There are a number of ways to refer to the supply of labour. A precise one is that the supply is the number willing and able to work within the market at a set of wage rates for a given time. The supply curve is likely to be upward sloping as the wage required to maximise the hours people work will increase the more work that they do unless there is infinite elasticity of supply. There are across the developed world intense pressures on the supply of labour. In part, this is because of immigration restrictions which place barriers on the movement of people globally, so that national or regional labour markets are inelastic in supply. Another ‘global’ reason is the intense and accelerating decline in birth rates, which fell some time ago, or which are falling, to below replacement rates. This process means that there are fewer young people entering the workforce, and more older people in society. That in turn means that, in Japan, Korea, or Italy, for example, there is a gre...