The Directorate of Manpower (CA 533) was established on 19 January 1942 by a decision of the War Cabinet. It was to mobilize and organise the labour resources of the Commonwealth so as 'to meet the requirements of the Defence Forces and the needs of industry in the production of munitions and the maintenance of supplies and services essential to the life of the community.'
 
The Prime Minister said on that date that a nation-wide system of National Service offices will be created. "These offices will be staffed, primarily, by taking over existing State labour
organizations. There will be at least one in each military district and Commonwealth, State or local governing facilities will act as agents. The present National Employment Office in each capital city will be the central National Service Office in each State. The functions of the National Service Offices will be to:
 
. compile immediately and maintain a decentralized National Service 
  Register (to determine the man-power available in each military 
  district for the armed forces and for industry)
 
. administer the issue of National Service Certificates of a type 
  according to the nature of work performed;
 
. place labour disemployed by rationing of output, concentration of 
  industry, enemy action and the like;
 
. organize the movement of labour through the National Service
  Office. 

The National Service Offices will administer the List of Reserved Occupations and the Register of Protected Industries and Establishments; and will determine exemption for a deferment of enlistment for service while ensuring that military establishments receive their full complement of man-power as laid down by War Cabinet. They will serve as the sole channel for the engagement of labour by all employers (Government and private) and as the sole agency for the re-direction of labour and will act for any other purposes that may be determined affecting the utilization of labour resources.
 
'With the centralization of all existing organizations under the Minister for Labour, he will be clothed with the necessary authority to ensure the maximum national effort and will be empowered to protect industries and establishments vital to the defence of Australia; to conserve individuals whose qualifications should not belost to industry; to protect vital industries from loss due to labour turnover and to take action to ensure that vital industries are fully manned. Conservation of individuals will involve the maintenance, amendment and administration of the List of Reserved Occupations. Protection of vital industries will involve restriction of the right of employers in protected industries and establishments to dismiss any employee or to engage any persons employed in protected industries and establishments except with the consent of the appropriate officer; prohibition of the engagement of labour by any establishment or person except with the consent of the appropriate officer; and the establishment of appropriate tribunals to hear appeals against decisions of the appropriate officer.
 
To administer the scheme a Director-General of Man-Power will be appointed, clothed with the necessary statutory powers, to carry out - subject to the Minister for Labour - policies in respect to the utilization of labour resources as approved by War Cabinet and the Production Executive. He will have, as assistant, a man experienced in labour administration who will be a Controller of National Service Offices. The present Deputy Director of Man-Power Priorities in the States will become deputies of the Director-General of Man-power and will be responsible for the provision and maintenance of the necessary State organization. Action will be taken to promulgate National Security Regulations to confer the necessary powers.'
 
On 21 January 1942, the Minister for Labour announced the appointment of Mr W C Wurth as Director-General of Man-power. The powers and functions of the Director-General of Manpower rested originally in the National Security (Manpower) Regulations (Statutory Rules No 34 of 1942), but these Regulations were amended from time to time to meet needs which developed from the war situation. The administration of the Directorate initially centred around the administration of five principal labour controls:
 
 . Reservation from Service with the Defence Forces
 . Civilian Register
 . Protection of undertakings
 . Engagement of labour
 . Direction of labour
 
Those controls, coupled with intensive organisation and propaganda activities enabled the Directorate to:

 attract into and retain in employment many thousands of men and
 women who would not otherwise have been gainfully employed or would
 have retired, to make available men and women for service in the
 Defence Force; and by controlling the flow of labour into less
 important industries and services, to allocate men and women among
 industries and services essential to the prosectution of the war and
 the life of the community, in proportions from time to time
 determined on as appropriate, having regard to the overall labour
 position.
 
To facilitate the activities of the Directorate, the whole of the civilian population of Australia over the age of 16 was required to register in March 1942. At a later date those between the ages of 14 and 16 were required to register. Various Orders also required particular types of professional personnel to register independently, so that the best use could be made of their services.
 
Under the protection control some 21,000 essential undertakings and services were declared Protected Undertakings, and local Appeal Boards were constituted throughout the Commonwealth to deal with appeals against Manpower decisions on suspensions, terminations and changes of employment.
 
It is estimated that from January 1942 to January 1946 nearly three million persons were placed in employment through the offices of the Directorate. However, it was necessary to issue only 13,500 odd direction orders. In March 1942, responsibility for the administration of Regulation 19 of the National Security (Economic Organisation) Regulations dealing with absenteeism devolved upon the Directorate.  

