ABSTRACT
The United States and other democratic industrialized economies are in considerable ferment after a period following World War II when a combination of demand management, technology developed during the war, market forces, the Bretton Woods international financial arrangements, a huge backlog of worldwide demands, General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade trading agreements, and traditional labor market institutions achieved relative economic stability and growth. Program implementation in any area is always difficult and must proceed by trial and error in response to changing conditions and experiences. Comprehensive Employment and Training Act of 1973 passage coincided with a deep recession, during which unemployment reached 9 percent. Despite the clear need to involve the private sector in any employment and training effort, this has been controversial, partly because private sector involvement during the 1960s was considered ineffective by many critics. The critics claim that large companies rarely honored their pledges to hire the hardcore disadvantaged.
