers is sometimes delegated to department foremen and lesser supervisors. This delegation of authority occurs most often with respect to unskilled workers, and to former employees who are being rehired. Only the very largest firms have established personnel departments or appointed personnel directors. Consequently these firms are the only ones in which it has become possible to develop a professional approach to personnel problems and to have "specialists" devoted entirely to this activity. Among the surveyed establishments those with personnel departments—or with an individual assigned that function on a full time basis—were usually found in the sugar, rum, and newspaper industries, and, to a much lesser extent, in the apparel, soft drinks, and machine shop industries. Local Recruitment Methods The continuing surplus of labor, and the low skill requirements of most manufacturing jobs simplify the hiring process. Four-fifths of the 336 surveyed establishments hired most of their workers from the 22

THE HIRING PROCESS

lines of job applicants appearing in person at the factory—a method known as "gate hiring." When additional workers are required the employer has only to mention his need to his present workforce to be assured of an ample supply of jobseekers. Such "grapevine" recruitment usually proves satisfactory even when skilled workers are required. To a much lesser extent, most firms also utilized the following available recruitment aids: a. Unions—Forty establishments, mostly, but not entirely, within the sugar industry obtained workers from the union organizations. b. Advertising—Four firms reported they occasionally used radio advertising for workers, and 17 used newspapers, including the newspaper industry itself. e. Vocational Schools—Only nine firms reported that they occasionally used public or private vocational schools as a source of labor. d. Public Employment Offices—At the time of the survey there were a number of Federal and Insular agencies engaged, at least in part, in placing workers in jobs. These included the Veterans Employment Service, and the Veterans' Administration, the Puerto Rican Department of Labor, and the Economic Development Administration. Some 39 establishments used one or more of these public agencies. Three new establishments had been staffed, initially, by EDA. The two Federal agencies for veterans had been used by nine firms, and the Puerto Rican Department of Labor, by the remaining 27 factories. The extent to which industries varied in the methods used to recruit workers is shown in Table 8. Employer Comments Employers generally used picturesque language in commenting upon their experience with government recruitment agencies. It appears that they evaluate public training schools and public employment offices against far higher standards than they use when judging the effectiveness of their own efforts. Such comments as the following were common. "Provides very good service, but the people they send are not competent." "Even the so-called skilled workers they send have to be trained." "The service is very efficient but only one worker stayed with the firm." The above comments, of course, reveal as many employer weaknesses

MANUFACTURING OCCUPATIONS IN PUERTO RICO Table 8 METHODS AND Ama USED m

RECRUITING WORKERS BY

PUERTO RICAN MANUFACTURING ESTABLISHMENTS

Number of Establishments Using: ~

m Y

Industry

Ey Totals'

336

270

12 34 5 31 4 21 39 4 11 13 15 15 6 8 18 29 52 4 8 7

11 30 4 25 3 18 36 4 8 10 11 13 4 6 16 27 28 2 8 6

27 2 1 1 3

1 2 5 3

2 3 2 6 2 8 8 6 1 8 1

1 1

2 2 1 2

2 3 4

2 1

' Does not cross-add because of duplications.

as they do failures of public agencies. Nevertheless they indicate that the public vocational training schools and employment services need to sharpen their operations if they are to train and refer to jobs the fully qualified workers the employer expects. To do this effectively they might well enlist the employer's cooperation, study his precise job requirements, and train and select workers to meet his specific needs. Both the nature of the comments received from employers and the small number of employers that use the public employment services point to the need for launching a program designed to educate employers

THE HIRING PROCESS

in the kinds of service available to them through the public employment services. It should be emphasized that the present Puerto Rican Employment Service was not in existence at the time of the survey. The establishment of this service in 1950-1951 and its affiliation with the United States Employment Service insures the development of a professionalized system of employment exchanges. Both the charactristics of the hiring process and the attitudes of employers revealed by the survey are likely to continue however until the new employment service has made considerable progress in systematizing hiring channels and in "selling itself" to employers. Off-shore Recruitment In addition to using local sources of labor, manufacturers have found it necessary to import workers with special skills to the island. Both the number of firms which have used off-island labor sources, and the number of workers brought in are small when one considers how new many of the establishments are. Within the last five years 31 firms in 10 industries have recruited 78 workers from other parts of the world. Nearly all of these, 67, have come from continental United States. Six were recruited in Cuba, three in the Dominican Republic, and one each came from Spain and Mexico. Excluded from this count were owner-operators who moved into Puerto Rico to establish their own businesses, and a few technical supervisors from the continent who make periodic short visits. The industries which have brought in workers and the numbers they have so recruited are shown in Table 9. The kinds of workers which manufacturers have brought to the island in the last five years fall into three groups: (a) those with managerial skills; (b) professional workers; and (c) skilled workers. The largest number of new workers attracted were those possessing the skills and experiences associated with the functions of management. Thirty-one such workers were added to the Puerto Rican labor force. Included in this number were such job titles as administrators; general manager; managers of production, of operations, and of warehouses, and their assistants; factory superintendents and assistants; consultants on plant operations, and quality control; and sales managers. Of the 24 professional workers, 16 were mechanical engineers and three were chemical engineers or chemists. Most of the mechanical

MANUFACTURING OCCUPATIONS IN PUERTO RICO

Table 9 OFF-SHORE RECRUITMENT OF WORKERs IN LAST FIvE YEARS

Industry

Number

Canning Raw Cane Sugar Sugar Refining Soft Drinks Malt Liquors Rum Tobacco Stemming Corsets and Allied Gloves Newspapers

5 21 1 18 7 4 1 3 6 12

Total

engineers (nine) were attached to the soft drinks industry. The newspaper industry hired three draftsmen and three writers which constituted the remainder of the professional worker group. Equally important, numerically, were the 23 skilled workers hired. These were distributed among five industries, and included 11 different occupations. Twelve of the 23 skilled workers were recruited by the sugar industry. The skills so acquired were unique to the industry and consisted of five sugar boilers, three sugar evaporators, three men to make, set up and operate industrial boilers, and one scale set-up man. The malt liquor industry recruited five brewmasters and one assistant brewmaster. The remaining five skilled workers consisted of two glove cutters and a sewing machine mechanic for the garment industries, and a printer and an engraver for employment on a newspaper. The types of occupations brought into the island during the past five years indicate no special weaknesses in the supplies of workers available in Puerto Rico. The key skills of management, production, and supervision recruited abroad are those which industry usually brings with it whenever it establishes a new plant. In these jobs proven knowledge of company policies and practices is as important as competent technical knowledge. The volume of workers imported for other activities was too small and the occupations too specialized to be of concern.

THE HIRING PROCESS

Current Need for Workers One way to evaluate the effectiveness of recruitment methods, and of the labor supplies available through them, is to measure how well they meet an employer's current need for workers. Each employer visited was asked if he had any unfilled job openings. This question elicited two types of responses. The first was specific and quantitative: the employer stated how many and what kinds of workers he wanted at the moment. The second response was more general, and perhaps more significant: the employer discussed the skills that he continually found most difficult to recruit, and indicated in broad terms the number he would like to hire. Nearly one-fourth of the employers surveyed needed some additional workers which they could not find. Of the 336 firms included in the study, 76 establishments in 14 of the 20 covered industries reported a total need for 1,151 workers in 32 different occupations at the time they were visited. The extent of need varied widely. Six industries had no current demand for workers. In both the rum and women's underwear industries only one firm had unfilled job openings, the former for four coopers and the latter for 30 sewing machine operators. The largest single industry demand was for 500 sewing machine operators in newly established and expanding firms in the corsets and allied products industry. The industries requiring additional workers and the number they reported needing are shown in Table 10. Table 10 NUMBER OF FIRMS NEEDING ADDITIONAL WORHERs AND NUMBER OF WORKERS NEEDED, BY INDUSTRY No. of No, of Industry Firms Workers Total Canning Raw Cane Sugar Soft Drinks Rum Men's, Youth's Shirts Men's Trousers Women's Blouses Women's Underwear Corsets and Allied Products Children's Dresses Gloves Handkerchiefs Furniture Machine Shops

76 3 4 5 1 11 5 10 1 5 3 7 12 5 4

1,151 8 22 20 4 64 20 221 30 510 33 34 137 9 39

MANUFACTURING OCCUPATIONS IN PUERTO RICO

Most of the 32 different occupations for which workers were needed were reported by only one industry. The outstanding exception to this specialization of need was the demand for sewing machine operators in over 50 firms in seven garment industries. Sewing machine mechanics were needed in four industries and mechanics, boiler operators, lathe operators and clerical workers were needed in two industries each. Current need, by occupation, is shown in Table 11. Shortage Occupations Table 11 NUMBER OF WORKERS NEEDED, BY OCCUPATION Sewing Machine Operators Folders (handkerchiefs) Machine Hemmers (handkerchiefs) Pressers (handkerchiefs) Sewing Machine Mechanics Salesmen and Sales Managers Mechanics Molders Machinists Clerical Workers Boilermakers Lathe Operators Boiler Operators Coopers Welders Spray Finishers (Furniture) Juicers (canning) Bottle Filling Machine Operators Stampers Finishers (garment) Finishers (wood) Cabinetmakers Electricians Candy Maker Grinder (canning) Filter Operator (can) Chemist Woodcarver Wood Turner Blacksmith Manager, Garment Accountant Total

894 62 36 27 19 15 15 13 12 7 6 6 5 4 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1,151

