-16- contracts, certain workers have been ordered back from the front or through forced induction into service, so that the contracts could be taken care of. Similar reports are available from all sectors engaged in the manufacture of consumption goods. For example, an important firm in the clothing industry feels that the detemined quantity of clothing available in accordance with clothing cards can be made available in view of the present availability of the workers only with the greatest difficulty; and if in the future the situation becomes more critical with respect to the supply of labor, the goods cannot be manufactured. If the difficulty of the present situation has not become apparent in a general way, that is due to the fact that stocks of goods in the mills and retail shops are being drawn upon. It must also be mentioned, in connection with the employment of workers in the consumption goods industries, that these factories have to a very large extent been com- pelled to employ workers of limited capacity (war veterans, old retired persons, etc.) in order to make up for the loss of workers to other industries. An increase in 1941 of the production for the defense forces of another 10 percent will mean the additional employment |