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Without touching on problems of income and industrial relations, which tend to dominate the reporting of labour market affairs, it is still easy to take a pessimistic view of Britain's manpower situation. Unemployment is running at more than 3 per cent for only the second time since the war; yet there are still critical shortages of skilled workers in some sectors, notably the mechanical and electrical engineering construction industry. There are serious regional imbalances in employment; there is relatively little geographical mobility of labour; our record in training, particularly the training of young people, is one of inadequacy despite the efforts of the training boards and the Government during the last ten years. There is a tendency on the part of some employers to hoard labour against the effects of possible skill shortages, and to poach skilled labour rather than train it. In short the labour market is very complex, and functions imperfectly.

The Institute is proposing to set up a BUPA Group for the benefit of members.

The multi‐disciplinary activities of the Manpower Society in manpower planning, management, and utilisation make it a unique organisation in the UK and the objectives of the Society are more pertinent today than ever before. John Houston shows how they deserve to be better known by managers.

The adoption of a new structure for manpower planning and training (following the Employment and Training Act of 1973) has brought again into prominence national attitudes towards training and its relation to education. In particular, the setting‐up of a substantially autonomous Manpower Services Commission, having responsibility for a training Services Agency with wide powers as one of its two executive arms (the other dealing with Employment), introduces into this country a pattern of training differing in a fundamental way from those which have preceded it. What industrial training is believed to be, therefore, and how it relates to the further education which is often associated with it, are questions which have now assumed a new importance.