the.com/manpower
The world's oldest renewable resource, still running on coffee and deadlines.
means The collective labor and workforce available to get a job done — human effort counted like a resource.
from A straightforward compound of 'man' and 'power,' coined in the 19th century on the model of 'horsepower' — the idea being to measure human labor output in the same practical, almost industrial terms as a machine or draft animal. It became especially common in military and wartime contexts, where governments literally tallied available men as a strategic resource.
- origin
- coined for literal human labor replacing horsepower
- ironic twist
- staffing agency Manpower Inc. now placing robots too
- economics term
- counted as a factor of production, like a machine
- modern rebrand
- HR calls it headcount to sound less medieval