Labour
Topic: Factors of Production, Entrepreneurship and Startups · NCERT: Class 8, Ch 7 "Factors of Production"
Meaning
Labour is the physical and mental effort people put into production. Farmers, carpenters, construction workers, teachers, doctors and software developers all supply labour. Labour cannot be separated from the worker, and it is perishable: an hour not worked is lost forever. It varies in quality with skill, health and education. It moves with difficulty because of distance, language and family ties, and unorganised workers have weak bargaining power. Its reward is wages or salaries.
Example
A tea-plantation worker plucking leaves supplies mostly physical effort. A chemical engineer designing a process supplies mostly mental effort. Both are labour.
Don't confuse with
- Human capital: this is the skill, knowledge and expertise that sets the quality and efficiency of labour. Labour is the basic effort itself.