In recent months, growing numbers of people on social media have been calling for the return of an old institution: "Bring back the CES."

They're referring to the Commonwealth Employment Service.

But what was it? And why do they want it to make a comeback?

Let's take a look at its history.

The CES was an important institution

More than half of everyone living in Australia today was born after 1980.

That means millions of people haven't heard of the CES, so our memory of the institution is disappearing.

But it's worth remembering, because it may have things to teach us.

The CES was established in 1946, immediately after World War II.

The war had opened the eyes of Australia's policymakers because they saw how the devastating unemployment of the 1930s disappeared after they put the economy on a war footing.

It made them realise unemployment wasn't inevitable — in fact, it had been a policy choice.

So, while the war was still raging, they'd begun to make plans to rebuild Australia's economy, on the other side of the war, on a foundation of "full employment" to make widespread unemployment a thing of the past.

The result was the Curtin Labor government's 1945 White Paper on Full Employment.

And the plan had layers.

The government wanted full employment, but it also knew that 1 million men and women who had been part of the armed forces and war industries would need to be found jobs after the war.

It also wanted to significantly increase immigration at the same time, to boost...

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