Among the topics that were covered in chapters 4, 5, and 6, one of the most relevant ones was demand and supply in labor markets. The laws of demand and supply are essential for the functioning of the financial markets. The financial dimension of supply and demand correlation is much simpler to grasp when it is measured by the monetary price, and quantity of products or services. On the contrary, labor markets involve people that are considered part of the workforce. Hence, there are different factors that affect the demand and supply curves, as the labor dimension also involves aspects of sociology.
After reading the fourth chapter, I understood the fundamental principles of labor markets and the factors that determine the supply-demand curve. Firstly, the price in the labor market is determined by the hourly, daily, or monthly wage of a worker. The quantity of labor is measured either by the number of employees or by the number of working hours. Several factors impact the demand curve for labor. They include governmental laws and regulations that affect companies, the amount of product or service provided by labor, and innovations that increase or decrease the need for labor in the production process (Greenlaw & Taylor, 2014). On the contrary, supply is affected by the desirability of a certain job, laws and regulations that may encourage training and education of certain professionals, as well as required efforts and rewards (Greenlaw & Taylor, 2014). By knowing such factors, it is much easier to make predictions regarding labor market trends, which is important for any career in terms of necessary training and education. In addition, human resource managers must be aware of factors that change the supply and demand in labor market to provide relevant recommendations to the companies they work for.
Reference
Greenlaw, S. A., & Taylor, T., (2014) Principles of Macroeconomics, Houston Texas, OpenStax.