| Manpower | |
| Producer: | Office of War Information |
| Music: | Gail Kubik |
| Distributor: | War Activities Committee of the Motion Picture Industry |
| Runtime: | 10 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
Manpower was a short propaganda film produced by the US Office of War Information in 1942.
Made early shortly after America's entry into World War II, the film addressed the problems associated with the labor market adjusting for war time, such as people with the wrong skills rushing to a town looking for war work, and labor shortages in essential industries. The film discusses how the Roosevelt administration dealt with the problem by the establishment of the Federal Employment Commission, which brought together representatives from labor, management, and the military to organize war production effectively, the test case being in the city of Baltimore.
In spite of this action, there were labor shortages, and people had to be taken from other occupations and put into war work. Different examples are given and briefly dramatized:
Finally, a few more possibilities are noted, but left undramatized, such as retired people coming back to work, the handicapped are recruited and America's "youth" going into agricultural labor. It is noted that these youth programs are voluntary, but it's possible that the government could make youth participation mandatory.