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

Abstract

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.