Waterloo Courier (Newspaper) - February 4, 1977, Waterloo, Iowa oo Courier Friday February Waterloo Iowa jo pages J sections 20 cents Jobless rate plunges as fewer seek work WASHINGTON API The nation's unemployment rate declined sharply in January to 7.3 per cent down from 7.8 per cent in December with the improvement largely attributed to an unexplained decline in the labor force the government said Friday Iowa's unemployment rate for last month will be released later this month Labor Department analysts said the severe winter weather across much of the nation may be partially responsible for the decline in the labor force But they said the full impact of the weather on the nation's job markets probably won't show up until the job figures for February are compiled GOVERNMENT estimates of the number of Americans forced out of work by the weather range as high as 1.5 million but nobody knows for sure The January unemployment rate was the lowest since last May when it also was 7.3 per cent the lowest it's been since the recession The Labor Department said the jobless rate declined for almost all categories of the nation's labor force and gave the following breakdown for men 5.6 per cent down from 6.2 per cent in December women 6.9 per cent down from 7.4 per cent 18.7 per cent down from 19 per cent 6.7 per cent down from 7.1 per cent and other minorities 12.5 per cent down from 13.4 per cent heads 4.8 per cent down from 5.1 per cent workers 6.7 per cent down from 7.5 per cent workers 8.4 per cent down from 9.6 per cent OVER-ALL unemployment declined by to 7 million workers Total employment climbed only slightly up to 88.5 million from 88.4 million in De- cember A Labor Department analyst said most of the decline in unemployment resulted from a in the nation's labor force which he said defies a complete explanation at this time Personally I'm not willing to say it was from the bad weather or people getting discouraged and dropping out of the labor force or anything he said It could be some of that but it's too early to know Although the January employment statistics were gathered before the full impact of the winter had been felt across much of the nation analysts said a drop in agricultural employment during the month could be the result of bad weather THE NUMBER of farm workers declined more than to slightly more than three million in January Analysts said farm workers usually drop from the labor force once they lose their jobs and so they don't show up on un- employment roles The big drop in the labor force reverses a steady increase in the number of people working and looking for work in recent months The total labor force of 95.5 million in January still was two million above a year earlier The administration of former President Gerald R Ford had blamed the steady and sharp increases in the labor force for persistent increases in unemployment during the latter months of 1976 A Labo Department analyst said today that the January drop in the labor force could be in a statistical correction for gerated increases last year Rebates called just a beginning WASHINGTON APi The Carter administration tried Friday to assure an increasingly skeptical Congress that the President's proposed tax rebate is only the start of a long-range plan to bolster the economy The package should be considered as just the beginning of a whole economic Treasury Secretary W Michael Blumenthal said as senators ex- pressed doubts about the wisdom of the rebates Future efforts will be aimed at tax reform and helping U.S business obtain capital he said Blumenthal testified before the Senate Budget Committee a day after the House Budget Committee recommended that Congress double the billion that Carter proposes to spend during the next eight months for creating jobs IN THEIR first hour before the Senate panel Blumenthal Bert Lance director of the Office of Management and Budget and Charles L Schultze Carter's chief economic adviser heard four senators question whether the rebates would help the economy I have trouble explaining why the government already billion in debt should borrow to send everybody a said Sen Henry Bellmon of Oklahoma ranking Republican on the committee Blumenthal repeated what he and other Carter officials have been saying for two weeks that the rebate is the quickest way to inject a significant amount of money into the lagging economy Although House Budget Committee The Wrights are back AP members agreed to spend substantially more than Carter proposed for creating jobs staff economists said they could not tell for certain how many more jobs might be created because the President has no released details of all his jobs programs THEY DID estimate that the equivalent of more than a million jobs could be established by the end of this fiscal year under the budget committee's proposal That would make a major dent in the ranks of the nation's 7.6 million un- employed workers Money by the basket SEATTLE AP A well-dressed man carrying a plastic laundry basket full of money gave away an estimated to cash to passersby outside a Seattle supermarket Store manager Chris Franko 33 