The International Labour Organization (ILO) launched a world employment plan in 1969, its 50th year. The plan called for a world conference in 1976 on employment, income distribution, social progress, and the international division of labour. Employment policy was thus seen as 1 aspect of basic needs. This article examines the world employment plan in the double perspective of a political objective and a program of interdependent research aimed at identifying analytical variables capable of serving as the foundation of a new type of development. The world employment plan had as its point of departure the initiatives of the regional organs of the ILO. Among the rationales for the plan of action were the desire to replace gross national product as the principal measure of economic growth with a series of interdependent goals such as growth, employment, income distribution, and social participation. The research activities of the plan of action focus on 7 themes: 1) the role of technology in the creation of employment; 2) the relationships between income distribution and employment; 3) the effect of demographic phenomena on income distribution and employment; 4) the relationships between education and employment, urbanization and employment, commercial expansion and employment; and 5) government plans for employment expansion. The specifically demographic research covers a wide spectrum of topics, but can be grouped in 3 main categories: 1) socioeconomic simulation models such as the Bacchue model which permit analysis of the direct and indicated effects of population on employment, production, and income distribution; 2) a series of empirical studies on subjects related to the model; and 3) in-depth studies in the Philippines, Kenya, and Brazil to identify their principal problems of political economy and to furnish needed parameters for the Bacchue models. The demographic content of the plan is specified in greater detail from the viewpoints of general demography and of economic demography, in order to suggest some of the types of policy recommendations that the work is expected to support. Finally, the structure and properties of the Bacchue model are spelled out in greater detail.