ABSTRACT
The establishment of a national system of Employment Exchanges in Great Britain has been no matter of mushroom growth. The endeavor to withdraw as large a proportion of unemployed workers as possible from the demoralization of Poor Law and charitable relief has been a constant policy behind the development of State-operated Employment Exchanges and Unemployment Insurance. The Unemployed Workmen Act of 1905, while failing to solve the vexed problem of effective relief work for the unemployed, did prove of very considerable value in pointing the way towards the next important step—the establishment of a national system of Employment Exchanges. In September, 1909, the first step in the new policy was taken by the passage of the famous Labor Exchanges Act. This empowered the Board of Trade to establish and maintain Employment Exchanges throughout the country, and to take over the work of the existing Distress Committees.
