a. Labour market

• In industrialized societies where many of the production processes have been automated, there exists an increasing demand for skilled workers.

  The unemployed and underemployed tend not to meet these requirements and are unable to command high wages on the labour market. Hence, they remain in poverty.
• An alternative perspective is that there is a dual labour market:

  i. a primary labour market (found in large, profitable companies) with job security, high wages and training opportunities; and

  ii. a secondary labour market (found in smaller companies) with little job security, low wages and few training opportunities.
• Women and ethnic minorities, who are concentrated in the secondary labour market, take low-paid jobs.