T he wartime USES had been a success, albeit a qualified one. It never
became the sole channel for the distribution of labor during the war,
although by late 1918 it was beginning to approach that ideal and had
certainly become the most significant, single influence on the national la-
bor market. In the period of its greatest influence, between January 1918
and June 1919, inclusive, the USES registered slightly more than 7 million
workers, referred 6.5 million to employers, and placed just under 5 million.
Total orders from employers numbered just over 12 million. ¹

Most of the placements made by the USES were in war industries, where
it was estimated that approximately 7 million men and around 2 million
women were employed. The work often involved moving labor across state
lines: by the second half of 1918, the USES was moving approximately 3,000
unskilled laborers per week to positions outside their own states. Increasing
numbers of women were registering at USES offices. Between July and
December 1918, just over 382,000 women obtained positions through the
USES and a further 356,985 did so in the first six months of 1919. ² While
interpreting with any precision the statistics of the wartime period is difficult,
the record of the USES nevertheless appears impressive. ³

This achievement was undoubtedly assisted by circumstances. It was
not until the summer of 1918 that a serious labor shortage developed and,
by that time, the USES had been substantially reorganized and was begin-
ning to function effectively. However, the precise magnitude of the labor
shortage in late 1918 remains unclear. One contemporary economist be-
lieved that, even during the war, there were never less than a million unem-
ployed although there were many jobs available that went unfilled. ⁴ The

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