said the man who shopped in the store seemed normal except for his giveaway program I was dumb- founded in shock After he got rid of it and left I thought gee whiz it's dumb I didn't take any He said a policeman asked the man who spoke with a foreign accent What are you The man replied ing away money The policeman shook his head said As long as it's your own money and walked away Rescued AP Firemen pull Clarence Abbott to safety alter he was spotted on a ledge ISO feet in the air at the Indiana War Memorial in Indianapolis A at the memorial Abbott slipped off the ledge just as a fireman grabbed his arm and pulled him back It was not known why he was on the ledge or why he apparently tried to jump Maybe not John Harris Rick Young and Will Young re- being filmed for the National Aeronautics and enact the 1900 glider flight of the Wright Space Administration Brothers at Jockey Ridge The feat was It's wanner in the East See page Z WASHINGTON AP As tons of snow layering the Northeast melt experts say there should be no major flooding if the thaw is not accompanied by extraordinarily warm weather and heavy rain National Weather Service officials said Thursday that thawing usually occurs from the end of February through March or April BARRING unusual circumstances the rivers and streams of the East should be able to accommodate the billions of gallons of water melting off the snow pack they said However most rivers will get high and many may reach up to their flood stages but few overflows are expected they said Robert A Clark the weather service's associate director for hydrology said the flood threat is greatest in the Northeast particularly along the Ohio River and its tributaries and the Kanawha River in West Virginia But he The potential for ing is not extremely serious We would need fairly rapid thawing combined with warm rain to really get into trouble THE U.S Army Corps of Engineers responsible for the nation's flood control said an added buffer is the fact that most rivers and flood control reservoirs in the Ohio River area now have below normal water levels The 70 reservoirs throughout the Ohio River basin are all low and the river also is at a lower than normal said John Lane of the corps Ohio River division We have never had a flood in this basin caused directly by snow melt Richard Drummond a spokesman for the corps Lower Mississippi Valley division said the Mississippi below Cairo 111 where the Ohio enters it also is very low We actually have a problem with low water and will be dredging in some areas to make the river deeper so traffic can Drummond said The Iron Duke Let's simplify it If you have taken a serious look at the new 1040 and federal income tax forms you should have a pretty good idea why Billy Joe McAlister jumped off the Tallahatchie bridge It is no wonder The National Observer taxpayers are making a record number of errors in filling out their 1976 income tax forms The Observer reports the spurt in mistakes was first noticed at the huge IRS regional center in Philadelphia where returns showed an error rate of 12 per cent on the short form and 13 per cent on the long form 1040 TAX ANALYSTS are quoted by The Observer as saying Severin this mess could confound the unwary taxpayer flood IRS with a record number of incomplete or erroneous returns produce rounds of correspondence between government checkers and taxpayers and cost both the government and the taxpayers millions of dollars and months of time The federal revenuers claim the tax forms are more complicated than ever because of extensive revisions in tax law enacted by Congress last year But good These tax forms and the directions that come with them are written in a jargon of legalistic mash that could only have been put together by a committee of correspondence school lawyers President Jimmy Carter says he wants to stay close to the people a statement I regard as an invitation for people to offer unsolicited advice SO HERE is Fire that gaggle of lawyers who helped organize all this confusion and turn the job of preparing a simple tax form over to good ol brother Billy and me We could sit down in the back room of Littie 01 Billy's filling station in Plains Ga and armed with a fifth of Jack Daniels and a cooler of beer could come up with a simple little ol tax form that almost everyone including those employed by the Internal Revenue Service could un- This of course would put H R Block out of work but then you Mr President should be able to find a top job for him in Washington He would add a new face to that bunch of retreads you have appointed to the Cabinet and besides I assume he can add subtract and multiply This could help a lot when you fellows gather around the table to try to figure out how to balance the budget which I seem to recall was one of your campaign promises inside Federal Power Commission to vote on gas pipeline through Black Hawk County Page 3 Weather Partly cloudy and colder Saturday with highs near 10 Complete weather page 2 Capitol quips Tipplers aren't sure trust the metric system They're used to judging whisky by bounce to the ounce not teeter to the liter
