ABSTRACT
The Labour administration which won the 1945 election believed that full employment was an absolutely central objective. The electorate had voted decisively against a return to the deprivations of the 1930s and it was now the government’s responsibility to turn popular aspirations into reality. The new Cabinet accepted that one of the major weapons in this battle would be a macro-economic strategy aimed at regulating both investment and demand. However, ministers were also agreed about the need for more precise intervention. Viable and secure jobs would only be guaranteed if firms continued to be fully competitive as trade revived in the postwar world. The government, therefore, must promote efficiency wherever it could, especially at the level of individual businesses. In this sense, improved productivity came to be viewed as one of the most important bridges to a full-employment society.
