Manpower resources and utilization: principles of working force analysis

Defense preparations and war highlight and accentuate the problems of manpower resources and manpower utilization. The working force of a society is affected by defense preparations and war, but times of mobilization do not necessarily introduce any new or novel problems in understanding and analyzing the working force. On the contrary, on the basis of study and knowledge of the working force under peace time conditions, we can appreciate the variations introduced by defense needs.

Accordingly, in this book we are directing our attention primarily to a study of the United States working force-what it is, what factors influenced it in the past and what pressures are shaping it today, and how it is related to other aspects of our society. We are attempt to deal with the "normal" working force and the "normal" aspects ing to of manpower utilization, knowing full well that "normality" is either a statistical figment or an attempt to escape the realities of the present by retreating into the past. Nevertheless, the "normal" to "peacetime conditions" gives us a point of departure from which equated the "abnormal" aspects of defense and war-and even depressions can be viewed.