labor force

Examples of labor force in the following topics:

• Measuring the Unemployment Rate

  • The labor force is the actual number of people available for work; economists use the labor force participation rate to determine the unemployment rate.
  • In an economy, the labor force is the actual number of people available for work.
  • The unemployment rate is measured using two different labor force surveys.
  • U1: the percentage of labor force unemployed for 15 weeks or longer.
  • U2: the percentage of labor force who lost jobs or completed temporary work.

• Measuring Unemployment

  • Labor force surveys are the most preferred method of measuring unemployment due to their comprehensive results and categories such as race and gender.
  • It is calculated as a percentage by dividing the number of unemployed individuals by all individuals currently in the labor force.
  • This corrects for the normal increase in the number of people employed due to increases in population and increases in the labor force relative to the population.
  • The Bureau of Labor Statistics measures employment and unemployment (of those over 15 years of age) using two different labor force surveys conducted by the United States Census Bureau (within the United States Department of Commerce) and/or the Bureau of Labor Statistics (within the United States Department of Labor).
  • U2: Percentage of labor force who lost jobs or completed temporary work.

• A New Labor Force

  • World War I saw a change in U.S. labor: women entered the workforce as never before, and labor unions gave firm support to war efforts.
  • Samuel Gompers, head of the American Federation of Labor (AFL), and nearly all labor unions were strong supporters of the war effort.
  • To keep factories running smoothly, Wilson established the National War Labor Board in 1918, which forced management to negotiate with existing unions.
  • The strikes ultimately failed, forcing unions back to positions similar to those around 1910.
  • Examine the new labor force of women, and the strong support of labor unions, during World War I.

• The Decline of Labor

  • The 1920s marked a period of harsh decline for the labor movement.
  • In 1919, more than 4 million workers (or 21 percent of the labor force) participated in about 3,600 strikes.
  • In contrast, 1929 witnessed about 289,000 workers (or 1.2 percent of the labor force) stage only 900 strikes.
  • In addition, the practice of forcing employees (by threat of termination) to sign yellow-dog contracts that said they would not join a union was common at this time.
  • They formed seven different unions, a number of which were formed in response to "agricultural violence. " One of the earliest Filipino labor strikes by Sons of the Farm occurred in 1928 and forced wage increases and better living conditions.

• A Brief History of Organized Labor

  • The working force producers were welcomed into the Order.
  • The 1870s and 1880s saw large-scale consolidation, with the Knights of Labor quickly becoming a major force in the late 1880s before collapsing due to poor organization.
  • Membership has declined since (currently 14.8 million and 12% of the labor force).
  • "Labor-based political parties have been an important electoral force in every advanced capitalist country.
  • This is called "the new labor history".

• Slave Labor

  • Slave labor in the United States - especially on large plantations - consisted of hard manual labor often under brutal conditions.
  • Chattel slavery in the United States, or the outright ownership of a human being and of his/her descendants, was a form of forced labor which existed as a legal institution from the early colonial period .
  • The gang system was the more brutal of the two, forcing the slaves to work until the owner said they were finished and allowing them almost no freedom.
  • For example, women laborers were the predominant work force for rice cultivation within the task system of the Southeastern United States.
  • Slaves were forced to work on plantations often under brutal conditions.

• Empowering Labor

  • The act also created the National Labor Relations Board, which was to guarantee the rights included in NLRA (as opposed to merely negotiating labor disputes) and organized labor unions representation elections.
  • The 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is another critical piece of labor legislation passed under the New Deal.
  • Historians estimate that the Act's provisions covered not more than 20% of labor force.
  • Also, the ban on child labor introduced in FLSA did not cover agriculture where child labor was rampant.
  • FLSA was critical to establishing labor standards that remain the foundation of labor law in the United States.

• The Division of Labor

  • Division of labor is the specialization of cooperative labor in specific, circumscribed tasks and similar roles.
  • An assembly line is an example of the division of labor.
  • Division of labor is the specialization of cooperative labor in specific, circumscribed tasks and roles.
  • Emilie Durkheim was a driving force in developing the theory of the division of labor in socialization.
  • In view of the global extremes of the division of labor, the question is often raised about what manner of division of labor would be ideal, most efficient, and most just.

• Business and Labor in the Economy

  • The relationship between business and labor has been at the center of economic and political theory for the last two centuries.
  • In his 1867 work, Das Kapital, Karl Marx argued that business and labor were inherently at odds under capitalism, because the motivating force of capitalism is in the exploitation of labor, whose unpaid work is the ultimate source of profit and surplus value.
  • The late nineteenth century saw many governments starting to address questions surrounding the relationship between business and labor, primarily through labor law or employment law.
  • Labor law arose due to the demand for workers to have better conditions, the right to organize, or, alternatively, the right to work without joining a labor union, and the simultaneous demands of employers to restrict the powers of the many organizations of workers and to keep labor costs low.
  • Labor strikes, such as this one in Tyldesley in the 1926 General Strike in the U.K., represent the often fraught relationship between labor and business.

• The Labor Movement's Early Years

  • Since the early labor movement was largely industrial, union organizers had a limited pool of potential recruits.
  • The first significant national labor organization was the Knights of Labor, founded among garment cutters in 1869 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and dedicated to organizing all workers for their general welfare.
  • AFL labor organizers faced staunch employer opposition.
  • The labor movement suffered a setback in 1905, when the Supreme Court said the government could not limit the number of hours a laborer worked (the court said such a regulation restricted a worker's right to contract for employment).
  • The principle of the "open shop," the right of a worker not to be forced to join a union, also caused great conflict.