noun, verb · academic
labour
UK/ˈleɪbə(r)/US/ˈleɪbər/LAY·bour
Band 7+task2speaking
work, especially physical work; the workforce; to do work
Examples
“The industry relies heavily on cheap manual labour.”
“She laboured for years to improve the village school.”
“Organised labour has negotiated better terms for workers.”
Band 8 sentence
“Automation reduces demand for manual labour, forcing policymakers to rethink retraining programmes.”
Collocations
- manual labour
- labour market
- organised labour
Word family
labour nounlabour verblabourer noun
Common mistakes
many labours→much labour
work instead of labour in formal reports→labour
Say it for a higher band
5work→6employment→7+labour
Synonyms
work
employment
Easily confused
work
“He has a lot of work to finish before Friday.”
employment
“Rising employment rates indicate job creation.”
Related words
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In Sublist 1
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