Construction Boom May Provide Lucrative Summer Job Positions

A building boom in Massachusetts should provide a large number of undergraduates with profitable jobs this summer, Dustin M. Burke '52, director of the bureau of summer employment, said yesterday.

Burke said his office has made plans to help students secure positions on the work crews despite the complicated procedure of hiring which prevails in eastern Massachusetts. In this area, the unions, not the companies, do the hiring, but the Burke emphasized that he had been in touch with Michael Taralo, an official of the Construction and General Laborers Union, AF of L-CIO, and that Taralo assured him openings, would probably be plentiful.

Taralo said that 60 college students had been employed in the Quincy area alone last year and that he expected at least as many would be needed this summer. At present, his union is negotiating for an increase in the hourly minimum wage rate of $2.30.

The great hazard of construction labor is its uncertainty, but Burke claimed that as a general rule the undergraduate could count on any road project costing over $250,000 or any building over $800,000 lasting at least ten weeks.

For those wishing construction employment outside this state Burke said hiring arrangements were considerably simpler and that his office could contact employers directly.