Planning for Total Employment

The prime concern of current labor and economic policy is so-called full employment. Clearly, this pursuit of an adequate supply of jobs is essential, particularly in the midst of a recession. But even the achievement of full employment would leave many basic and enduring employ ment problems unaffected—problems such as subemploy ment, underemployment, low-level employment and in voluntary employment. Society fails to respond to these problems because the performance criteria for the economy are directed towards measuring the quantity of jobs and not their quality. Moreover, we have developed a panoply of myths and rationalizations to support the single-minded pursuit of more jobs and lower unemployment rates. These myths blind us to the fact that the nature of employment is a powerful influence on such social problems as poverty, family disorganization and delinquency. Rather than pursuing full employment, then, a more inclusive and appropriate goal might be total employment. This condition—one in which everyone who desires a job would be reasonably assured of finding a satisfying one—can not be achieved through a single, monolithic government program. "Total employment" would be the state of equilibrium in the economy achieved as the result of workers' making free choices about when, where and in what jobs they work. Freedom of choice of workers could be enhanced by removing the artificial barriers and constraints that currently prevent them from realizing their personal employment needs. The policy would even permit reluctant workers to leave the work force, thus opening jobs for willing but unemployed workers.