Economics.

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What is Marx’s concept of the Reserve Army of Labor?
Reserve army of labor according to Karl Max basically refers to the unemployed as well as the underemployed people in a capitalist society. According to Marx, having an excess supply of labor is an essential feature of capitalism. According to the needs of the capital, most of the population enter and leave the labor force. For instance, when there is an improvement of the business cycle, there mostly is a need for an addition of labor to ensure full utilization of business capacity. During the recession period, workers are not needed leading to their dismissal (Brewer, Anthony, and Karl 71).
Over the years, the reserve army has significantly changed. The change has been caused by local conditions and economic relations between the countries of capitalism. Most of the people involved in the concept of the reserve army are mostly provided in the normal workings of capitalist development. This is mainly because job growth does not usually have the ability to keep up with population growth and the replacement of the workers that have been displaced by an increase in labor productivity (Brewer et al 48).
A good example is that a certain piece of land may be used for development purposes such as the building of roads, hospitals and other kinds of infrastructure. This in return leads to people who owned and worked in those pieces of land seeking employment in some other places mostly in cities. For many economists, productivity growth is crucial for both capital and labor.

They believe an increase in productivity leads to an increase in wages for workers. However, under capitalism, increase in labor productivity has been quite different.

Work Cited
Brewer, Anthony, and Karl Marx. A guide to Marx’s Capital. Cambridge Cambridgeshire New York: Cambridge University Press, 1984. Print.