ABSTRACT
Certain employment service data suggest that during the early stages of the war boom the Negro was virtually excluded from most armament industries. In addition, there has been tremendous construction work in camps and war production centers. There have been substantial secondary booms in consumption and service industries, transportation and production of raw materials. Since the war boom has brought about a tremendous scarcity of labor, and since the available labor reserve before the boom was much greater, in proportion, in the Negro than in the white population, one could have expected that unemployment rates would fall more for Negro than for white workers. The conversion to war production brought about certain problems. Employment dropped off temporarily when production of passenger cars for civilian consumption was restricted, during the winter of 1941-1942. The Negro skilled workers, most of whom used to work in foundries faced a rather critical situation, since little foundry work is needed in aircraft production.
