A full employment policy is a generalized monetary and fiscal policy designed to ensure the economy operating at maximal employment; or the natural rate of unemployment. Government works programs create jobs just as any other projects create jobs. But a full employment package also means expansion in the money supply, interest rates that are not inflation-targeted, and deficit spending. Full employment has always been a goal of left-wing governments throughout history from Truman's Fair Deal to the British Labour party in the 1960s and 70s. They have always been opposed or at least not really supported by conservatives. The conservatives won some points in the late 70s and early 80s when there was a huge trade-off between employment and inflation due to economic restructuring. But Reagan generally tolerated very high unemployment rates compared to what was being advocated by Democrats. The reason this isn't such a huge issue now may be because the trade-off with inflation is not so clear.
My understanding of conservatism as anti-ideological comes from Russell Kirk, author of the Politics of Prudence and one-time partner of William Buckley.
"Conservatism is not a fixed and immutable body of dogma, and conservatives inherit from Burke a talent for re-expressing their convictions to fit the time... As H. Stuart Hughes wrote more than thirty years ago, 'Conservatism is the negation of ideology.' Because any ideology-that is, a theory of fanatic politics promising the terrestrial paradise-is illusory, eventually the consequences of the ideology are perceived by most people to be ruinous; and then, God willing, a healthy reaction occurs."
