- The war had led to an economic boom, to a large increase in demand, production and employment. When the war boom ended, production contracted and unemployment increased.
- At the same time the government reduced bloated war expenditures to bring them into line with peacetime revenues.
- These developments led to huge job losses—in 1921, one in every five British workers was out of work.
- Indeed anxiety and uncertainty about work became an enduring part of the post war scenario.