What’s a labor pool?

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A workforce is a group of people qualified to work in a specific job situation, including unskilled, semi-skilled, and skilled labor. Companies often assess the labor pool before opening a facility and may consider demographics when choosing a location. The definition of a workforce can vary, including those actively employed or unemployed but trained.

More commonly known as a workforce, a workforce is the available group or group of people who are qualified to function in a specific job situation. This situation can take the form of a specific position within a company, workers associated with a specific industry, or even workers who reside in a specific geographic location. While there are exceptions, references to a labor pool or force generally refer only to persons involved in job positions and not to persons who own or perform official management functions.

There are several characteristics common to any type of labor pool. First, those who are considered part of the pool must be physically and emotionally capable of engaging in some type of work. This could be unskilled labor, where there is little or no training or special talents required to perform the tasks. A labor pool can also include semi-skilled and skilled labor, which refers to people who receive moderate to intense training to qualify for employment in certain industries. The key to determining who is in the workforce is that everyone involved is considered working class and has all the skills or training necessary to adequately perform those duties.

It’s not unusual for a business to assess the current state of work in a particular area before opening any facility in that community. This helps the company understand how quickly it can secure qualified candidates, offer them employment and have them adequately trained to manage the new facility. Many companies operate internal training programs that continuously train new and existing employees for specific functions. This approach helps ensure that the firm always has a constant flow of skilled workers to either apply for expansion to existing facilities or to provide the foundation for the workforce in a new facility.

The demographics associated with workgroups can often determine whether a business wants to relocate to a particular community. For example, a large retailer would move quickly to open a new store in a community where most of the residents are working class and earn average annual income within a given range. Conversely, a high-end retailer who focuses on selling more expensive items may find the same community unsuitable for a shop location, preferring to set up shop in a community where the median income per household is higher.

Depending on the application, the labor pool may include only those who are actively employed, or even those who are trained and able to work, but are currently unemployed. Some further refine the job pool to include those who are trained, working, or actively looking for work, regardless of their level of education. Because of this diversity of thinking about who is and isn’t part of a given workforce, it is often helpful to define what is meant by the term before attempting to assess the actual status of any given worker data.




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