Labor mobility
Encyclopedia
Labor mobility or worker mobility is the geographical and occupational movement of workers. Worker mobility is best gauged by the lack of impediments to such mobility. Impediments to mobility are easily divided into two distinct classes with one being personal and the other being systemic. Personal impediments include physical location
, and physical and mental ability. The systemic impediments include education
al opportunities as well as various laws and political contrivances and even barriers and hurdles arising from historical happenstance.
Increasing and maintaining a high level of labor mobility allows a more efficient allocation of resources. Labor mobility has proven to be a forceful driver of innovations.
.The movement of laborers is based on a difference in resources between countries. According to economists, Over time the migration of labor should have an equalizing effect on wages, with workers in the same industries garnering the same wage.
Location (geography)
The terms location and place in geography are used to identify a point or an area on the Earth's surface or elsewhere. The term 'location' generally implies a higher degree of can certainty than "place" which often has an ambiguous boundary relying more on human/social attributes of place identity...
, and physical and mental ability. The systemic impediments include education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
al opportunities as well as various laws and political contrivances and even barriers and hurdles arising from historical happenstance.
Increasing and maintaining a high level of labor mobility allows a more efficient allocation of resources. Labor mobility has proven to be a forceful driver of innovations.
International Labor Mobility
International labor mobility is the movement of workers between nation states. It is an example of an international factor movementInternational factor movements
In international economics, international factor movements are movements of labor, capital, and other factors of production between countries. International factor movements occur in three ways: immigration/emigration, capital transfers through international borrowing and lending, and foreign...
.The movement of laborers is based on a difference in resources between countries. According to economists, Over time the migration of labor should have an equalizing effect on wages, with workers in the same industries garnering the same wage.
Common impediments to worker mobility
Some common reasons workers are immobile include:- national and regional differences in the qualifications necessary for different jobs
- a lack of standards for skills and vocations
- discrimination based on citizenship or national origin
- discrimination based on social class
- systems of economics and property rights that impede workers.