Statement by the President on the Government's Manpower Utilization Program.

ALMOST a year has passed since we initiated a Government-wide drive to limit increases in Government employment by making more efficient use of manpower. Each agency has developed and put into effect a manpower control program tailored to the nature of its operations. These programs involve critical reexamination of the work to be performed, improved methods of determining minimum manpower requirements, new systems for controlling hiring and use of personnel, intensified efforts to raise employee productivity, and selective test checks to measure the results of the program.

The record of achievement to date is most encouraging. We have demonstrated that it is possible, despite the steady increase in workloads caused by the growth of our population and our economy, to keep a tight rein on Federal employment. Over the course of the fiscal year which ended June 30, Federal civilian employment would have increased by more than 40,000 if it had grown only at the same rate as population; it would have increased by over 100,000 if it had grown at the same rate as employment by State and local governments; in fact, it grew by only 5,600.

I want to commend every agency head and every Government worker who had a part in producing this excellent record.

In the present fiscal year and the next, I ask every Cabinet member and every agency head to make certain that there is no slackening in our efforts to improve the control and utilization of manpower. In view of last year's achievement, the year-end employment estimates for the present fiscal year which appear in the January budget are already obsolete. I have asked the Budget Director to take the lead in developing new and tighter employment targets for the end of the present fiscal year, and to set them at levels which cannot be realized except through the introduction of further improve-' ments in manpower management. The same guidelines will be used in evaluating the 1965 employment plans which agencies will shortly submit as part of their 1965 budget proposals.