ROLE-PLAYING : A USEFUL TOOL IN UNDERSTANDING THE IMPACT OF INDUSTRIAL AUTOMATION ON THE DISPLACED WORKER

Abstract

The number of jobless in February, 1961, reached 5,700,000. It is the highest rate and number of workers in this category since unemployment insurance started in 1938. As an example of a depressed state, we might cite the case of West Virginia. Though its population dropped 7.9 percent in the last decade to 1,800,000, there are 70,000 receiving unemployment compensation and many more have exhausted their benefits. About 15 per cent of West Virginia's population is receiving surplus food from the Federal Government. The Kanawha County is an example of how automation has taken jobs from mines, where a fifty percent drop in mine employment meant a production loss of only 1.5 percent.