Business: Absentee Parts

From the West Coast last week came word that absenteeism is not the biggest devil of all. A careful survey in the plane plants showed that the main reason for slowdown of production is material and parts shortages (especially hard-to-make landing gear, instruments, round counters for machine guns). January’s absenteeism was 6.2% (peacetime norm: 2.5%) with almost no effect on January output. But the survey results did not mean that planemakers approve of absenteeism.