The Employment Market

Chapter 6 of Human Resource Management in a Business Context (2nd Edition) by Alan Price - published by Thomson Learning

Contents

Objectives

The purpose of this chapter is to:
- Outline some of the major theories about why people work.
- Develop an understanding of the conditions and salaries for which people work and the expectations they have of employers.
- Explore the relationship between human capital and national employment levels.
- Determine some of the effects of competitor activities on employee availability.
- Investigate the patterns of work that are replacing nine to five jobs.

Why do people work?

Competitive market theories

Institutional theories

Social preferences

Individual preferences

Participating in the employment market

Employee supply and demand

Active labour market programmes

Part-time and temporary working

Summary

In this chapter we discussed some important features of the employment market. We considered factors which lead to people seeking work and joining that market. We examined key economic and psychological concepts and identified a number of links with fundamental elements of HRM. Participation in the job market was investigated, comparing rates in different countries. Different working patterns were described as a prelude for later discussion of flexibility.

Further reading

The range of books on the employment market is vast but tends towards political or economic analysis. The following are of interest: The Jobs Gap in Britain's Cities: Employment Loss and Labour Market Consequences by Ivan Turok, Policy Press (1999); Work to Welfare: How Men Become Detached from the Labour Market by Peter Alcock, Christina Beatty, Stephen Fothergill, Rob MacMillan, Sue Yeandle Cambridge University Press (2002); Europe: One Labour Market (Work and Society) edited by Lars Magnusson and Jan Ottosson Peter Lang Publishing (2002); Europe's population and labour market beyond 2000 (Population studies No. 2), Council of Europe Publishing (2001).

Review questions

Problem for discussion and analysis

> Chapter 5   >  Chapter 7

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  2nd Edition 2004
Available from October 2003
by Alan Price
Published by
Thomson Learning
ISBN 186152966X

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