A maintainance worker cleans windows at the Hartsfield Jackson International Airport with aircraft in the background.
Manual labour (in British English, manual labor in American English) or manual work is physical work done by people, most especially in contrast to that done by machines, and to that done by working animals. It is most literally work done with the hands (the word "manual" comes from the Latin word for hand), and, by figurative extension, it is work done with any of the muscles and bones of the body. For most of human prehistory and history, manual labour and its close cousin, animal labour, have been the primary ways that physical work has been accomplished. Mechanisation and automation, which reduce the need for human and animal labour in production, have existed for centuries, but it was only starting in the 18th and 19th centuries that they began to significantly expand and to change human culture. To be implemented, they require that sufficient technology exist and that its capital costs be justified by the amount of future wages that they will obviate. Semi-automation is an alternative to worker displacement that combines human labour, automation, and computerization to leverage the advantages of both man and machine. Although nearly any work can potentially have skill and intelligence applied to it, many jobs that mostly comprise manual labour—such as fruit and vegetable picking, manual materials handling (for example, shelf stocking), manual digging, or manual assembly of parts—often may be done successfully (if not masterfully) by unskilled or semiskilled workers. Thus there is a partial but significant correlation between manual labour and unskilled or semiskilled workers. Based on economic and social conflict of interest, people may often distort that partial correlation into an exaggeration that equates manual labour with lack of skill; with lack of any potential to apply skill (to a task) or to develop skill (in a worker); and with low social class. Throughout human existence the latter has involved a spectrum of variants, from slavery.
Size: 4853px × 3152px
Location: Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson International Airport, Atlanta, Georgia
Photo credit: © Ken Hawkins / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: Yes
Keywords: air, aircraft, airline, airlines, airport, atlanta, clean, cleaning, concourse, delta, gate, hartsfield, international, jet, job, jobs, labor, laboring, maintain, male, man, minimum, plane, soap, southern, terminal, travel, traveler, travelling, union, unskilled, wage, wash, washer, washing, water, window, wipe, work, worker, working
