labour force
noun1
UK The collective group of people who are available for employment, whether currently employed or unemployed (though sometimes only those unemployed people who are seeking work are included).
- Of the total labour force now threatened with redundancy, of course, a proportion will be covered by natural wastage, so that the number eventually thrown out of railway work will be well below 19,000.1962 October, “Talking of Trains: B.R. works staff cut by a third”, in Modern Railways, page 221: