The supply of labour

The supply of labour .

The supply of labour refers to the number of hours that workers are willing to offer their services for production at a given wage rate.

Factors that influence or affects or determinant of the labour.

  • Seize of the total population: everything being equal, the larger the population seize the higher will the supply  and the smaller the population seize the smaller will be the labor supply e.g. Cameroon with a larger population has a larger labor supply than Equatorial Guinea with smaller population.
  • Age composition of the population or age structure: this measures the number of people in the different age groups. A country with a bigger active population will have a higher labor supply.
  • Working weeks and holidays: if the working weeks are increased and the number of public holidays reduced, the labor supply will be increased.
  • Renumeration or wage rate: this is payment made to labor for services rendered an increase in wage rate (renumeration) all things being equal, will lead to an increase in the supply of labor. However when wages rise above a certain level, workers instead preferred to work less and enjoy more leisure.
  • Migration: a large proportion of emigrant consisting of the active population turns to reduce to labor force as well as the supply of labor while on the other hand and increase in immigrant who are of the active population turns to increase the labour force.
  • Altitude of women towards work: if women are willing to pick up paid jobs the  labour supply will increase. But if they shy away from work, the  labour supply will be low.
  • The retirement age: this varies from country to country. An increase in retirement age increases supply and vice versa.
  • Legal age of entry into active service: a reduction in the legal age of retiring into active service leads to a reduction in the supply. But where the age of entry is high the supply of labour increases.
factors of production
land, labour, capital and entrepreneurship

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