Product-Market Pressures and Employers’ Responses

Abstract

Abstract In the crisis which culminated in the recession of the early 1980s, increasing attention was given to the responsiveness of employers to product-market pressures and particularly their need to be more flexible. In this debate the early focus was mainly on the use of labour. Flexibility was regarded as synonymous with the close adjustment by the firm of the labour it employs, the way labour is utilized and the wages paid to changing levels of output, and the prices of products.