THE HIRING PROCESS

In contrast to the variety of different occupations for which employers had an immediate need, the types of skills they always found difficult to locate were few in number. Nevertheless, the persistent shortage of these few skills probably has a greater effect on production and employment levels, in the long run, than the far larger current needs. Frequently the shortage occupations represent key skills upon which depend the employment of larger numbers of semiskilled and unskilled workers. The absence of these workers therefore limits the expansion potential of the establishments. There is, naturally, some over-lapping between the shortage occupations and those currently needed. Industrial sewing machine operators constitute both the largest volume of unfilled current job openings and the most wide-spread long term shortage. Both the immediate and the long-term needs are real. But the current demand at the time of the survey was considerably above what might be considered normal, because 500 of the sewing machine operators were needed to staff new plants. Three factors affect the more normal shortage of sewing machine operators. First, the garment industries are expanding rapidly and each new establishment creates immediate demand for a large number of sewing machine operators. The level of future need, therefore, is likely to be characterized by sudden jumps as new plants open. Second, the garment industry, as a whole, is gradually converting from a home work to an industrialized operation. As this shift continues the demand for workers skilled in the use of industrial sewing machines will grow, while the need for domestic type sewing machine operators will decline. Finally, there is a tendency for sewing machine operators to move to jobs on the continent after they have become skilled. In the face of continuing shortages of sewing machine operators, in-plant training programs have been developed by some employers. These generally complained about the difficulty of finding suitable trainees, and about the loss of their trained workers to the States. It is possible that other employers have delayed industrializing their operations because of anticipated shortages of skilled workers. Others have ceased recruiting sewing machine operators and adjusted their production to fit current labor supply. While the lack of a sufficient number of qualified sewing machine operators does not directly limit the employment of other types of workers, the magnitude of the need warrants the full attention of industry, labor, and government. Another persistent shortage of skilled workers for the garment indus-

MANUFACTURING OCCUPATIONS IN PUERTO RICO

tries exists with respect to sewing machine mechanics. While this shortage is small, it is widespread. Furthermore, until such mechanics are available, production and employment in the industries will be further limited by the number of sewing machines that can be kept in operation. Reports from other industries stated that certain key types of skilled workers are "impossible to find." The rum industry reported that stillmen are most difficult to recruit. Newspapers always have trouble hiring linotypists, compositors, male stenographers, photo-engravers and reporters. Many firms in the furniture industry have given up trying to find qualified cabinetmakers and wood finishers; others still list their needs in the hopes that someone will apply. In all, perhaps as many as 50 such craftsmen could be used in the furniture industry, and their employment would permit some expansion of output. All skilled machine shop occupations are in short supply, according to industry spokesmen. However, the number needed in each particular occupation— such as machinists, molders, lathe operators, etc.—is small. Several firms no longer attempt to recruit skilled operators, and at least one plant has found it feasible to send outstanding workers to the continent for further and broader training. Implications Employers generally reported that their labor supplies and recruitment methods were satisfactory, and the heavy reliance upon "gate hiring" would seem to buttress this opinion. On the other hand, the large number of unfilled current jobs and the definite shortage of some skills do not completely jibe with such statements. To the extent that locally available supplies of some skills are less than demand, a more effective recruitment device than gate hiring is necessary. To a large extent manufacturers are already attempting to meet their need for skilled workers through a process of in-plant training. A general complaint was that they found it difficult to recruit the "right kinds of workers" to train. Such comments were received from a number of industries including garment, tobacco stemming, furniture, and machine shops. An adequate testing program designed to preselect applicants with the special aptitudes and interests required by the occupation will do much to resolve this difficulty. It is probably desirable to encourage Puerto Rican manufacturers to expand their on-the-job training programs. The number of workers required in many of the occupations for which a current need was found ( Table 11) was too small to warrant public training programs.

T$E HIRING PROCESS

In this connection it might also be desirable to extend training of the apprenticeship type particularly with respect to the skilled woodworking and metalworking crafts. Survey data indicated some labor force inadequacies which can, perhaps, be met by public training. The outstanding labor need was for industrial sewing machine operators in sufficient numbers to warrant the establishment of training courses. Less apparent, but perhaps more basic, is the need for training in factory work habits. Numerous comments from employers indicated their dissatisfaction with the employees' attitude toward work, their poor application to the job, and their lack of a sense of responsibility towards the product and the machinery. These comments reflect the employers' failure to recognize that such attitudes customarily accompany a relatively low wage scale operation. Nevertheless, they point out another avenue for further progress in the industrialization of the island. It must be recognized that until the industries on the island approach mainland wage standards there will be a continuing flow of skilled and semiskilled workers to the continent. Consequently, training programs designed to meet the island's needs should provide for the replacement of such migrating workers. On the other hand, it would seem unwise to train Puerto Rican workers in excess of current or conservatively estimated future needs. Such a course could replace a current shortage with a labor surplus which might tend to depress wage rates for skilled workers.

Chapter 5

OCCUPATIONAL PATTERNS

A basic purpose of the occupational research study was the development of staffing patterns for each industry. In its simplest form a staffing pattern is a list of each different job performed in an establishment and a count of the number of workers employed in each such occupation. Such simple staffing patterns adequately describe an individual establishment but are too awkward to permit comparisons between establishments. Consequently, it becomes necessary to express the absolute figures of employment as percentages of the total workforce and to fit the different occupations into some recognizable pattern. Once these steps have been performed it becomes possible to compare the way different manufacturers in the same industry have organized their workforce and to compare the organizational structure of one industry with that of another. Purposes Staffing patterns showing the proportion of the workforce employed in each occupation which appears in the industry serve several valuable purposes. They permit an employer to recognize clearly the occupational inter-relationships within his plant and hence frequently point out the need for plant efficiency studies. They also provide an employer with a blueprint of his organization which sharpens his plans for plant expansion or modification by indicating the number of workers and the specific occupations involved in the contemplated change. Occupational staffing patterns also facilitate the recruitment and placement activities of employment offices by indicating precisely where needed workers will fit into the employer's workforce and by providing a common understanding between the employer and the recruiting agency as to the kinds of skills and abilities required. Industrial staffing patterns not only serve operating needs but provide a basic tool for occupational analysis. With a knowledge of the 32

OCCUPATIONAL PATTERNS

occupational structure of an industry it becomes possible to develop reasonable precise estimates of the number of workers engaged in each activity whenever industry employment levels are known. In other words, through the use of industry staffing patterns it is possible to convert the employment figures of the Census of Manufacturers into occupational terms. Similarly, an estimate of future employment levels by industry can be used as the basis for projecting future occupational needs. Both of these analyses are made in the following chapter. Knowledge of the distribution of occupations within an industry also facilitates the work of research and planning agencies in preparing to meet future demands, in evaluating labor supply, and in soliciting new firms. These tools also permit school authorities to sharpen training programs and vocational counselors to better advise youth. As a step in the analytical process, and to meet the operating needs of employers and placement agencies, 76 occupational staffing patterns were prepared for the 20 surveyed industries. The 39 most important of these staffing patterns are available for reference at the Social Science Research Center, University of Puerto Rico. Because of their great length and restricted usefulness, however, they are not included in this report. The amount of detail in these patterns is indicated by Table 12 which shows, for each surveyed industry, the number of different occupations. Grouping Occupations An occupational staffing pattern is too long and too detailed to be a very useful tool in labor market analysis and planning. For these purposes, a staffing pattern listing each specific occupation needs to be condensed in some way which, while retaining the basic differences between jobs, consolidates them into more manageable groups. The usual procedure is to group the individual occupations into "fields of work." No ideal or completely satisfactory system has, as yet, been devised for grouping occupations although a number have been developed and used at various times and places. The most recently published grouping is the International Classification of Occupations for Migration and Employment Placement, published in two volumes by the International Labour Office in Geneva. Volume One was published July 1952 and Volume Two in November 1952. A number of different nations have already indicated that they expect to adopt the International Labour Office's classification structure. The United States, however, is unlikely to participate in the use of this structure and is,

MANUFACTURING OCCUPATIONS IN PUERTO RICO Table 12 NUMBER OF OCCUPATIONS BY INDUSTRY * Industry Canning Raw Cane Sugar Sugar Refining Soft Drinks Malt Liquors Rum Tobacco Stemming Men's, Boy's Suits Men's Shirts Men's Trousers Women's Blouses Women's Underwear Corsets and Allied Children's Dresses Gloves Handkerchiefs Furniture Newspapers Fertilizers Machine Shops

Number of Occupations 82 233 76 64 116 127 64 68 106 53 65 59 41 40 40 66 55 123 86 148

* These figures are nonadditive as some occupations appear in more than one industry and are counted each time they are found.

instead, now engaged in developing a grouping of occupations which it believes will better fit the situation in this country. The device used in this study to condense the wide variety of occupations was the Fields of Work Groupings developed by the United States Employment Service in 1946, which seemed to be the most useful available at the time of the study. These groupings were designed to facilitate "the collection, analysis, and filing of occupational information by categories broader than specific jobs." A Field of Work is an occupational grouping within which all workers perform the same type of work, though possibly on different materials or in different industries. For example, there are many kinds of industrial sewing-machine operators—triple-needle, double-needle, single-needle, automatic, edging, serging, embroidery, and so on. But operators of all these machines perform the same type of work and will therefore be grouped together in the same field of work whether they are closing filled bags of sugar with a special sewing machine designed for that purpose or whether they are sewing together the parts of a woman's silk blouse.

OCCUPATIONAL PATTERNS

The 975 occupations found during the survey were grouped into 23 fields of work. Fields of work staffing patterns for each industry were prepared and are available for reference at the Social Science Research Center. These are consolidations of the detailed occupational staffing patterns mentioned above, and are designed to be used as a tool of research. In some industries staffing patterns change from one season to another. In others, a different organizational structure characterizes different size firms. Whenever such variations occurred in the surveyed industries, separate staffing patterns, both by occupation and by field of work, were prepared. Measures of Importance In this study the importance of occupations and of fields of work are described in two ways. Analyses are based on either the number of workers engaged in the occupation or on the number of establishments or industries in which the occupation appears. Two terms have been adopted to distinguish between these two measures of importance. As used in this study the term "principal occupation" describes the "spread" of occupations across establishment or industry lines. Hence the principal occupations are those which appear most frequently in plant staffing patterns even though the number of workers involved may be extremely small. The second term used is "major occupation" which relates to those jobs which employ the largest number of workers. Hence this term indicates worker concentration in the occupation. Principal Occupations The 37,951 workers observed in the surveyed industries were engaged in 975 different occupations. Only one of these, manager, industrial organization, appeared in all 336 establishments. Two others, porter and general office clerk, appeared in every industry though not in every plant. Eighteen principal occupations including the above three, occurred in as many as half of the 20 industries surveyed. These were generally non-production managerial, clerical, custodial, or maintenance occupations. The remaining 957 occupations were concentrated in only a few industries, and 711 of these or 73 percent of the total occurred in only one industry.

