What is difference between Labour Force and Work Force?

Labour Force or Labour supply refers to the number of people able to work and willing to work. Since entire population cannot be engaged in economically productive activities, the dependents such as children and older people are not considered to be labour. The labour force also excludes the people who are unwilling to work despite of their being able to.

Workforce refers to those actually engaged in commercially productive activity.

The difference between workforce and labour force is unemployment.

Unemployment = Labour Force – Work Force

On the basis of nature of employment, the workers can be either self-employed or hired. Self employed people work in their own business or profession while hired people work for others for wages or salary. The hired workers are of two types viz. Casual and Regular workers.

Casual workers are those workers who are not hired by their employers on regular or permanent basis. Such workers don’t get social security benefits. The manual labour engaged in construction activities are examples of casual labour. Regular or Salaried workers are hired for salary and for relatively longer / continuous period. Such workers get social security benefits such as pension.

Labour Force Participation Rate

Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) is defined as the number of persons in the labour force per 1000 persons.

For example, if population is 1000, and there are 400 people actually working while 300 people willing to work; then, LBPR would be 700. LBPR can also be shown in percentage, whereby the above figure would become 70%.

Worker Population Ratio

Worker Population Ratio (WPR) is defined as the number of persons employed per 1000 persons.

It indicates the employment situation of the country. A high ratio means that more proportion of population is actively contributing to the production of goods and services of a country. As per NSSO 68th round, India’s worker population ratio is 537.

Main Worker & Marginal Worker

A main worker is the person who has worked more than 183 days in a year. Marginal worker is the person who has worked less than 183 days in a calendar year. The major time spent by a person (183 days or more) is used to determine whether the person is in the labour force or out of labour force.