Concentration of Labour
The direction of labour to specific industries was one of the harshest civil measures made necessary by the war and, short of war, nobody wants it back. The Notification of Vacancies Order, made by the Minister of Labour on Tuesday, certainly does not bring it back. It enables the Labour Exchanges to perform the function of collecting complete information about vacancies iii certain essential industries and of directing the attention of applicants for jobs to those vacancies: It is only surprising that this step was not taken earlier. The statutory obligation to notify vacancies which it imposes on employers is. one which, for the most part, they will no doubt be very Willing to accept. It is always the duty of individuals who value civil liberty to watch developments of this kind with care, but it seems quite clear that in this instance their vigilance has been supplemented by that of the Ministry of Labour itself. And the National Joint Advisory Council, which has agreed to this step, ensured that the views a organised employers and workers were properly consulted. The new Order is a proper instalment of the "further series of measures designed to enable the economy to concentratt on its essential tasks" to which the Chancellor of the Exchequer referred on January 7th.
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