Demand for labour:
- Derived demand: Demand for labour. Not wanted as an end product but rather for the process. Rise in demand lead to increase of workers.
- Aggregate demand for labour: Demand for labour depends on level of economic activity. If economy is growing and firms +confident for continuous growth > employment levels increase. If economy is declining; firms –confident therefore fall in employment levels.
- Individual firm’s demand for labour: No. of workers that firm employs also depends on:
- Price of Labour: Rise in wage rates > rise in labour productivity = raise unit labour costs; contraction in demand for labour.
- Productivity: Output per worker per hour increase, more attractive labour becomes.
- Price of other factors of production: If capital becomes cheaper, e.g. firms may substitute some workers with machines.
- Supplementary labour costs: E.g. increasing employers National Insurance contributions will lead to a fall in demand for labour.
*Change in last 3 factors will lead to a change
in the quantity of labour demanded at given wage rate.
- Marginal productivity theory of labour: Demand for workers depend on Marginal revenue product; cost of taking on additional unit of labour = MRP; establishes equilibrium quantity of labour employed. Whereas Marginal product of labour is number of extra units of output a firm gains from employing an additional worker.
- Short run; firm takes +1 workers > out rises at first (because increasing returns due to benefit of division of labour)
- After x amount of employment reached, marginal product tends to fall because of onset of diminishing returns.
- MRP is the addition to firm’s revenue from employing additional worker. Calculated by multiplying workers marginal product (MP) by marginal revenue (MR): MRP = MP * MR
- *With perfect competition in product market; firms become price taker. Price of output does not change if it sells more > marginal revenue = price. Firms can sell all its output at the ruling market price. Assuming perfect competition in labour market; firms can recruit workers at constant wage rate.
- The marginal revenue product of labour curve. Shows marginal revenue product and equilibrium quantity of labour employed; or basically the quantity of labour demanded at each wage rate.
- Shifts in demand curve for labour: Demand curve for labour will shift right if MRP of labour increases due to increase of marginal product of labour and/or marginal revenue.
- E.g. Demand for car assembly workers increase if productivity of car assembly workers rises > perhaps from +training and/or price of their output rises due to rise in demand for cars.
- Measuring MRP: In reality is difficult because hard to isolate the contribution to output made by individual worker (work tends to be done in teams).
The elasticity of demand for labour:
- Elasticity of demand for labour: measure responsiveness of quantity demanded of labour to changes in the wage rate; formula:
- Elasticity of demand for labour = % change in Q of labour demanded / % change in wage rate
- E.g. elasticity of demand for labour = 5, wage rate +10%; demand for labour would fall by 50%
- E.g.2 If demand for labour -10%, wage rates +100%, elasticity of demand = 0.1 (inelastic.)
- Factors determining elasticity for labour:
- Time: Long run easy to substitute labour for other factors of production vice-versa. Short run; firms may not have time to re-organise operations therefore employ same no. of workers even if wage rates increase. Elasticity of demand for labour will be higher in long run.
- Elasticity of demand for the product: Labour is derived demand > collapse in demand for e.g. tin > collapse in demand for tin miners. If elasticity of demand for product is low, reduction in demand for it will have little effect on employment in industry.
- Availability of substitutes: Easier to substitute other factors of production of labour; more rise in real wage rates will lead to a firm replacing labour with machines. E.g. relatively easy to replace production line workers with automated capital equipment. If a lot of good substitutes then elasticity of labour will tend to be high.
- Proportion of labour costs to total cost: Larger proportion of labour cost to total cost; higher elasticity of demand for labour. Because +wage bill > +impact on total costs.
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