ABC Evening News open - 1977-09-02

Channel: malgent

Transcript

Language: English (original, YouTube automatic captions)

[0:00] Bill,

[0:01] >> the ABC Evening News with Harry Reer and

[0:04] Barbara Walters. And tonight, Howard K.

[0:06] Smith in Washington.

[0:08] >> Good evening. Barbara is on vacation.

[0:10] Our top stories. Unemployment rises,

[0:13] particularly among blacks. Hurricane

[0:15] Anita hits Mexico, but misses Texas.

[0:18] Also, four state attorneys general

[0:20] question the new Panama Canal agreement.

[0:23] Is it constitutional? And I'll have a

[0:25] comment on Mr. Carter's waning

[0:27] honeymoon. Harry.

[0:29] Some unpleasant labor news at the start

[0:31] of this Labor Day weekend. Unemployment

[0:33] is up to 7.1% last month. That's up 210

[0:36] of a percent and the rise is all among

[0:38] blacks. White unemployment stayed at

[0:40] 6.1%. Among blacks, it rose to 14.5%.

[0:45] And among black teenagers, the jobless

[0:47] rate is a staggering 40.4%.

[0:50] President Carter immediately ordered a

[0:52] study of ways to find work for blacks.

[0:54] And the commissioner of labor statistics

[0:56] whose office compiled the figures said

[0:58] the situation in the central cities is

[1:00] grim. For a report from one city,

[1:02] Chicago, here's Ron Miller.

[1:05] It is worse than grim for many of these

[1:07] unemployed blacks in Chicago. It is

[1:09] hopeless. After weeks and months of

[1:11] searching for employment, many have

[1:12] given up whenever finding work. Now they

[1:14] appear at unemployment offices only to

[1:16] be eligible for welfare and unemployment

[1:18] benefits. But what are the causes of

[1:20] this critical situation?

[1:22] the deplorable status of the state of

[1:24] education in our major cities including

[1:26] the city of Chicago. Uh people do not

[1:30] come out of high school even high school

[1:31] graduates with marketable skills. That's

[1:34] one problem. Child discrimination is

[1:36] still a reality in this country. The

[1:39] third aspect that we have to address is

[1:41] an expansion of the economy in the

[1:43] private sector. There has to be some

[1:45] stimulation. Henry Knox is known on

[1:48] employment lines as have the rest of the

[1:50] people in this room undergoing data

[1:52] processing training in a program

[1:53] sponsored by the Urban League, IBM, and

[1:55] Montgomery Ward. They are attaining new

[1:57] skills that will help them find jobs. I

[2:00] was unemployed. I

[2:03] I just sort of hung around, you know, I

[2:06] didn't really have much to do. And uh

[2:11] well, with no money, I really had no

[2:14] direction to go cuz I was more concerned

[2:17] about

[2:20] living from day to day.

[2:21] >> But training programs like this one are

[2:23] severely limited. There is no training

[2:25] available for untold thousands of

[2:27] others. So they go to unemployment

[2:29] offices where they wait with very little

[2:32] hope. Ron Miller, ABC News, Chicago.

[2:36] A coalition of labor, civil rights, and

[2:38] civic groups plans rallies and

[2:40] demonstrations next week in some 50

[2:42] cities to call attention to

[2:43] unemployment. With or without a job, you

[2:45] still have to deal with inflation. Many

[2:47] families feel the pinch more just now as

[2:50] children head back to school. We sent

[2:52] reporters to Spartanberg, South Carolina

[2:54] to gauge the effect of inflation on

[2:56] three families at varying wage levels.

[2:58] The main source of income there is the

[2:59] fiber factory of American Hurst. First

[3:02] report is from Bill Stewart.

[3:05] Vanetta Lee operates a spinning machine

[3:07] in this textile mill. It is shift work

[3:09] for which she is paid less than $10,000

[3:12] a year. Money which does not go very far

[3:14] toward the purchase of clothing, food,

[3:17] and the cost of running a home. as she

[3:19] provides what she says is sole support

[3:21] of her five children, aged 8 to 18, the

[3:24] oldest of whom starts college this year.

[3:26] The family lives modestly in this brick

[3:28] home. Their few luxuries include a

[3:31] 5-year-old color TV and a one-day

[3:34] vacation recently to a Georgia amusement

[3:36] park, their first vacation in four

[3:38] years. When the family goes shopping for

[3:41] back to school wear, it is usually at

[3:43] Sears when something is on sale. Mrs.

[3:45] Lee can't believe how much prices have

[3:47] gone up.

[3:48] >> Shirts are up from 3 3.99 to 650.