In economics what is labor elasticity?

Question

Elasticity is a fundamental economic concept to understand intuitively. If I were to say that a single working mother is an example of labor inelasticity, would that be correct? In business and economics, elasticity is used in demand or supply.

Answer 1

The complicated answer: Elasticity is an economic measurement of the proportional change of an economic variable in response to a change. It’s an economic tool to see how sensitive one economic factor is to another, like a price change. If demand doesn’t change with the price, then demand is said to be inelastic, and its coefficient of elasticity is less than 1.0.

The easy way to understand: Think of it literally, an elastic band. In the example above, how much give does a single working mother have in her labor supply? She goes from her workday to her work at home, and therefore she exemplifies labor inelasticity.