Which 1946 U.S. law required the federal government to promote maximum employment, production, and purchasing power?

The Employment Act of 1946 required the U.S. federal government to promote maximum employment, production, and purchasing power. It was enacted as the United States moved from wartime mobilization toward a peacetime economy.

The law reflected concern that the end of World War II could bring mass unemployment similar to the problems of the Great Depression. It established the Council of Economic Advisers to provide the president with economic analysis and created the Joint Economic Committee in Congress.

The act did not guarantee every person a government job, despite occasional claims that it created an absolute right to employment. Its language set broad national policy goals and created institutions intended to help coordinate economic policy.

The law also required the president to submit an annual economic report to Congress. It remains an important foundation of the modern U.S. framework for discussing employment, growth, inflation, and national economic performance.