In an eight-hour day a crack riveting gang could affix up to 500 rivets, each 1 1/8" long. A lesser-skilled gang might manage only 250. Because members of the gang had learned to work as a team, they were always hired as a unit. Sometimes if one man could not work, the whole team was laid off. During the peak of construction on the Empire State Building, there were 38 riveting gangs.