The Approach to Full Employment

Abstract

THE publication of the White Paper on Employment Policy almost on the eve of the launching of the invasion to liberate the peoples of occupied Europe was an imaginative stroke. It has both strengthened confidence in the determination of the Government to pursue resolutely a policy which will effectively implement its declared aim of maintaining a high and stable level of employment after the War, and fortified the nation for whatever may be demanded of it in the weeks that lie immediately ahead. More, it represents not merely a new departure in Government policy and an example of real leadership, but also, in some respects, the shaping of policy in accordance with scientific principles. To the fundamental statements and principles set forth in the report there can be little or no exception. Opinions may indeed differ as to the methods by which particular points of policy are to be implemented, and as to whether those which the Government proposes to use in the first instance are likely to be effective enough, or put into practice with sufficient firmness. Beyond this, however, a great merit of the statement is that it makes unmistakably plain, while acknowledging the Government's responsibilities in the matter of policy and decision, that there are limits beyond which Government action cannot go, and that the success of an employment policy must depend very largely on the understanding and support of the community as a whole. Whether or not the Government could do more than is indicated in this statement to promote a rising standard of industrial efficiency, such action could not be effective without corresponding efforts from both employers and workers. Without such co-operation, even measures already proposed by the Government may be frustrated of their purpose.