ABSTRACT
The main issues discussed before 1939 under the title of Labour were unemployment or else trade unions. During and since the Second World War, however, problems have confronted the nation with issues closer to economic theory: the supply, the supply price and the efficiency of labour in face of an overwhelming demand for labour. The efficiency of labour in employment and the wages and other conditions to which the supply responds will, in view of recent neglect occupy in Part II a large portion of this book before proceeding to employment in Part III and to the labour policy of trade unions, employers and the State in Part IV. Basic to employment, unemployment, and policy are the total potential labour supply and analysis and measurement of the efficiency of its use—either as degrees of efficiency in employment, or as total inefficiency and waste out of employment. These are the issues to be discussed here in Part I.