MANUFACTURING OCCUPATIONS IN PUERTO RICO

Major Occupations Most of the occupations studied involved only a small number of workers (see Table 13). Fewer than 50 workers each were engaged in 843 different jobs. Table 13 DISTRIBUTION OF 975 OCCUPATIONS BY NUMBERS OF WORKERS ENGAGED IN EACH

Number of Workers

Number of Occupations

Cumulative Total

0- 49 50- 99 100 - 149 150 -199 200 - 299 300 - 399 400 - 499 500 and over

843 57 26 15 15 8 2 9

843 900 926 941 956 964 966 975

As a correlary, a few major occupations accounted for large numbers of workers. Nine occupations were performed by over 500 workers and these nine accounted for 11,100 individuals or 29.2 percent of all employment. In order of importance these were: Tobacco hand strippers 5,400; sugar laborers 1,100; single needle sewing machine operators 1,000; sugar cutters 700; hand pressers (garment industries) 700; laborers engaged in repairing industrial equipment 600; crane followers in the sugar industry 600; hand truckers 500, and warehouse "stackers" 500. It seems worth noting that no skilled occupations appear in the list of the nine largest manufacturing occupations among the industries studied. Rather, all but two, single needle sewing machine operator, and hand presser, are unskilled, and these two are classified as "semiskilled.'' Principal Fields of Work Among the industries surveyed, the principal fields of work—i.e. those appearing in the most industries—are management and administration; clerical work; public, personal and protective services; engineering and industrial supervision; and unskilled industrial work. All industries employed some workers in these fields. At the other extreme

OCCUPATIONAL PATTERNS

are bench work, tobacco, and graphic art work, which appear in only one industry each. Table 14 presents the field of work in which the 37,951 workers were engaged at peak season operation. Major Fields of Work More of the surveyed workers were engaged in unskilled industrial work than in another occupational group. Nearly 8,300 individuals or over one-fifth were observed in this field of work. Second in numerical importance was bench work on tobacco which occupied 7,200 workers. Significant, but smaller, concentrations of workers were also found in the machine operating, machine sewing, and clerical groups. The least important field of work involved fewer than 100 workers. This was "Bench work, all other fabric and related," a group which includes such occupations as pocket markers, pinners, and collar turners in the garment industries, and upholsterers. Staffing Patterns, by Industry As is evident from Table 14, many of the fields of work are of little significance in many industries and represent the occupation of only small numbers of workers. Conversely, one or two fields of work often account for the bulk of the employment within a given industry. As has been pointed out, the major field of work was unskilled industrial work which accounted for 22 percent of all workers. In the fertilizer industry over 60 percent of all the workers were in this group. In six additional industries, canning, sugar refining, raw cane sugar, malt liquors, machine shops, and rum, this group contained more workers than any other field of work. In each of these industries well over one out of every four workers was engaged in unskilled industrial work. In the remaining 13 industries, however, some other field of work was more important, and in such industries as men's trousers, furniture, men's suits and coats, and corsets, the proportion of unskilled industrial workers was less than 3.5 percent. The second major field of work, in terms of totals, was Bench work, tobacco, which related only to one industry, and which accounted for over three-fourths of the industry's employment. This was the heaviest concentration of workers found in the survey. Machine sewing was the major field of work in eight industries, but appeared as an activity in 13 industries.

Table 14 DISTRIBUTION OF PEAK SEASON EMPLOYMENT BY FIELD WORE AND INDUSTRY

;°~

z w

Machine Shops

m ~

Furniture

o-7

Underwear

Tobacco

Rum

Soft Drinks

Sugar Refining

Canning

Total, All Groups—Peak Season Employ37,951 1,176 11,996 748 695 476 1,282 9,491 658 1,302 495 796 629 705 417 1,031 2,891 962 642 669 89( ment Management and Administration Clerical Work Public Contact Work Public, Personal, and Protective Services Engineering and Industrial Supervision Mechanical or Electrical Repair and Maintenance Structural Work Bench Work, Assorted Materials Bench Work, Tobacco Stripping and Packing Bench Work, Metal, Wood, Paint, or Coremaking Hand Sewing and Related Garment and Cloth Working Machine Sewing Fabric Cutting Fabric Forming and Shaping Bench Work, All Other Fabric and Related Inspecting and Testing Bench Work, All Other Machine Operating Graphic Art Work Presceesing Unskilled Industrial Work Artistic, Literary and Laboratory Science Work

766 2,120 408 1,247 1,494

288 20 33 1,032 24 6 732 49 804 28

1,007 562 284

27 6 6

708 360

53 39 226 43 34 53 24

17 57 25 36 18

47 90 32 113 49

25 10 10

35 13 164

8 68

34 9 24

7,232 872 667 295 3,630 400 775 99 1,458 379 3,756 119 1,751 8,282 348

38 152 57 113

16 17 9 8 21

26 30 13 16 42

14 7 12 2 4

17 22 1 12 25

14 17 6 5 20

10 4 16

28 10

4 14

9 10

32 201

43 58

5 62

3 15

26 32

17 58

8 1 6

33 44 12 132 29 16 29 17 7

14 13

8 4

15 42 13 20 29

2E 8i 11 24 7E

21 7E 27 10(

7,232 60

7 255 188 2,218

192

40 92

39 1,224 141 507 4,258 287 1

15 4 68

17 53 87 135 2

70 10 167

644 79 45 309 29 47 7 228 24 95 456 9

115 76 332 1,016 8

1 20

40 34 59 10 26 129 5 80 8 8 11 605 362 448 265 469 258 29 12 17 47 12 7 97 15 26 35 27 5 2 36 1 107 24 66 59 83 30 14 29 25 6

1 9

2 38 1

4 45

1 15

12C

313 9 43 734 244 3 54 .474 97

378 5 8 139

306

9 17

48 7

14 1 146 90 33 12( 119 26 3 27 13 572 30 36 411 231 126

MANUFACTURING OCCUPATIONS IN PUERTO RICO

Total, all Groups

CO O0

OCCUPATIONAL PATTERNS

Seasonal Variations in Staffing Patterns Only those five industries directly related to agriculture alter their staffing pattern significantly between peak and low season operations. Among other industries, the proportional distribution of the workforce remains unchanged, although some minor shifts in composition may occur. The five seasonal industries show considerable uniformity in the nature of their adjustments. Although the precise change which takes place in each industry is different, the cause of the change is the same: the substantial drop from peak to low season in the number of workers engaged in the one or two dominant fields of work causes the relative proportion of workers in other groups to increase. These are normally non-production jobs. This characteristic was revealed in all five industries but was most pronounced in tobacco stemming, cane sugar refining, and fertilizers. In the first of these the dominant field of work during the peak season is tobacco stripping and packing which engages over three-fourths of the workers in the industry. As this field of work is almost eliminated in the low season, the relative importance of other fields of work is increased substantially. For example, unskilled industrial work shows an increase of 33 percentage points from peak to low season and machine operating gains by 21.2 points. The adjustment in cane sugar refining is quite similar although different fields of work are involved. Processing, machine operating, and unskilled industrial work all decline in importance both relatively and absolutely causing a relative increase in most other fields of work though they too share in the absolute employment drop. The peak to low season change in the fertilizer staffing patterns are less marked but this industry is the "cleanest" example of the point being discussed. As the number of unskilled industrial workers in this industry drops, the importance of every other group rises although no additional workers are added. The raw cane sugar industry, as previously indicated, changes the nature of its operations during the low season. As a result, both the kind and the proportion of occupations change. During the producing season nearly 36 percent of all the workers are engaged in unskilled industrial jobs, working on cane and an additional 18.5 percent are machine operators. During the slack season, mechanical and electrical repair and maintenance workers dominate, accounting for 36.5 percent of all employment. Second in importance-17.9 percent of all—are unskilled industrial workers helping the skilled mechanics.

MANUFACTURING OCCUPATIONS IN PUERTO RICO

Because of these changes the raw cane sugar industry differs from the other seasonal industries. While some fields of work grow in relative importance because of seasonal employment declines in other fields, there are absolute increases in employment in repair and maintenance work. Variations Due to Size In six of the industries surveyed there was a noticeable difference in the organization of the workforce by size of establishment. Consequently, the description of these industries required the preparation of 14 additional staffing patterns. The specific industries requiring such additional description were; canning, men's shirts, children's dresses, gloves, handkerchiefs, and machine shops. In part the existence of different organizational patterns in different sized establishments is clearly a function of size growing out of the volume of output and the more complicated organizational structure of large plants. In the canning industry large establishments have no sales forces while small establishments require some five percent of their workforces in this activity. This results from the fact that the volume of output in large plants permits contact selling with all the output going to one or two large jobbers. In contrast, small firms rely upon routemen to "peddle" their products to a large number of small bakeries and retail outlets. The size of the establishment is also related to the degree of mechanization in this industry. Large firms are more highly mechanized and therefore use larger proportions of machine operators and unskilled industrial workers. Medium and small firms use a higher proportion of food handlers engaged in peeling fruit and cutting and packing candy by hand. In the machine shop industry the large establishments are able to organize their operations so that they use a relatively high proportion of unskilled industrial workers. Their primary dependence upon the sugar industry, however, makes it necessary for them to solicit additional work for the season when the volume of mill repairing work declines. As a result, large machine shops employ a sales force. Small machine shops do not employ salesmen, and within the factory rely upon a heavy proportion of blacksmiths and core molders engaged on a variety of custom built products. In two of the garment industries, gloves and handkerchiefs, the different staffing patterns result more from the dependence on homeworkers than they do from the size of the firm. In these industries, nearly every factory utilizes large numbers of non-industrial home-

