The difficulties and advantages in the labor market and employment

28/02/2024 03:35 PM


What is a flexible labour market? Flexible employment contracts e.g. zero hour, temporary, part-time Flexible working arrangements e.g. home-working, flexi-time, overseas employment Flexible rewards – basic pay, bonuses, share-options, commission payments Flexible tasks/ roles / responsibilities

Advantages of labour market flexibility

  1. Often attractive to employees who want a better work-life balance or who have family responsibilities
  2. Can help increase female labour market participation and raise the employment rate among younger workers
  3. Easier for employers to hire and fire staff – easier to adjust the payroll to changes in required output (matching labour demand and supply)
  4. Flexible real pay help helps reduce wage stickiness in the labour market – workers might price themselves back into work after a recession or accept pay cuts to keep their job during a downturn
  5. Flexible skills within the labour force reduces the risks of structural unemployment due to occupational & geographical immobility
  6. More flexible labour market can help improve the trade-off between unemployment and inflation (flattening the SR Phillips Curve)
  7. Flexible labour market is attractive for inward flows of foreign direct investment which boosts growth

Advantages and disadvantages of working in the office

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Risks / drawbacks from labour market flexibility

  1. Lack of training. Part-time and temporary staff may not get sufficient training which limits the growth of their human capital and productivity growth
  2. We have seen a rise in working poverty – the taxpayer ends up subsidizing low pay through the tax credits and benefits system
  3. Well-being issues – precarious employment and incomes can increase stress, also harder to get a home loan (mortgage)
  4. Rising inequality – so opponents of flexible labour market argue that it contributed to a widening gap in wages/earnings and higher relative poverty
  5. Increased cost of agency staff – the NHS in particular spends a huge amount of money each year on agency staff – increases taxpayer burden
  6. Little sign that a flexible labour market has increased business investment – indeed may encourage the substitution of labour for capital
  7. Persistent regional unemployment differences question whether a flexible labour market helps to address disequilibrium in the jobs mark. Advantages and disadvantages of working in the office

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Better distribution of workspace.

Working in an office involves, on certain occasions, to carry out tasks in functional and highly optimised workspaces. These types of spaces allow for the free circulation of workers in a fluid manner and in this way, increase and improve interaction with other partners.

Working as a team.

Being part of a company project with a team of people boosts your creativity, as well as developing our collaborative and social skills. In an office we can interact and work side by side with other colleagues, something that can help us move away from static work routines. In addition, productivity in the office is increased.

Conduct face to face meetings.

For certain work or projects, it may be necessary to hold face to face meetings. For example, arranging a meeting with a very important client at our place of work can help us to sell a proposal, because the customer engages, feels part of a whole and is able to see in person how we perform naturally and safely in a professional environment.

What is a labour market? — LMIC-CIMT

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Establishing new links and contacts.

Being immersed in a daily work routine with a lot of people around us can benefit us in the future, as this will allow us to acquire new contacts that can help us in the long run to find new job opportunities or start new professional projects. Interacting with other professionals in the office can benefit us when building new business or if we want to initiate and create new personal projects.