If work is slow with 30 on book 1 then you must have a very small local. In mine 30 on book 1 is basically full employment. In larger locals like, Los Angel-es for instance, you could have as many as 4 or 500 on book 1 and still have you pick of calls. The reason for this is all the people that ride the book that really do not want to work. They may be working out of town, they may be working another job for a government agency of out of the trade.
The rules have changed recently to keep the books rolling over but I have not seen much difference in the numbers yet.