OCCUPATIONAL PATTERNS

workers, and there may be little relationship between the number of factory workers employed and the volume of output. Because of this characteristic the proportion of inspectors, of clerical workers keeping track of work in the homes, and inside workers "patching up" substandard work returned to the plant varies considerably by size of establishment. To some degree also, large and medium sized firms in the handkerchief industry employ a high proportion of embroidering machine operators while small firms rely more extensively on hand embroidery. The quality of the product also affects the staffing pattern, and since this is related to the size of the firm in some industries it is the determinant of size of firm differences. Usually high quality products require more hand work while mass produced articles require more machine operations. The effect of quality of product upon the staffing patterns of large and medium sized establishments is illustrated in the men's and boys' shirt industry. In this industry the highest quality shirts are produced in the large establishments while the medium sized establishments concentrate on a lower priced garment. As a result machine sewing accounts for 40 percent of all the workers in large firms and 60 percent in medium sized plants. Large firms employ 15 percent of their workforce in the most highly skilled garment and cloth working occupations and five percent in hand sewing. Medium sized firms employ no workers in either of these fields of work. In the children's dress manufacturing industry small firms concentrate on a higher quality product than do medium sized establishments. This difference in the quality of the product is reflected in the higher proportion of hand sewers and inspectors in small plants and the large proportion of machine sewers in medium sized concerns. Although the variation was not great enough to warrant the preparation of additional staffing patterns, quality also plays a part in the organizational structure of companies manufacturing women's blouses, women's and children's underwear, and furniture. Expensive women's blouses are manufactured in small firms while the better grades of women's underwear are produced in the larger establishments. In each industry the proportion of hand sewers employed rises and the proportion of machine sewers declines as the quality improves. In the furniture industry custom work, involving highly skilled hand labor, is generally produced in small shops while the larger establishments employ a greater number of machine operators.

Chapter 6

OCCUPATIONS IN MANUFACTURING

In order to estimate the number of workers employed in each field of work in each industry at any given time it is necessary to use the staffing pattern which relates to that particular period. Table 14 in the preceding chapter presented the staffing pattern in absolute terms and at the month of peak activity for each industry without regard to when it occurred. In this chapter analyses will be related to employment in the month of August. In August four of the surveyed industries are operating on a low season pattern of employment and only one industry is operating on a peak season basis. Consequently the employment picture for that month must be based upon the low season pattern for four industries, the peak season pattern for one industry, and the average pattern for fifteen industries. Table 15 presents the relative importance of each field of work in the staffing patterns of each industry for the month of August. Since staffing patterns change only slowly over the years the proportional distribution shown in Table 15 can be applied to August employment figures for any nearby year with a fair degree of reliability. Occupations in 1949 The Census of Manufacturers presents no occupational information but does show that the 20 surveyed industries employed 31,885 workers in August 1949. 1 However, it is possible to convert these industry totals into occupational terms related to the industry, by using the proportions developed in Table 15. This is done in Table 16 which shows the number of workers engaged in each field of work, in each industry in 1949. ' The Census presented August employment figures for production workers only. These were inflated to cover all employment in the industry by applying the average ratio of production workers to total employment for each industry. 42

Table 15

2.9 1.5 2.4

2.1 2.8 0.1

7.6 3.8

8.8 3.8

0.6 1.2

1.2 3.2

0.4 0.9

1.5 3.1

ao o

w o

5.2 2.7 2.1 1.0 2.1 12.8

1.0

0.8 0.3 1.2

0.6

0.4

o o.;o .+ is

0.3 1.5

0.3

100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

2.0 2.3 1.0

Any Low

3.1 19.5

1.5 2.0

3.4 6.8 1.3 20.6 4.5

2.9 8.2 2.5

row

2.4 2.6 1.4

W Any

2.5 3.1

0.6 2.0

1.7 1.8

4.5 1.1

4.0 5.7

1.2 0.6

4.2 4.9

0.5 1.3

0.8

oo N

0.4 1.6

W Any

3.7 7.0 2.5

(5 Any

Machine Shops

p I Childrené Dresses

3.5 11.9 5.2

.+ N N ó

Any

w o isáo

Any

o éu

Any

100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

0.9

66.9

0.6

0.2 1.8

Cn OOO N N

6.9

5.0

0.1

1.4 2.9

45.0 0.7

2.2 0.2 15.2 14.0 6.2 0.5 18.5 0.5 4.3 0.8 0.9 13.5 19.8 3.1 5.7 51.8

36.6 10.6

19.6

1.0

a N

-i O

w o a w

0.2 3.1

a.- °csí N o

0.2 4.8

1.4

4.8

.• rn .• ~

0.3 8.3

0.4 8.2 1.1 2.2

9.4 10.8 0.3 4.2 25.4 0.3 8.4 5.2 16.4

0.5

1.0 3.7

w w

11.3 9.0 0.8 28.3 25.9 10.7

-~ - o inérów~a

2.4 1.0 4.8

3.2 5.5 0.8 0.8 14.3 13.0

12.0 3.1 4.3 6.9 9.9 1.0 10.0 46.9 46.5 72.9 56.3 4.4 2.2 2.5 2.1 7.1 7.5 3.1 3.3

m o ~óo

2.9

0.2

76.2

~ o .•~

Management and Administration 3.3 5.8 4.5 7.6 Clerical Work 5.3 13.9 4.5 5.6 Public Contact Work 0.7 0.3 32.5 Public, Personal, and Protective Services 5.6 6.2 4.5 4.9 Engineeringand~Industrial1Supervision 3.8 7.0 10.6 3.5 Mechanical or Electrical Repair and Maintenance 4.2 36.5 46.4 4.9 Structural Work 0.6 7.2 2.7 1.3 Bench Work, Assorted Materials 0.6 0.1 3.5 Bench Work, Tobacco Stripping and Packing Bench Work, Metal, Wood, Paint, or Coremaking 1.1 1.4 Hand Sewing and Related Garment and Cloth Working Machine Sewing 0.4 Fabric Cutting and Shaping Fabric Forming Bench Work, All Other Fabric and Related 1.2 5.8 Inspecting and Testing Bench Work, All Other 10.5 14.1 3.7 3.6 14.0 Machine Operating Graphic Art Work 3.6 0.2 2.5 Processing Unskilled Industrial Work 45.9 17.9 23.2 12.5 Artistic, Literary, or Laboratory 0.2 0.1 Science Work

Í+ Any

Total

F Any Peak

N N

Any

O00

Any

Low Low Low

w .

OCCUPATIONS IN MANUFACTURING

Seasonal Staffing Pattern Used

~ I Corsets and Related

.a°

c B

Women's Underwear

m d

Field of Work

o U

BY INDUSTRY FOR THE MONTH OF AUGUST

ó c

RELATIVE DISTRIBUTION OF EMPLOYMENT BY FIELDS OF WORK

fP W

Table 16 1949 CENSUS EMPLOYMENT TOTALS CONVERTED INTO OCCUPATIONAL FIELDS OF WORK, BY INDUSTRY

(20 SURVEYED INDUSTRIES; AUGUST 1949 EMPLOYMENT)

Malt Liquors

Distilled Liquors

Tobacco Stemming

Men's Suite and Coats

Men's Shirts and related

Men's Separate Trousers

Women's Blouses and Related

Women's Underwear and Related

Corsets and Related

Children's Outerwear

Any

Any Any

Any

801 1,379 6,978

636

744 1,054

821 1,242

874 1,153 2,284 1,427

Management and Administration Clerical Work Public Contact Work Public, Personal, and Protective Services Engineering and Industrial Supervision Mechanical and Electrical Repair and Maintenance Structural Work Bench Work, Assorted Materials Bench Work, Tobacco Stripping and Packing Bench Work, Metal, Wood, Paint, or Coremaking Hand Sewing and Related Garment and Cloth Working Machine Sewing Fabric Cutting Fabric Forming and Shaping. Bench Work, All Other Fabric and Related Inspecting and Testing Bench Work, All Other Machine Operating Graphic Art Work Processing Unskilled Industrial Work Artistic, Literary, and Lab oratory Science Work

1,042 2,278 497

31 512 491,229 7 28

11 11

64 48 283

28 95 42

51 97 34

28 112

15 17 9

14 17 7

31 16 25

17 23 1

29 34 12

1 2

18 20

36 224

34 46

1,055

547

121

1,197

618

3,597 768

393,225 6 636

117 7

42 11

42 17

37 14

6 2

1 1

177

76 44 298 28 45

23 74 348 16 56

11 768 28 33

35 83 464 17 27

117 16 522 93 68

1 1 56 1

6 24

2 68

72 117

3 62 8 16

1 20

2 19

308

Raw Cane Sugar 6

5,317 1,129 670 227 3,630 390 721 156 1,415 194 1,699 137 412 4,820 176

Any

Wood Furniture

Bottled Soft Drinks

Any Peak

885

Handkerchiefs

Sugar Refining

Any

252

Seasonal Pattern Uses

Canning and Presvg.

