Labour Force is the total population of working-age people who are willing and able to work, and who, hence, have entered the labour market. It includes individuals who are employed and those who are actively seeking employment but may be currently unemployed.
The term is often used while data collections and statistical analyses or on census reports. In the USA, people over the age of 16 who are not in the military are all included in the labour force. So the people who are over the legal age to seek employment in their country of residence are part of this force.
Economically inactive people are not considered to be a part of the workforce and they are people who have been unemployed and not been seeking any job for a certain period of time. Students, housewives and people over the age of 64 are usually left out of the workforce.
The employability of a workforce increases and decreases based on the fluctuations in the labour market.
Use of the Term in Sentences
- Labour force statistics are often used to measure a country or labour market’s growth within a certain period of time.
- The size of the available labour force can only translate into economic superiority when enough opportunity can be created for them to be employed to exercise their full potential.