ABSTRACT
Policies for achieving long-run improvement in the level of employment in the private sector are necessarily predicated on the assumption that individuals will have skills that make them attractive employees, and that they will have access to the opportunities that employment policy generates. Thus, "human-resources policy," which came into existence in 1962 as "manpower policy," with the passage of the Manpower Development and Training Act (MDTA), directed policy attention to the supply side of the labor problem by addressing problems of labor-force participation and employability. Human-resources policy is an essential complement to employment policy. Long-term reductions in the fullemployment rate of unemployment require improvements in the marketable skills of disadvantaged workers and a speedier matching of jobs and workers.
