Pinch

After all the worry about materials shortages, it looked last week as if the businessman’s worst pinch would be in manpower. In October, the Commerce Department reported, employment was up to 61.7 million, and unemployment was down to 1,900,000 (v. 2,300,000 in September), close to the alltime low of 1,600,000 in 1948. In more than one-third of 150 areas that it surveyed, said the Department, companies expanding to handle defense orders found it almost impossible to hire new help.