Any

935 8,828

Any

Any Low Any

á 0

738

622

166

49 18

50 153 33

18 51 16

5 16 2

9 4

26 30

14 19

108 48 3 80

247 7 580 192 375

423

242

5,317 98

955

11 98 132

327

123

26 6 114

34 9 429 1,583

22 108

90 227

124 357

76 11 180

167 70 335 56 746

54 23 542 14 57 2 63

12 2 39 1

7 88

3 31

9 156

71 10 217

20 452

22 9

16 1 103 137 4 42

27 322

2 44

145

MANUFACTURING OCCUPATIONS IN PUERTO RICO

Low Low Low 31,885

Field of Work

Total—All Groups

~ 1P

OCCUPATIONS IN MANUFACTURING}

Occupations in 1960 In order to analyze the problems and potentialities of economic development in Puerto Rico, Dr. Harvey S. Perloff developed hypothetical models of possible employment levels by industry in 1960. These are presented in detail in Puerto Rico's Economic Future. In this volume he points out that his models "are neither attempts at forecasting nor attempts to establish a specific set of goals. There are too many unknowns and too many gaps in information for such purposes. Rather, they are conceived as hypotheses which assist in showing basic relationships and the implications of certain trends and developments. The specific figures employed have limited significance; the principles they bring out are generally important." 2 Using the staffing patterns developed in this study it is possible to predict, within reasonable limits, the number of workers that will be required in each field of work in 1960, if Dr. Perloff's full employment model is to be achieved. Like the model itself, the occupational breakdown is not a prediction. Neither does the use of the model as a starting point, indicate either agreement or disagreement with the assumptions upon which it is based. Quite simply, the model is well known, and this study merely says that if it is valid, it will result in the occupational employment levels presented. The application of the findings of this survey to Dr. Perloff's model requires some statistical manipulations. The model is not presented in terms of sharply defined industries. Furthermore, it covers the entire economy whereas the occupational research study is limited to 20 manufacturing industries. Using the 1949 Census of Manufacturers as a base the broad manufacturing groups used in the model were narrowed to the definitions used in the Occupational Research Study by assuming the 1949 relationship would persist until 1960. It was further assumed that the August employment patterns would adequately fit the 1960 model, which does not apply to any particular month. In making the comparisons, two of the 20 industries were discarded. Tobacco stemming was omitted from the comparison because a large discrepancy in employment figures between the 1948 base used by Perloff and the 1949 Census enumeration invalidated Perloff's 1960 projection. The raw cane sugar industry was omitted because the August employment pattern describes low season operations whereas the 1960 model obviously related to peak seasonal activity. 'Perloff, op. oit., p. 251.

MANUFACTURING OCCUPATIONS IN PUERTO RICO

The ratios presented in Table 15 were applied to the projected full employment totals for each industry in 1960 to show the numbers of workers likely to be employed in each field of work. These were then compared with the situation in 1949 as indicated by the estimates derived from the Census. The results (see Table 17) show that to reach the level envisioned by the model, employment in the 18 industries must rise by 237 percent over the 11-year period. In absolute Table 17 COMPARISON OF THE 1949 AND 1960 EMPLOYMENT LEVELS BY FIELDS OF WORK IN 18 MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES Employment Fields of Work

Total Management and Administration Clerical Work Public Contact Work Public, Personal, and Protective Services Engineering and Industrial Supervision Mechanical or Electrical Repair and Maintenance Structural Work Bench Work, Assorted Materials Bench Work, Metal, Wood, Paint, or Coremaking Hand Sewing and Related Garment and Cloth Working Machine Sewing Fabric Cutting Fabric Forming and Shaping Bench Work, All Other Fabric and Related Inspecting and Testing Bench Work, All Other Machine Operating Graphic Art Work Processing Unskilled Industrial Work Artistic, Literary, or Laboratory Science Work

Estimates based on 1949 Census. Estimates based on Perloff model.

August 1949'

1960'

Number Workers Needed

16,100

54,350

38,250

500 950 450 450 500

1,550 2,700 850 1,250 1,850

1,050 1,750 400 800 1,350

350 100 300

1,550 350 650

1,200 250 350

1,050 650 300 3,650 400 700 150 1,250 100 1,050 150 350 2,500

5,450 2,350 900 13,100 1,400 2,500 700 4,250 450 3,150 150 800 8,150

4,400 1,700 600 9,450 1,000 1,800 550 3,000 350 2,100 * 450 5,650

150

200

Table 18

400

600 1,600 1,750 2,400 1,700 3,050 1,400 2,100 3,250 5,800 6,350

501,800

850

Management and Administration Clerical Work Public Contact Work Public, Personal and Protective Services Engineering and Industrial Supervision Mechanical and Electrical Repair and Maintenance Structural Work Bench Work, Assorted Materials Bench Work, Metal, Wood, Paint Hand Sewing Garment and Cloth Working Machine Sewing Fabric Cutting Fabric Forming and Shaping Bench Work, All Other Fabric Inspecting and Testing Bench Work, All Other Machine Operating Graphic Art Work Processing Unskilled Industrial Work Artistic, Literary, and Laboratory Work

1,050 1,750 400 800 1,350

40 20 140 20 20

10 50 20 30 20

20 40 20 60 20

40 40 20 20 50

70 40 60 10 20

40 50 * 30 50

70 80 30 20 100

* 10 * * *

50 140 40 70 100

30 80 10 20 70

20 10 20 10

20 10 10 *

20 10 80 20

10 10 20

* *

80 90

70 90

d > (5

I b a p~

Canning

Total

m a

Newspapers

38,250 3,050 1,550

m m'

Furniture

Machine Shops

Children's Dresses

Corsets and related

Women's Underwear

Women's Blouses

Malt Liquors

Total

Field of Work

100 160 20 170 120

1,200 130 250 20 350 20 4,400 1,700 600 9,450 10 1,000 1,800 550 3,000 40 350 320 2,100 430 ** 450 110 5,650 1,410 50 10

70 70 70 160 720 40

20 60

360

10 50

10 * 60

30 10 80

50 110 *

60 160 *

50 170 20 790 1,750 40 60 130 70 10 140 120 20 40 120

* 50

120

190 110 760 70 120 20 60

* Less than 5. ** Less than 25. Details do not add because of rounding. Totals rounded to nearest 50; body to nearest 10.

10 40

70 290 40 170 940 1,280 40 230 60 170 10 180 140 290

10 30

40 50

100 630

90 120

220 80

10 120

20 80

80 100

40 120

110 110

20 * 10

20 40

20 220

20 130 310 630 50 20 20 940 1,290 140 1,480 20 30 10 490 140 170 950 * 160 150 1,190 620

30 * 80 *

10 80

60 4,260

110 20 50

320 40

970

30 50 440 1,150

200

* * 10 10 * * 10

110

120

80 920 20

10 220 *

OCCUPATIONS IN MANUFACTURING

Soft Drinks

Men's Trousers

NUMBER OF ADDITIONAL WORKERS, BY INDUSTRY AND FIELD OF WORK, NEEDED BY 1960 BASED ON 1949 CENSUS AND HYPOTHETICAL FULL EMPLOYMENT MODEL

~ ~

MANUFACTURING OCCUPATIONS IN PUERTO RICO

terms the rise is from about 16,100 to 54,200. The largest increase is indicated in machine sewing, up 9,450. The second heaviest need is in the unskilled industrial worker group, 6,650, and in wood bench work (primarily in the furniture industry) 4,400 workers. The additional workers needed in each industry as well as in each field of work, if the model employment is achieved, is shown in Table 18.

Chapter 7

CONCLUSIONS

The Occupational Research Study achieved some of its goals. It succeeded in assembling and organizing a vast quantity of occupational information. With respect to the 20 manufacturing industries covered, it described hiring processes, sources of labor, and labor shortages. Occupational staffing patterns were prepared for each industry and, where significant, for each season and for various sized establishments. The manner in which surveyed industries adjusted their workforces to meet seasonal changes was explored. The occupational patterns themselves were applied to the most recent Census information in order to present as current and complete an occupational picture as possible. Finally, the staffing patterns were used to estimate the number and kinds of workers that would be needed by 1960 if the hypothetical model of industry employment in that year, prepared by Dr. Perloff, was achieved. In short, the study answered in considerable detail the questions raised in Chapter 1. The project uncovered the need for additional research and developmental work with respect to a number of aspects of the industrial labor markets of Puerto Rico. Without attempting to evaluate or to rank these needs, they include at least the topics listed below: 1. Occupational staffing patterns should be developed for the remaining manufacturing industries of importance to the Island's economy. 2. Occupational staffing patterns also need to be constructed for non-manufacturing industries. This will require the development of different techniques for classifying jobs and for sampling. 3. Occupational information with respect to labor supply, both current and prospective, should be assembled. Such information should, ideally, describe skill potentials as well as the more usual worker characteristics, and investigate the extent 49

MANUFACTURING OCCUPATIONS IN PUERTO RICO

and effect of the attachment of workers to a single establishment. 4. The extent and nature of off-shore demand for Puerto Rican workers should be determined in a manner which will facilitate the increasing of job opportunities on the Continent and the raising of Puerto Rican skill levels. 5. A complete industrial directory for the Island should be developed and maintained. 6. More information with respect to the most profitable factory size for each industry is desirable. 7. A "library" of separate industry statements should be published, assembling with respect to each important industry all the available economic facts. For example, the material presented in Part II of this study could be well amplified by the addition of readily available data from other sources such as the Insular Minimum Wage Board, the Wage, Hour, and Public Contract Division of the U. S. Department of Labor, the Puerto Rican Department of Labor, and from other governmental departments and other studies of the Social Science Research Center. 8. Hiring and personnel practices need to be modernized and improved. This is likely to involve improving the services provided by the public employment offices and the vocational schools and the furtherance of their use by individual employers. Of particular importance appears to be the need for more precise employer selection of job applicants, who are capable of performing at the production levels desired. The study failed in its attempt to determine from employers the future changes they anticipated in employment levels despite the fact that this topic appears on the questionnaire. This topic was omitted from the analysis because employers do not think in terms of employment levels and are seldom concerned with events as remote as five years hence. A summary of this study must refer the reader to the limitations discussed in Chapter 1, and all the findings presented in the study should be evaluated only in the light of these limitations. Particularly annoying to the authors has been the serious inadequacy of the Field of Work Groupings which seem to hide occupational relationships as frequently as they distinguish them. Nevertheless no better mechanism was available at that time.

