The bindery is the only department of the industry in which any considerable number of women are employed. Some of the occupations, such as gathering, sewing, and stitching, are practically monopolized by women. They are also employed extensively in hand and machine folding. About one-fifth are gatherers and one-fifth sewers and stitchers. The other three-fifths are distributed among a number of occupations usually classed as general bindery work.
The occupations in which men predominate are forwarding, ruling, and finishing, and cutting. The forwarders comprise more than one-fourth of the total number of men engaged in bindery work. The other two skilled trades--ruling and finishing--give employment to about 35 men each.
The average daily earnings in the various occupations, based on returns from 44 establishments, were as shown in Table 29.
TABLE 29.--AVERAGE DAILY EARNINGS OF BINDERY WORKERS, 1915
------------------------------+-----------+-----------+ Workers in trade | Men | Women | ------------------------------+-----------+-----------+ Foremen | $4.78 | $2.05 | Rulers | 3.56 | .. | Finishers | 3.51 | .. | Forwarders | 3.23 | .. | Cutters | 3.21 | .. | Machine-folders | 2.81 | 1.49 | Wire-stitchers | .. | 1.57 | Apprentices | 1.53 | .. | Gatherers | .. | 1.52 | Sewers | .. | 1.52 | Other bindery operatives | 1.40 | 1.51 | ------------------------------+-----------+-----------+
On account of the seasonal character of the work considerable time is lost through unemployment, particularly in those occupations in which women predominate.
Beginners in these occupations in which the majority of the women are employed, start on folding or pasting, and as opportunity presents, gradually acquire practice in the higher grades of work, such as gathering and machine operating. There are some traces of the apprenticeship system in forwarding, ruling, and finishing, but these trades are so small that all of them combined require only a very few new workers each year.
Other departments of the printing industry are photoengraving, stereotyping, electrotyping, and lithographing. They give employment to approximately 700 workers, distributed among more than 20 distinct trades, requiring the most diverse sorts of skill, knowledge, and training. There are about 100 men in the city engaged in the different processes of photoengraving. Nearly all of the stereotypers, numbering from 60 to 70, are employed in newspaper offices. There are about 125 electrotypers and 400 lithographers. The labor conditions closely approximate those found in other departments of the industry. Average wages for the different occupations are shown in Table 30.