Economic growth, full employment/low unemployment, stable prices/low inflation, balance of payments stability, redistribution of income. Reasons behind the choice of aims and the criteria that governments set for each aim.

The nature and causes of changes in the pattern of employment, for example increase in proportion of workers employed in the tertiary sector and formal economy as an economy develops; a greater proportion of women in the labour force due to changes in social attitudes; decline in the proportion employed in the public sector as a country moves towards a market economy.