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This chapter is an extract from Grieve Smith's book 'Full employment: a pledge betrayed'. There are two main themes within the chapter. Firstly, there is a challenge to the belief that changes to the supply side of the economy (education, training and the cost of labour) should constitute the main basis of economic management. The problem with the argument is that reducing labour costs and raising skill levels as the means of increasing the number of available jobs is not tenable. Secondly, there is a notion that education and training can of themselves lead to more employment opportunities. An increasing proportion of the unemployed possess high qualification levels. This suggests that the problem is not one of a shortage of skilled people but of a lack of jobs and inappropriate skill utilisation on the part of employers. According to the author, the main impact of education and training is that they tend to redistribute individuals within the existing labour market.