CONCLUSIONS

Despite the fact that the industries surveyed included some that were old and well-established and others that were new and expanding, the most prevailing impression growing out of the study is the casual, non-professional, nature of those activities relating to manpower. As has been indicated, these attitudes may be inevitable in a labor surplus, low wage economy. Yet there are occasional indications that some employers are at a competitive disadvantage because they fail to recognize that a casual attitude towards manpower costs money. The shortages of some skilled workers, the complaints about high turnover, and grumblings about workers' attitudes all indicate the desirability, from the employers' own point of view, of paying closer attention to the selection, training, and upgrading of qualified workers. As operating costs become of increasing importance to the employer's continued existence, ( and there is a definite trend in this direction in nearly every surveyed industry), the importance of an efficiently organized workforce will grow. So too will the need for further mechanization in many industries and training programs can do much to advance or retard this trend. Not all of the competitive problems of Puerto Rican industries are related to manpower. Even in the process of studying occupations, it became apparent that the outlook for Puerto Rican industry could be improved more substantially through other means. Some comments to this effect appear in the industry-by-industry discussions which follow in Part II. It should be mentioned here, however, that industry on the Island might profit from improved quality control, from the creation and publicizing of Puerto Rican brand names, and from enlarging local markets.

Appendix A

METHODOLOGY

The methods finally adopted for conducting the Occupational Research Study grew out of the expressed needs of the insular community for additional knowledge of the Puerto Rican work force. These were developed, in conference and through experience, by adapting to the special situation in Puerto Rico techniques which had been relatively effective on the mainland. Such adaptation was necessary because of (a) the predominantly agricultural nature of the Puerto Rican economy, (b) the characteristically small size of Puerto Rican manufacturing establishments, (c) the existence of some unique occupations in Puerto Rico, and (d) the weakness, or absence of some essential statistical material. The project was launched under sponsorship of the Social Science Research Center of the University of Puerto Rico. Conferences held with the Commissioner of the Puerto Rican Department of Labor resulted in an agreement to provide supplemental data on seasonal employment by industry, and to allow the project staff to refer to its lists of establishments. Previous studies by this Department were used to provide a listing of establishments by industry. The Department of Education hoped to utilize the information obtained from this study as an aid in setting up vocational training programs throughout the Island. They expressed their interest by assigning a full time research worker for the project staff. Conferences were also held with representatives of the Veterans Employment Service, the Minimum Wage Board of the Insular Department of Labor, and the Economic Development Administration. Scope of the Project The manufacturing industries to be included in the study were selected on the basis of their importance to the economy as indicated by the number of workers employed. 1 ' The reasons for confining the study to manufacturing industries are outlined in Chapter 1. 52

APPENDIX A

Industry employment was initially determined by a study of the 1946 Census of Manufacturing.2 The 1949 Census of Manufacturers of Puerto Rico g was used to verify the selections made when these data became available in the summer of 1951. In general, those manufacturing industries were selected which employed five hundred or more workers, and which included at least three establishments employing fifty workers each. The sheer volume of work entailed in surveying industries composed almost entirely of tiny establishments and the fact that only limited numbers of different occupations can appear in a small establishment justifies this criterion. Using these criteria, twenty industries were selected for inclusion in the survey. These industries employed roughly two thirds of the total manufacturing workers in Puerto Rico and had about one third of the total number of establishments. The industries included have been listed in Table 2 and their relative importance to Puerto Rican manufacturing activity is indicated in Table 1. The 1949 Census of Manufacturing data showed the selection procedure to have been satisfactory. However, some differences were noted. Two industries (Machine shops and Corsets and Allied Garments) were included in the survey which, according to the 1949 Census of Manufacturers, did not meet the criteria for selection. The study reveals that these two industries currently meet these standards. Four industries (Biscuits, crackers and pretzels (2052) ; Commercial printing (2751) ; Artificial flowers (3962) ; and Buttons (3963) were excluded which would be included if the study were to be repeated. Industry Code

Average 1949 Employment

No. of Estab.

Estab. over 50 emp.

2052 2751 3962 3963

515 594 629 572

12 62 5 5

4 3 4 4

Schedule There were four stages in the development of the schedule used in the survey. First, an English version was drawn up which was felt to meet the requirements of the study. Second, a Spanish translation Bureau of Labor Statistics, Puerto Rico Department of Labor. Census of Mamufactwring. (San Juan, April 1946.) Department of Commerce, Bureau of Census, Puerto Rico Census of Manufacturers: 1949 Prehmvnary Report. (Washington, 1951.)

MANUFACTURING OCCUPATIONS IN PUERTO RICO

of this was discussed with members of the staff of the Insular Bureau of Labor Statistics. Next, a number of test interviews were conducted. From the comments of the technicians and from the experience gained in the test interviews a final Spanish version was drawn up which was used throughout the study. ( See Appendix B.) Each employer contacted was given a copy of the schedule at the beginning of the interview so that he would understand the type of information to be gathered. In Puerto Rico where there is a general reluctance to give information of any sort, especially to representatives of the government, this assisted in establishing a friendly attitude. Instructions to the interviewer were included on the reverse side of the first two pages. If any questions arose during the interview the research assistant had the instructions handy in front of him for immediate reference. All of the research assistants spoke English and Spanish fluently. Evaluation of the Schedule The purpose of the schedule was to provide the interviewer with a guide and an organized worksheet which could be used easily during the interview to record the basic data collected. Experience proved the schedule to be adequate in most respects. The following discussion points out the weaknesses of certain sections of the schedule. Item 10 represents an attempt to obtain employers' opinions on future employment levels in order to determine the future skill needs of existing Puerto Rican establishments. Little was expected from this section, but the strong need for such outlook information dictated its inclusion. Previous experience indicated that one of the basic problems encountered in collecting data of this type is the varying attitudes of employers towards future trends in the entire economy. An attempt was made to overcome this obstacle by presenting each employer with a set of economic assumptions and asking him how his business would fare under each one. The assumptions presented each employer were: (1) a continuation of the present economic conditions; (2) a gradual increase in the volume of National Defense expenditures—but not including total war mobilization; and (3) a recurrence of a recession similar to that which occurred during the first six months of 1949. Despite the use of this device of presenting a set of assumptions, analysis of the responses indicated that most employers tend to project their current short term outlook into the distant future. This same problem has been met with employers on the mainland, as is shown by indeterminate results in similar research studies. An impor-

APPENDIX A

tant difference between Puerto Rican employers and those on the mainland, however, is the ever present concern on the Island with the effects of Minimum Wage Board decisions on future employment levels, as legal minimum wages tend to be "prevailing wages" on the Island. The principal value of item 10 was the negative one of proving that individual employers did not think of employment levels in long range terms. Section E was originally designed to provide for the listing of each employee by name in order to distinguish precisely each specific occupation. Early in the survey, however, it became apparent that such a volume of detail was unnecessary. The emphasis was shifted from the individual workers to the individual occupations. Consequently, nearly all the schedules listed the number of workers in each occupation and omitted name listings. In general, this section was found to be exceptionally well suited to the study. Method of Collecting Data Information for the study was collected by interviews with employers, supplemented as far as possible with existing data. The occupational information was obtained during direct observation of the jobs with little reliance being placed on payroll titles. In order to achieve adequate coverage of each of the selected industries, all establishments with a total employment of fifty or more workers were visited. Enough of the smaller establishments were visited to provide what the research staff considered to be usable data, though no attempt was made to construct statistically valid samples. Manufacturing Directory A major undertaking in the preliminary stages of the project was the creation of a directory of manufacturers. The principal sources used for this were (a) a confidential listing of establishments included in the April 1946 Census of Manufacturing. Because this listing was out of date it was supplemented and corrected as far as possible from (b) the Directorio Industrial de Puerto Rico, (e) lists from the State Insurance Fund, (d) lists from the Minimum Wage Board of the Insular Department of Labor, and finally (e) the Industrial Directory compiled for the Input-Output and Capital Formation Project also being conducted at the Social Science Research Center. Experience proved all these lists to be inadequate for the purposes of the Occupational Research Study. The Directorio Industrial was inadequate because of poor revision of the first edition. Establishments

MANUFACTURING OCCUPATIONS IN PUERTO RICO

which had changed their major activity had not been reclassified and establishments which had gone out of business were not removed. The State Insurance Fund listing did not specify whether or not a given establishment was engaged in manufacturing and omitted the subsidiaries of parent companies. The Minimum Wage Board lists were samples and did not provide complete coverage. The Directory of the Input-Output Study was for the fiscal year 1947-48 and was somewhat out of date. Despite serious limitations, a directory was developed which served as an initial identification of establishments to be visited. This directory was supplemented during the course of the survey by visits to the field offices of the Insular Bureau of Labor Statistics in the twenty-five municipalities where such offices were maintained in order to obtain information on the location of new companies in the area. Many other establishments were located by asking known manufacturers for the names and addresses of competitors. In the case of alcohol products, the Department of Internal Revenue or the Revenue Agent in each municipality was consulted. This proved to be a valuable source of information for the location of establishments in this industry. Scheduling of Visits Each industry was visited during its season of peak operation, as determined by Bureau of Labor Statistics data, in order to obtain as broad an occupational picture as possible. During the interview it was thus possible to point to each occupation listed and ask specifically if it also appeared in the low season employment pattern. Employers were also asked whether or not there were any additional jobs performed during the low season, but this list was never as long as it would have been if the establishments had been visited during the low season. Designating specific occupations in this manner proved much more reliable than depending upon the memory of the manager. Editing of Schedules After a schedule was completed it was classified into a four-digit industry group following the structure set up in the Standard Industrial Classification Manual. The items on the schedule were checked for internal consistency and the data tabulated on the work sheets. Occupational Coding Each occupation listed for an establishment was classified according to the titles and definitions found in the Dictionary of Occupational

APPENDIX A

Titles. In a few cases where an occupation was unique to Puerto Rico appropriate titles and job definitions were written. These definitions appear in Appendix C. Since the Dictionary of Occupational Titles may not be readily available to the users of this report, excerpts from the introduction to Volume I on the nature of the occupational coding structure are included here.4 The occupations in the Dictionary have been coordinated into an occupational classification structure, in which the individual occupations are identified by five-digit or six-digit code numbers. The structure of this classification is such that all occupations are divided into seven major occupational groups, which in turn are divided into smaller groupings at different levels of detail. The seven major occupational groups of the classification structure are differentiated by the first digit of the code number. In the first four of the major groups, major divisions are reflected by the second digit of the code number of the occupations. Below are the major subdivisions, and the first and second digits used to identify each. 0—Professional and managerial occupations, 0-0 through 0-3 Professional occupations. 0-4 through 0-6 Semiprofessional occupations. 0-7 through 0-9 Managerial and official occupations. 1—Clerical and sales occupations. 1—0 through 1-4 Clerical and kindred occupations. 1-5 through 1-9 Sales and kindred occupations. 2—Service occupations. 2—0 Domestic service occupations. 2-2 through 2-5 Personal service occupations. 2-6 Protective service occupations. 2-8 and 2-9 Building service workers and porters. 3—Agricultural, fishery, forestry, and kindred occupations. 3—0 through 3-4 Agricultural, horticultural, and windred occupations. 3-8 Fishery occupations. 3-9 Forestry (except logging), and runting and trapping occupations. 4 and 5 Skilled occupations. 6 and 7 Semiskilled occupations. 8 and 9 Unskilled Occupations. 4 Division of Occupational Analysis, United States Employment Service, Bureau of Employment Security, Dictionary of OcczcpationaZ Titles. Volume I, p. xix, (Second Edition). (Washington: 1949.)

