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programmes to be realistically related to the general availability of labour and the overall developmental trends of the Dominion. It must also provide information to enable Government action to be taken in good time to offset any slackening in the volume of private expenditure and employment. Full employment (which can be regarded as synonymous with prosperity) depends upon the maintenance of full purchasing-power, and vice versa. 515. On the first of these points perhaps more should be said, employers (including the Government) are the only source of adequate employment information, and while the effects of the second and third points above are of greater importance to the maintenance of industrial well-being than is the first, it is, nevertheless, by the first point that the majority of private employers will seek to measure the value of employment information as being the point of most immediate and most tangible effect. It is to the obvious advantage of employers to know whether their particular industry is gaining its fair share of younger workers, whether it is losing labour unduly to other industries, whether wage movements in other industries are reacting adversely against it, whether labour shortages are being generally experienced or are peculiar to certain industries, occupations, or districts, whether the labour position in other districts is similar or different, and so on. Adequate employment information will give an accurate measure of such things; it will not merely confirm or disprove the hearsay existence of employment trends or difficulties, but will provide actual figures to show their location, spread, and magnitude. On various points, moreover, it will be possible in due course to establish standards for movements and trends for each industry (labour turnover, labour recruitments, &c.), and as these become available individual employers will be placed in the advantageous position of knowing how such movements and trends in their own businesses compare with the standards for the" industry or . district as a whole. It is equally to the advantage of both employers and parents and school-leavers to know the long-range trends as well as the current vacancies in various industries. (iv) The National Aspect of Full Employment 516. More fundamental than the remedying of individual or local industrial maladjustments is the necessity to make adequate use of the total labour force on a national basis. The Government, in achieving this, is bound to become involved in the long-run in the consideration of measures to damp down the effects of the trade cycle. Here, again, the publication of reliable information can assist industry to avoid the worst effects, though only time will show how much effective action could be taken by industry alone. It is probable that a fuller knowledge by industry would remove much of the ill-informed speculation which accentuates boom conditions and tends to cause collapse, and that it would relieve the excessive lack of confidence which takes depression conditions to so low a level. Nevertheless, industry is not likely to be able to damp down to any great extent the effects of the trade cycle. There will be a gap to be bridged, requiring Government action based on a competent application of resources in the directions indicated by employment and other economic information. Fundamentally, there must be sufficient private plus public outlay at all times to provide the driving force necessary to employ all available man-power. (v) Information to give a Full Picture of the Employment Position 517. For the purposes outlined above there must be, in addition to the existing monthly district returns covering notified vacancies, placements and disengaged persons, adequate up-to-date information to give a sufficiently complete picture of the labour force in each district and its distribution over industry. If action is to be taken sufficiently early for it to be effective in preventing long periods of unemployment, there must be a sufficiently wide range of information to enable accurate forecasts to be made. Under full employment conditions a knowledge merely of numbers employed

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