Blast furnace and basic steel products........ Blast furnaces, steel and rolling mills...... 98 Iron and steel foundries............................................ 99 Gray iron foundries...................................................... 101 Malleable iron foundries............................................... 102 Steel foundries...................................................................... Nonferrous smelting and refining.............. 106 Nonferrous rolling, drawing, and extruding.... 107 Copper rolling, drawing, and extruding....... 108 Aluminum rolling, drawing, and extruding..... 109 Nonferrous wire drawing and insulating....... 110 Nonferrous foundries................. Aluminum castings.......................................................... 113 Other nonferrous castings.................... 114 Cutlery, hand tools, and general hardware..... 123 Cutlery and hand tools, including saws....... 125 Heating equipment and plumbing fixtures....... 127 Sanitary ware and plumbers' brass goods...... 128 Heating equipment, except electric........... 130 Fabricated structural metal products.......... 131 Fabricated structural steel..... Metal doors, sash, frames, and trim.......... 134 Engine: and turbines...................................................... 148 Steam engines and turbines................... 149 Internal combustion engines, n.e.c........... 150 Farm machiner, and equipment.................. 151 Construction and related machinery............ 152 Construction and mining machinery............ 153 Oil field machinery and equipment............ 154 Conveyors, hoists, and industrial cranes..... 155 Metalworking machinery and equipment.......... Machine tools, metal cutting types........... 158 Special dies, tools, jigs, and fixtures...... 160 Miscellaneous metalworking machinery......... 162 Special industry machinery........................................ Food products machinery...................... 165 Textile machinery.............................................................. General industrial machinery.................. 167 Pumps; air and gas compressors............... 168 Ball and roller bearings..................... 169 Mechanical power transmission goods.......... 171 Office, computing, and accounting machines....172 Bolts, nuts, screws, rivets, and washers..... 139 Apparel and related products..... Men's and boys' suits and coats.... Men's and boys' furnishings... Men's and boys' shirts and nightwear. Men's and boys' separate trousers........ Women's, misses', and juniors' outerwear... Women's blouses, waists, and shirts...... Women's, misses', and juniors' dresses...... Women's suits, skirts, and coats........... Women's and misses' outerwear, n.e.c...... Women's and children's undergarments....... Women's and children's underwear........... Corsets and allied garments............. Hats, caps, and millinery.................. Girls' and children's outerwear..... Children's dresses, blouses, and shirts... The trends reflected in these particular statistics may be useful economic indicators. The average weekly hours series and layoff and accession rates in manufacturing may rovide lead indicators of swings in the business cycle. Labor economists and other social scientists should find in these series an important indication of the health of the Nation's economy as well as a measure of the well-being of the nillions of Americans who depend on salaries and wages. Industrial growth and progress may be assessed by using the employment and hours series in conjunction with other economic data to obtain measures of productivity. The data on U.S. employment, hours, and earnings may offer insight into the problems of foreign economies. In the field of business, the labor turnover series can be used in measuring the effectiveness of management and personnel policies. An establishment's labor turnover rate found to be higher than the average for similar firms may alert management to serious personnel problems. The earnings and hours data afford guidance in plant location, sales, and purchases. Also, in the negotiation of long-term supply or construction contracts, the series on average hourly earnings is an aid in arriving at an equitable agreement; "escalation clauses" included in the contracts permit an increase or a lowering of the settlement price, depending on the movement of average hourly earnings in a selected industry, generally the industry in which the supplying firm is classified. Wide need has been demonstrated by both labor and business for industry series on hourly earnings and weekly hours to provide a basis for labor-management negotiations. They not only furnish essential information, both past and present, on a given industry, but provide corresponding data on related industries for comparison. The industry statistics in this volume are based on the 1957 Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) Manual published by the Office of Statistical Standards of the Bureau of the Budget. Previously, the series for the United States conformed to the 1945 Standard Industrial Classification Manual for manufacturing industries, to the 1949 Standard Industrial Classification Manual for government, and to the 1942 Social Security Board (SSB) Industrial Classification Code for other nonmanufacturing industries. Conversion to the new classification system has resulted in significant shifts of activities from one industry to another, among groups within an industry division, and also between divisions. At the industry division level, for example, milk pasteurization plants and ready-mixed concrete establishwere transferred from trade to manufacturing; and radio and television were transferred from the service division to the transportation and public utilities division. Shifts among groups within division were numerous; in manufacturing, for example, fats and oils were transferred from chemicals to foods, and plastics from miscellaneous manufacturing to rubber. Although many classification changes were made, some industries have identical definitions under the old and new classification systems. ments Beginning with data for January 1958, the BLS retabulated each one of the 120,000 monthly reports, on which the series in this volume are based, after recoding the reports to conform to the 1957 SIC. For the period prior to January 1958, the series of statistics based on the prior classification system were used to construct data conforming to the new classification system. This was more feasible when there was no conceptual difference for a series between the new classification system and the old, or where the conceptual differences in definition were of a minor nature. Special attention was focused on series for industry divisions, subdivisions, and major groups in manufacturing because of the wide interest in these data. Series on the new basis to replace those on the old were reconstituted as far back as technically feasible, even though conceptual differences may have been significant. For many series, however, this was not possible and for these series data do not exist for periods prior to 1958. The national industry statistics at all levels include Alaska and Hawaii beginning with 1959. Definitions of the industries in this volume are available in the Guide to Employment Statistics of BLS, 1961, which describes the industries and identifies the component industries when the definitions combine two or more industries of the 1957 Standard Industrial Classification. The occasion for the revision to the new 1957 SIC structure was an opportune time to introduce improvements, some of them of considerable significance. These included adjustment to March 1959 benchmark levels-previous estimates had been projected from first quarter 1957 benchmarks. This was also the first time that benchmark levels and employment samples stratified in many cases, by size, or region, or both were used; it was found, after intensive analysis of the sample reports, that significant improvements could be made for many earnings and hours series by the introduction of stratification. Additional technical improvements have resulted from the development of new and improved sources of benchmark data for employment to supplement data available from social insurance records, particularly for the service division. Further progress occurred also, because of the use of improved automatic electronic data-processing equipment as a means of providing more analyses and controlling and maintaining quality. A detailed discussion of |