Labour market failure

Labour market failure is where the free labour market fails to properly allocate resources.

Perfectly competitive Labour Market

  • Many buyers and sellers
  • Workers have no influence on wage
  • Perfect information
  • Employers and workers free to enter in LR
  • No individual firm can influence the market
  • Doesn't exist

Perfectly competitive labour market

Labour market FailureSolutionDrawbacks
MonopsonyTrade unionsTrade unions can cause wages to become too high in non-monospony markets
Trade UnionsRegulateWill increase failure in labour markets. Can cause worker exploitation
NMWRemove / ReduceIncreases poverty / income inequality
DiscriminationIncrease NMW / LegislationHard to prove
Lack of informationInformation provisionMay be geographically immobile
Occupational ImmobilityRetraining / EducationExpensive, opportunity cost, takes a long time
Geographic immobilityImprove transport infrastructureExpensive, depends on quality