Introduction

As World War II drew to a close, and industrial countries began to consider the economic problems that would face them in the postwar period, memories of the disastrous unemployment of the 1930s were uppermost in the minds of statesmen and the general public.1 Everywhere it was taken for granted that sooner or later – perhaps after the most urgent postwar reconstruction needs had been met – nations would once more be faced with relatively serious unemployment problems, at least in cyclical recessions. At the same time, in varying degrees, there was determination – influenced by Keynesian doctrines – to pursue national economic policies that would ensure the maintenance of full employment.

As it turned out, as we have seen, most of the countries of Western Europe largely escaped serious unemployment in the 25 years following the war, except for an initial adjustment period, especially in those countries, like West Germany, that had suffered severe war damage. This achievement, however, was attributable not only to policies emphasizing the pursuit of full employment on the demand side of the labor market, but also, at least to some degree, to training, retraining, and other labor market adjustment policies on the supply side.

Early postwar labor market legislation was designed in large part to serve three purposes: (1) to increase the employ ability of the unemployed; (2) to facilitate the return to civilian employment of veterans, war workers, former prisoners of war, and similar groups; and (3) to help relieve the shortages of labor anticipated in certain occupations, particularly the building trades, where the ranks had been depleted by long years of reduced construction activity during the depressed 1930s and the war, and whose workers would be needed in greatly increased numbers for postwar reconstruction.