Theories of the Labour Market and Employment

A Review

Theories of the Labour Market and Employment: A Review

This is a detailed and wide-ranging study of theory, research and methods of analyzing labour markets and employment.

Free and flexible labour markets can automatically end both labour surpluses (unemployment) and labour shortages (over-employment). However, many things can impede wage flexibility, freedom of contract, labour mobility – and the overall balancing of labour supply and demand.

Protectionist minimum wage tariff barriers and other obstacles to labour market entry and competition are a major general cause of unemployment. Technological and other business-economic developments are another major general cause - while general economic contractions or recessions are a third.

This book argues that dividing unemployment into obstructional, developmental, and contractional types is preferable to the conventional “frictional”, “structural” and “cyclical” classification. Trying to analyze labour markets or explain employment and unemployment in purely economic terms will not do. Always and everywhere external social, cultural, personality, and physical-organic environmental factors influence labour markets and employment. A general theme of the book is the importance of bringing in empirical data from the real world to support/disprove theories.

Coverage:

1. Theories of the labour market and employment

2. The labour market and employment in modern society

3. The nature and causes of unemployment

4. The political and legal environment

5. Trade unions and wage determination

6. Educational, family, and leisure influences

7. Employment attitudes, motives, and behaviour