In May 1942, a scheme for the zoning of shearing of sheep to economise in the use of shearing labour resources was drawn up by the Manpower Directorate and given legal effect in the National Security (Shearing of Sheep) Regulations, (Statutory Rules No. 216 of 1942). In July 1942, the first steps were taken by Manpower Directorate to organise the Australian Women's Land Army, but formal establishment of that agency was not approved until the following January.
 
Toward the end of 1943, the Directorate took the first steps to provide special facilities for the rehabilitation of personnel being discharged from the Services, and began the development of a special policy to further their re-establishment. In January 1945, Cabinet determined upon the establishment of a Commonwealth Employment Service, including the necessary ancillary services such as Vocational Guidance, within the Department of Labour and National Service (CA 40), to be developed from the Manpower Directorate. It decided also that the Rehabilitation Service of the Manpower Directorate should be progressively developed to handle demobilization problems and that Unemployment and Sickness Benefits Scheme. Cabinet further decided that provision should be made for the transfer to the Commonwealth or certain permanent State officers employed on Manpower and related employment work.
 
From 1 July 1945, the local administration of the Unemployment and Sickness Benefits Act, in respect of receipt, investigation,
assessment and payment of claims for benefits was, with the following exceptions, undertaken by the National Service Office organisation of the Directorate. In Adelaide, Newcastle, Canberra and in the
Queensland country areas, the National Service Offices merely applied the works tests. In Sydney and Melbourne, payment of claims was undertaken centrally by the Department of Social Services.
 
Following the cessation of the Pacific War, Manpower controls were contracted and action taken to expand the rehabilitation activities of the Directorate and to meet the employment problems caused by the general demobilisation. The scheme for the release of personnel for the Services on occupational grounds was accelerated; staffs were built up in the Re-establishment Wings at Dispersal Centres" to afford every possible assistance to personnel being demobilised"; and efforts made to have the Employment Service organisation functioning
effectivley from the time Manpower controls would be revoked in their entirety. The power to direct labour and the requirement of civilian registration was abolished on 17 August 1945 and about one-half the 22,000 protected undertakings were "de-protected" at the same time. The remaining 11,000 were "de-protected" in October, and reservation was also dropped. Because of continuing labour shortage in the first post-war months, some restrictions on the engagement of labour continued in force until early 1946. The Director-General of Manpower remained in office until the controls had been removed, but most of the addministrative work involved in the orderly removal of restrictions was undertaken by the newly established Commonwealth Employment Service.
 
In addition to the Central Headquarters of the Directorate of Manpower there were, in each State, central administrative offices of the Deputy Directors-Generalof Manpower, and as well a network of National service Offices. In New South Wales there were 58 offices; 39 in Victoria, 22 in Queensland; 15 in South Australia; 15 in Western Australia; and 6 in Tasmania. All the National Service Offices were staffed with full-time staff of the Directorate. The Queensland country National Service Offices, however, were staffed almost entirely with officers under the control of the Queensland Public Service Commissioner, and a lump sum financial adjustment was made between the Manpower Directorate and the Queensland State Government.  

For various reasons (eg, the circumstances surrounding the formation of the Directorate, the then belief in its transitory character, the personnel material available, the varied conditions operating in each State and the different and rapidly changing incidence of the same problem as between States) no uniform distribution of activities between State headquarters and National Service Offices (or internally on any definite sectional basis within State headquarters) was insisted upon. As a consequence, in some States particular types of labour resources were dealt with on a centralised basis and in others locally in National Service Offices. However, a uniform pattern of organisation characterised the Directorate's activities in relation to the Civilian Register, the Australian Women's Land Army and Rehabilitation.
 
The Directorate was still in existence as at November 1945, the time of the Report of the Committee of Review into Civil Staffing of Wartime Activities but had apparently ceased to operate by April 1946. Its functions, and apparently most of its staff and premises, were assumed by the new Commonwealth Employment Service, which was established by the Re-establishment and Employment Act 1945. The Director of Manpower apparently became the Director of Employment, heading the Service. The Directorate and the Service apparently operated in tandem during late 1945 and early 1946. The date of effective cessation of the Directorate and details of the transfer of its staff and functions to the Commonwealth Employment Service are subject to further research.
 
 
Sources

1. Commonwealth Year Book No 36 (1946-47), p 496
2. Re-establishment and Employment Act 1945
3. S J Butlin & C B Schedvin, War Economy 1942-1945, p 701 
4. Committee of Review of Civil Staffing of Wartime Activities: 
   'Report on the Directorate of Manpower, Department of Labour and 
   National Service', pp 1-35, 12-13
5. Digest of Decisions and Speeches, 1-36, No 15, pp 22-24
Historical agency address
Subject to further research