MANUFACTURING OCCUPATIONS IN PUERTO RICO

Staffing Patterns When each occupation in an industry had been coded, staffing patterns were constructed by grouping those occupations with similar worker characteristics. The method of grouping was that developed by the Division of Occupational Analysis of the United States Employment Service and published in Fields of Work Groupings. s Each staffing pattern shows the percentage distribution of workers by the fields of work found in that industry. A sample portion of a detailed occupational staffing pattern appears at the end of this appendix. At least one such detailed pattern was prepared for each industry, and additional patterns were prepared for different sized establishments and for different seasons when these required separate dscriptions; copies of these full staffing patterns are available for reference at the Social Science Research Center. In these detailed patterns the individual occupations found in each industry are grouped in progressively broader fields of work. Thus, the three occupations related to Accounting are grouped together. The workers in these occupations, together with the Lawyers and Advertising Salesmen, are grouped under the broader title of Technical Business Relations Work. This cumulative grouping continues throughout so that, in the segment of the pattern reproduced here, all the occupations are divided into two very broad categories, Business Relations Work and Public, Personal, and Protective Services. The parenthetical percentages following each field of work title show the proportion of the industry's workforce engaged in the occupations, or sub-fields, listed below them. There are varying degrees to which each of the broadest fields of work are subdivided. Any time an underlined field of work is found, it indicates that no finer subdivision has been made. The broadest fields of work are identified by whole numbers such as 1 on the sample. Subdivisions are indicated by decimals. As the grouping is broken down into greater detail the number of digits in the decimal is increased. The finest coded field of work grouping contains three digits to the right of the decimal point ( See 1.085 Sales Supervision on sample) . Under the code for each field of work are listed the specific occupations found in these fields. These are written in capital letters and are followed by their Dictionary of Occupational Titles code numbers. Occupational Analysis and Industrial Services Division, United States Employment 3ervics, Ftieids of Work Qroupinys. (Washington: 1946.)

APPENDIX A

When an observed occupation was not covered by the Dictionary of Occupational Titles because it was unique to Puerto Rico, a definition was prepared (See Appendix C) and a tentative occupational code was assigned. Where such occupations appear on the staffing pattern (there are none on the sample) they are identified by the symbol "(ten.)" added to the code number. In each industry the major occupations were defined as those which, when arrayed in descending order of importance in terms of the number of workers, accounted for 80 percent of the industry employment. The major occupations are identified on the detailed occupational staffing patterns by a numeral sign ( # ) immediately preceding the occupational title. Staffing patterns in this format are too complex for comparative analysis so a simpler method of presentation was sought for inclusion in Part II of this report. Twenty-three of the fields of work with significant concentrations of workers were selected from the detailed patterns for presentation. The scope of each of the selected fields was made broad enough to insure the inclusion of all workers classified and, at the same time, the limits were kept narrow enough to provide meaningful results.

BOTTLED SOFT DRINKS AND CARBONATED WATERS ALL FIRMS PEAK OR LOW SEASON 1. BUSINESS RELATIONS WORK (45.7%) 1.0 Business Relations Work, Technical and managerial (7.6%) 1.07 Business Relations Work, Technical (1.2%) 1.071. .. .Accounting (1.0%) ACCOUNTANT, COST 0-01.10 ACCOUNTANT, GENERAL 0-01.20 AUDITOR 0-01.60 1.072. . . .Legal Work (0.1%) LAWYER, CORPORATION 0-22.10 1.075. . . . Purchase and Sales Work (0.1%) SALESMAN, ADVERTISING 1-87.26 1.08 Business Relations Work, Managerial (6.4%) 1.080. . . . Administrative Supervision (3.8%) TREASURER 0-97.04 # MANAGER, INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATION 0-97.41 1.085. .. . Sales Supervision (2.6%) MANAGER, SALES 0-97.61 ROUTE SUPERVISOR 5-99.020 ROUTE SUPERVISOR, ASSISTANT 5-99.020 1.2 Clerical Work (5.6%) 1.20 All-Around Clerical Work (1.3%) BOOKKEEPER II 1-01.02 ACCOUNTING CLERK 1-01.31 CASHIER I 1-01.52 CLERK, GENERAL OFFICE 1-05.01 1.22 Typing (n.e.c.) (0.9%) CLERK-TYPIST 1-37.34 1.23 Stenographic Work (2.0%) # SECRETARY 1-33.01 1.28 Equipment and Material Checking (1.2%) WAREHOUSE-RECORD CLERK 1—01.42 DELIVERY CLERK 1-34.01 SHIPPING CHECKER 1-34.15 1.29 Routine Clerical Work (0.2%) MESSENGER (clerical) 1-23.14 1.5 Public Contract Work (32.5%) 1.55 Selling (32.5%) SALESMAN, BEVERAGES 1-85.21 DRIVER-SALESMAN (any id.) 7-35.100 # # DRIVER-SALESMAN HELPER 9-35.10 60

Appendix B QUESTIONNAIRE

UNIVERSIDAD DE PUERTO RICO CENTRO DE INVESTIGACIONES SOCIALES ESTUDIO DE LAS NECESIDADES OCUPACIONALES

La información requerida en este estudio será considerada estrictamente confidencial y no será publicada en forma tal que los establecimientos puedan ser identificados. A. Identificación 1. Nombre del establecimiento Número del establecimiento 2. Dirección

Fecha

Municipio

(Calle o Barrio)

3. Nombre y Título de la persona entrevistada 4. Productos principales (en orden de importancia por volumen de ventas)

S.I.C. Clave

)

5. ( Clasificación de la industria

B. Reclutamiento 6. Sitios de donde se ha reclutado el personal

7. Cantidad, ocupación, destreza y sitio de donde se ha importado personal sonal en los últimos 5 años

MANUFACTURING OCCUPATIONS IN PUERTO RICO

8. Los obreros diestros y semi-diestros que están más escasos acutalmente. Número de estos trabajadores necesitados actualmente.

Semanas de Entrenamiento requeridas para:

Números de Obreros Nombre de la ocupación Total (1)

(2)

Varones Mujeres (3)

Obreros sin experiencia ninguna

Obreros con experiencia similar

(5)

(6)

(4)

Comentarios:

C. Empleo 9. Número de Trabajadores (obreros y empleados) Fecha

Total

Varones

Mujeres

15 de agosto, 1950 Actualmente 10. Número de trabajadores que serían empleados: (a) Si las condiciones económicas actuales siguen siendo las mismas.

APPENDIX B

(b) Si hay un gradual aumento en los gastos de la Defensa Nacional. (c) Si hay un estancamiento en los negocios igual al que hubo en los primeros 6 meses del año 1949. Total de trabajadores Por Ejemplo

En un año (15 de feb. de 52)

En 5 años (15 de feb. de 56)

a b C

D. Períodos de Producción 11. Período de mayor producción Número de obreros 12. Período de menor producción Número de obreros 13. Naturaleza de los cambios en los períodos de producción (de los productos, departamentos o divisiones, etc., de la fábrica)

14. Cambios esperados que alterarían los patrones ocupacionales. Comentarios

Nombre del entrevistador

Página

E. Empleados Actualmente por Ocupación

páginas

Nombre del Establecimiento

S.I.C. Clave

Dirección

Número del Establecimiento

Notas de la estación del año

D.O.T. Nombre

Sexo

Titulo de la Planta

Deberes Título

Clave

Mayor

Menor

Comentarios

MANUFACTURING OCCUPATIONS IN PUERTO RICO

Municipio

(Calle o Barrio)

APPENDIX B

INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMPLETING THE SCHEDULE Section A—Identification Obtain sufficient information for the proper identification of the establishment. In item 1, the number of the establishment will be given after the schedule is returned to the Center. In item 2, location, include the municipality as well as the more specific address. In item 4, list products in sufficient detail to permit industrial classification. In multiproduct establishment indicate the relative importance (by volume of sales) of each product. Leave item 5 blank at the time of the interview.

Section B—Recruitment This section is designed to furnish information on the present sources of workers of various skills, the employer's opinion of their effectiveness, and the skills he cannot obtain in the Island. Record only the amount of detail necessary to achieve these purposes. In item 6, indicate the main sources for obtaining workers, and indicate the approximate number and type obtained from each source. Typical sources are vocational schools, unions, U. S. Employment Service (Veterans), Bureau of Employment and Migration, private employment agencies, workers seeking employment on their own, and references through present employees and friends. Record the employer's opinion of the sources, indicating any strength or weakness. In item 7, report only when the employer has recruited workers from outside the Island in the last five years. Indicate the numbers imported, their skills, and the country from which they came. Item 8 is designed to identify the skills which the employer is now seeking. Make a separate entry for each skilled and semi-skilled occupation. Omit unskilled workers. This item does not refer to seasonal workers, but to those skills which the employer is now actively seeking. In column 1, give the name of the skill the employer desires. In column 2, show the total number of workers of each skill which the employer needs. Columns 3 and 4 are to be used to indicate the number of workers of each sex which the employer prefers. In columns 5 and 6, indicate the number of weeks which, in the employer's opinion, are required to bring workers up to a minimum acceptable level of production. Column 6 refers to workers who have had a limited amount of experience such as recent graduates of vocational or business schools or workers from less skilled jobs.

