Economics – What does overall supply of labour depend upon?

1.) What does overall supply of labour depend upon? The overall supply of labour is affected in several different ways. First of all, the working population is considered to be in between 16 and 65 years of age. The inactive population is therefore those younger than 16 and those over 65 years. If there was a huge baby boom in the foreseeable future then the benefits of this would not be felt until some years later when they would become part of the working population. However, in order that the government can gain maximum tax revenue is if more people are in full time education and higher education with the prospect of working in a high paid job. Initially, this would be quite difficult but it would relieve the pressure placed on by the dependency ratio. Other factors that affect the supply of labour are that the death rate is always decreasing therefore the population is increasing. The current health service is going to be put under even more sustained pressure as the more people get older and live longer. This also adds to the increasing dependency ratio. Many people who immigrate to Britain will then, on the whole, add to the overall supply of labour. Another very important factor is that women are getting married later on in life so that they can pursue a career. Also read this  Cheating in a Bottom Line Economy 2.) How do you account for the increase in inactive males in recent years? There are many reasons that men become increasingly inactive in recent years. One reason is, in recent years the primary industry has decreased substantially and the tertiary and services sector has grown considerably. Many men were involved in the primary sector such as factory, coal mining, and farming. Over the last few decades those manufacturing industries have slowly reduced and more tertiary and services have been growing. The tertiary and services sector have a tendency to employ more women, possibly because they are more ‘approachable' than men. One could think of this as sexual discrimination perhaps. Those men who worked in low skilled jobs also found it difficult to adjust to a new job as those low skilled jobs are not readily available. However, the younger male population tend to stay in education additional to compulsory education. 3.) What has been the economic impact of migration both into and out of the British economy over the past 40 years? The impact of migration had many advantages as well as disadvantages. Over the last 40 years migration, in some cases, has severely affected the working population. For example, in the 1960's and 1970's many people chose to migrate to another country so the working population would decrease. The cost of the decrease was a net fall in output. More higher qualified professionals e.g. Doctors, Teachers chose to work away from the UK. This may have a bearing on why there is a shocking lack of teachers around today. Anyway, due to this problem, many people from other parts of the world like Australia, New Zealand, India, South Africa were persuaded to come and work in the UK. 4.) Why are more women becoming more economically active? More women work and have become economically active because of changes in the law forcing firms to have a certain proportion of women in their company. Equal Pay Legislation and Maternity Provision was at the forefront of gaining equal opportunities. Nowadays, many women do not marry when they are in their early 20's but they may do after they turn 30. Theoretically, these women would choose not to have a baby as they would then be tied down and cannot pursue their career. Formerly, women tended to be house wives, they used to all the house work but because of technological advances time taken to do all the housework shortened leaving the women nothing to do for the rest of the day. The other reason is that women are more flexable with their work hours, they tended to work more part-time. The demand for women workers has sharply risen with the increase in tertiary and services sector. More employers are looking for women to improve the appearance of the company. 5.) To what degree has changing the nature of employment within U.K. affected participation ratios of men and women? Over the last few decades, due to the decline in manufacturing industries and the incline of tertiary industries we can conclude that there has been extensive. This is because as manufacturing industries declined many men found it difficult to learn new skills as well as employers preferred to train younger people. The ratio's show this by male inactivity slowly rising as female inactivity fell.