The Reserve Army of Labor in the Postwar U. S. Economy

Bibliographic Data

ID10487019
AuthorsDeepankar Basu (0000-0001-5340-0524, Department of Economics University of Massachusetts/Amherst 1012 Thompson Hall Amherst, MA 01003, corresponding author)
Year2013
Volume77
Issue2
Pages179-201
Publication date2013-03-12
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueScience & Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0036-8237 • E-ISSN: 1943-2801
PublisherGuilford Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1521/siso.2013.77.2.179
OpenAlexW2032972578
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited6

The reserve army of labor is a structural necessity of capitalism. By constantly keeping a part of the labor force unemployed or under-employed but potentially available for capital to draw on if needed, the reserve army of labor maintains the viability of capital accumulation by inflicting enormous costs on the working class. In the postwar U. S. economy, the reserve army has increased from about 5-6 million in the early 1950s to around 25-30 million in the late 2000s. Average size of the reserve army, as a share of the labor force, was substantially higher in the neoliberal period (1980-2011) compared to its size in the regulated period (1948-1980). Patterns in the data suggest that the relocation of production to the low-cost global periphery might be joining labor saving technical change as another important mechanism for recruiting the reserve army and disciplining labor under neoliberal capitalism

Capital (architecture · Capitalism · Economics · Economy · Geography · Labour economics · Market economy · Political science · Relocation · Entrepreneurship Studies and Influences · Firm Innovation and Growth · Labor market dynamics and wage inequality · Law

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