The Beginning of Labor and Workforce’s Approach in the Classical Economic School

Abstract

In the early development of the society there were two factors: labor and land (nature), considered the original factors of production.

From the union of these factors, people continued their existence. Later appeared as a factor of production the capital derived as an interaction result of the first two. Work means more than a simply way of acquiring wealth, as classical economists argued, it expresses in a certain measure the essence of human being – we are what we produce. In a market economy, labor is a special commodity. Unlike other goods, the sale and purchase of labor occurs in a specific market, characterized by its features and known in the general economic theory under the name of the labor market.

The article captures the evolution of labor over time and brings to the fore some economic aspects of the labor market.

Moreover, its purpose is to highlight the labor market in the view of the famous classical economists, bringing to the attention similarities and contradictions, many of them being found in today’s reality.

Keywords: labor, unemployement, labor market, economics, wages

JEL Classification: J21, J01