labour-intensive

British

adjective

of or denoting a task, organization, industry, etc, in which a high proportion of the costs are due to wages, salaries, etc

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Major deals will help labour-intensive sectors hurt by tariffs.

From Barron's

It's one of the reasons why boatbuilding is a notoriously labour-intensive business.

From BBC

Manufacturing is no longer the labour-intensive engine of prosperity it once was, but a capital-heavy, high-tech enterprise.

From BBC

This is what turned China into the world's top manufacturer - labour-intensive production which is also cheap when it's scaled up and supported by an unrivalled supply chain.

From BBC

But making individually tailored cars, while profitable, is a labour-intensive process that requires time and space.

From BBC

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023