ÓÓ

MANUFACTURING OCCUPATIONS IN PUERTO RICO

Section C—Employment This section refers to total employment in the establishment including production and non-production workers: i.e., maintenance, supervisory, processing, records, control, movement of materials, cleaning and custodial, managerial, clerical, and sales. Include all workers whose headquarters are in the establishment. Exclude employees of sales branches maintained as separate establishments. In item 9, record employment for the pay period including the fifteenth of August, 1950 and the employment at the date of the interview. Item 10 is an attempt to obtain the employer's best forecast of employment under the three listed economic assumptions. It is important that the employer thoroughly understands these conditions before he attempts to answer. Assumption A anticipates a continuance of general economic conditions of relative current prosperity. In other words, the economy will grow at about the same rate as the population. Assumption B is designed to obtain information on the effect of a further slow, steady increase in governmental expenditures for national defense with resulting tightening of material and manpower. Such an increase might be from the present of twenty-five billion dollars a year. This assumption does not cover plans in case of war. Assumption C is self-explanatory Section D—Seasonality This section is designed to check on how the current staffing pattern compares with that throughout the year. In item 11 record the months of peak activity and the total employment during this period. Item 12 requires the same information for the low period. In item 13 indicate any changes in products or in the structure of the establishment which may take place because of seasonal changes. Find out which, if any, departments or sections are closed down for the slack season and the nature of any other similar changes which take place in the establishment. Report in item 14 any expected changes in product, machinery or organization which will substantially alter the present staffing pattern. Also note any plans for the construction of a new plant or the closing down of an existing one. How will such an expansion or construction affect the current staffing pattern? Do not report minor changes in this item.

APPENDIX B

Section E.—Current Employment by Occupation The staffing pattern of the establishment will depend upon the data in this section. Obtain in sufficient detail to permit an accurate assignment of D.O.T. Titles and Codes. In some plants this will require a listing of the names of each employee and the determination (preferably by direct observation) of the exact duties of each. In others it will be possible to shorten this procedure by verifying the activities of groups of workers performing identical tasks. Where data on the occupational characteristics of an establishment are available from other sources, this section should be used to obtain the duties of nonproduction workers but only after it has been determined that the pattern already developed is correct. In the seasonal notes column indicate with an "X" the season during which the worker is employed. If the employee works all year, check in both columns. If he changes occupations because of the change in season, note this in the Comments column in sufficient detail to permit accurate assignment of D.O.T. title and code for each occupation.

Appendix C

OCCUPATIONAL DEFINITIONS DEVELOPED

In the process of classifying the occupations found in Puerto Rican manufacturing establishments a number of jobs were discovered which appeared to be unique to the Island. Occupational definitions were developed for these positions following the techniques utilized in the Dictionary of Occupational Titles. These original definitions were cleared with the technical staff of the Bureau of Employment Security in Washington, D. C. which is responsible for the Dictionary. Some of the following definitions may appear in that publication when the next revision is released. Belt Sander, Portable (woodworking) 6-33.199 Smoothes rough surfaces of wooden furniture parts and other wooden sections or articles, using a portable sanding machine which contains a revolving belt, the surface of which is covered with abrasive material: Adjusts tension of sanding belt. Moves sanding machine across surface to be smoothed, regulating the pressure on the surface by lifting machine. Selects and inserts the belt of proper grit (coarseness) for each job. Replaces worn out belts. Cane Sample Taker (sugar) 8-10.69 Removes several pieces of cane from each colonos (farmer's) load as it arrives at the sugar central (mill). Places a tag on the cane to identify the owner and sends it to the laboratory (Sample Carrier II) where an analysis of the sugar content is made as the basis for payment to the colono. Chainman (sugar) 8-10.69 A Laborer. Issues chains to farmers (colons) with which sugar cane is tied into bundles for ease of handling. ( These are special chains equipped with a tripping mechanism making for easy dumping of the cane when it is brought to the mill.) Denaturizer (ale. distilling) 6-53.399 Renders ethyl alcohol of 160 degrees proof or more unfit for use as a beverage by adding various substances according to formula. May 68

APPENDIX C

produce completely denaturized alcohol or special denatured alcohol which is ethyl alcohol so treated with denaturants as to permit its use in a greater number of specialized arts and industries. Fuel-House Man (sugar) 8-10.69 A Laborer. Loads bagasse (the residue of sugar cane after the juice has been extracted) onto conveyors to carry it to the boilers for use as fuel. May assist in stoking the boilers. Glove Repairer ( glove & mit.) 6-27.119 Resews by hand imperfectly made dress and semi-dress gloves which have: (1) been turned in to a firm by homeworkers; (2) been made by inside workers in the shop. Examines glove to determine repairs needed. Rips out imperfect seams and resews them. Trims loose threads. May replace damaged parts of the glove with new materials. Homework Distributor (needlework) 8-27.19 Issues materials to homeworkers for specific home sewing operations. Checks identification or authorization card of the worker. ( These cards are issued by the Department of Labor of Puerto Rico.) Instructs worker in the details of the specific operations to be performed if necessary. Records the quantity of materials issued each worker, the name of the worker, and the date the work is to be returned. Maintains a record of the total quantity of materials issued each day or week. Pusher (sugar) 8-10.69 A Laborer. Breaks up lumps or piles of cut sugar cane as they pass through the mill so they will not jam or damage the rollers, using a long wooden paddle. Receiving Checker (needlework) 1-03.99 Receives, counts, and inspects hand needlework brought by homeworkers to a central receiving office of a firm. Checks items for cleanliness, accuracy, and number. Records name of worker and the number of pieces returned. May issue new work to the worker. Rum Proof Reader (rum) 6-03.199 Periodically determines proof (alcoholic content) of rum preparatory to bottling: Draws sample of rum from filtering tanks into a long, narrow cylindrical cup ( hydrometer cup) , the stem of which contains a thermometer. Inserts hydrometer into cup and takes readings of thermometer and hydrometer, comparing them with tables of a standard gaging manual to determine the proof. When proof tests do not meet Government standards, drains a bucketful of rum from filtering tank, and dumps it back into tank to agitate the rum and raise the proof. Keeps records of tests. Sample Carrier (sugar) II 8-10.69 A Laborer. Secures samples from various processing stations in a cane-sugar plant and carries the samples to the laboratory for analysis:

MANUFACTURING OCCUPATIONS IN PUERTO RICO

Depending on the substance carried, uses small buckets, test tubes, or small bottles. Prepares samples from cut cane by taking random pieces and running them through a grinding machine. Sewer, Hand ( glove & mit.) 6-27.119 Performs by hand all sewing operations required to make women's fabric and leather dress and semi-dress gloves. Depending on the style of glove, may perform any one or a combination of the following operations: closes the fingers and sides of the gloves; attaches the thumb; makes tucks; hems the cuff of the glove with tape or a simple stitch; inserts gussets; embroiders decorative designs; makes buttonholes; attaches buttons; cuts loose threads; attaches other trimmings. Stain Remover (needlework) 7-57.599 Inspects needlework for stains, usually after it has been washed. Sponges or rubs out stains with specially prepared solutions. Stationary-Tower-Whirler Operator (sugar) 5-73.099 Lifts and moves large quantities (usually half a railroad car load) of sugar cane from railroad cars or from motor trucks with an electrically, gasoline, or steam-powered derrick that rotates through 360° on top of a fixed tower on which it is mounted. Raises sugar cane from vehicle guided by hand signals of ground workers ( CRANE FOLLOWER) . Revolves the cab on the tower as necessary to place the load over the spot where it is to be unloaded. Lowers the load to the proper location following directions of ground workers ( CRANE FOLLOWER). Stillman, Rum (rum) 4-03.199 Controls operation of still and auxiliary equipment used in the manufacture of rum: Reduces proof of alcohol by mixing together specific amounts of alcohol and distilled water in mixing tank. Adjusts steam valves to maintain still at specified temperatures. Opens and closes valves to direct vaporized substances through water-cooled condensing tank and into storage tanks. Table-Lathe Operator (mach. shop) 6-78.179 Cuts "V" grooves on the face of a sugar mill roller which extend along the rotational axis of the roller with an automatic lathe specially designed for this purpose. (The roller is rotated on the table of the lathe through an angle of approximately 15° in one direction for the first half of the cut. When this cut has been made to the center of the roller, the roller is rotated in the opposite direction by the same amount to complete an extended chevron-like cut. This rotation is imparted to the roller by a cam mechanism as the table of the lathe moves back and forth under a stationary vertical cutting tool.) Directs CRANE OPERATOR in placing roller on table of lathe. Marks roller where cuts are to be made. Closes switch to start lathe. Turns handwheel to

APPENDIX C

bring tool in contact with work. Sweeps away cuttings. Lubricates lathe. Tilting-Table Operator (sugar) 7-88.199 Operates a gasoline, diesel, steam, or electrically powered tilting table to unload trucks or railroad cars. Spots (places) vehicle on the tilting-table and with chains or hooks secures it to the table. Manipulates levers to actuate the lifting mechanism which elevates either one side or one end of the table causing the contents of the vehicle to be dumped in an adjacent hopper. Yardman (sugar) 5-99.999 Directs truck or cart traffic in yard (batey) of sugar central. Assigns drivers their positions in scalehouse waiting line. Directs drivers to one of several cranes for unloading of sugar cane. Directs drivers to return to scalehouse for empty weighing of vehicles. Supervises unloading of crane.

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