1
general::
noun work ADJ. manual, physical | forced, hard He was sentenced to four years hard labour for his crime. VERB + LABOUR withdraw The miners are threatening to withdraw their labour. LABOUR + NOUN market an increasingly competitive labour market workers ADJ. cheap | casual | skilled, unskilled | child, migrant, slave It is thought that Stonehenge was built using slave labour. LABOUR + NOUN force the size of the labour force | cost/costs | relations giving birth ADJ. difficult, easy | long, short The baby was born after a long labour. VERB + LABOUR go into She went into labour two weeks early. | induce Labour was induced when the baby was ten days overdue. LABOUR + NOUN room, ward | pains PREP. in ~ She was in labour for ten hours.
Oxford Collocations Dictionary
2
general::
labour
ADJECTIVES/NOUN + labour
skilled/unskilled labour
• Employers want to keep skilled labour because of the cost of training.
cheap labour
(= workers who have low wages )
• Women and children were used as cheap labour.
casual labour
(= workers who do jobs that are not permanent )
• The industry makes use of a large supply of casual labour.
child labour
• The shoe company was accused of using child labour in its factory.
slave labour
• Cotton was grown using slave labor.
labour + NOUN
the labour force
(= all the people who work in a country or for a company )
• We need an educated labour force.
the labour supply
(= all the people available to work )
• What was the effect of the war on the labour supply?
the labour market
(= the people looking for work and the jobs available )
• the percentage of women in the labour market
a labour shortage
• Immigrants came into the country to fill the labour shortage.
labour costs
• There was pressure to keep down labour costs.
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